Career Guidance in the Central and South-Eastern European Region
The case of four countries via the lenses of non-governmental organisations
Authors
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Tibor Bors Borbely-Pecze
AffiliationBORBÉLY-PECZE, Tibor Bors, Ph.D. habil. National Youth Guarantee Coordinator Ministry for National Economy /Associate Professor, invited lecturer; Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest (ELTE) / PhD supervisor, Eötvös Loránd University Doctoral School of Education / Department of Addiction Counselling, Faculty of Health Sciences, Semmelweis University / Elected member of the Human Resources Economics Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences / Member of the Board of the International Centre for Career Development and Public Policy (ICCDPP) / International Invited Member of the National Institute for Career Development and Counselling (NICEC) in the UK / CEDEFOP Career Network Hungarian correspondent, member of the Advisory Board / Founder-President of the Career Guidance Section of the Hungarian Pedagogical Association / Vice-President of the Hungarian Pedagogical Association / Working Group Leader of the Critical Perspectives on Career and Career Guidance (COCAG) policy responses.The Hungarian Scientific Bibliography https://m2.mtmt.hu/api/author/10029074?&labelLang=engORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5304-9356
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Lenka Hloušková
AffiliationLenka Hloušková, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at the Institute of Education and Counselling at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague. In the field of career guidance, she focuses on career guidance practitioners education and has long been involved in the development of career guidance services in the Czech Republic.
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Tomáš Šprlák
AffiliationTomas Sprlak is a career guidance practitioner and researcher working in career development. He is involved in several international projects focusing on quality management in guidance, development of guidance services and exploring approaches such as Green Guidance, focusing on integrating ecological transition and critical perspectives into practice. He is also engaged in the development of career guidance systems in the Central and Eastern European region.
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Marian Crăciun
AffiliationDr. Marian Crăciun is a career counselor, trainer and higher education professional whose work focuses on career guidance, professional training, and the development of counseling services. With doctoral studies in Education Sciences and certified training in career guidance and adult learning, he is actively involved in strengthening professional standards in the field. As President of the Association of Romanian Counsellors (ACROM), he supports initiatives that promote counselor training, networking, and the recognition of counseling as a profession in Romania. He is also Director of the Career Counseling and Guidance Department at the University of Bucharest.
Abstract
National guidance systems cannot be developed and managed without the involvement of a wide range of stakeholders. These include civil society organisations and professional associations representing the professional interests of career guidance practitioners. In four countries in Central Europe (Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Hungary) and South-Central Europe (Romania), such professional organisations in the field of career guidance have been operating for well over a decade.
This study presents the results of exploratory research conducted in the four countries mentioned above by four professional associations of career guidance practitioners. The research aimed to describe and compare perceptions of the role of professional associations in shaping national policies and developing career guidance in each country. This multiphase research was to describe the functioning (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) of four professional associations in relation to their members and national stakeholders to support and improve the dialogue in shaping national guidance systems in four European countries. Clearly, based on our outcomes, professional civil associations play a crucial, however under-resourced, role in career development (lifelong guidance) system development processes, providing at least two important features: advocating for career guidance and supporting the membership and a wider professional audience, such as pedagogists, social workers, and HR specialists, about the rationale of career development.
Keywords:
career guidance, professional associations, Central and South-Eastern European, civil society, career guidance policy makingCitation data from Crossref and Scopus
