ELGPN/PM14/19-20/02/2014/Paper 5 Draft Position Paper
Draft ELGPN Position Paper
In late December 2013, the European Commission DG EAC launched a public consultation1 on the European Area of Skills and Qualifications (EASQ), inviting responses by 15 April 2014. During the ELGPN Plenary Meeting on 12-13 December 2013 in Vilnius, ELGPN was invited to submit a Position Paper, with suggestions on the role of lifelong guidance in the new context addressed in the consultation.
The Plenary Meeting agreed that more time was needed for the discussion about the future and that it would be helpful if the Co-ordinator with the strategic consultants Dr Tibor Bors Borbely-Pecze and Professor Tony Watts, assisted by member countries, could draft a first version of this Position Paper, for discussion in the Athens Plenary Meeting on 19-20 February 2014.
Network members were invited to provide their first initial responses to the EASQ open questions presented by the Commission. The first on-line round was closed on 6 February 2014, by which time five countries2 had sent contributions. The present draft incorporates these comments. After the Athens meeting a new draft will be circulated for final comments by the end of March 2014, before being submitted to DG EAC in early April 2014.
RV/TW/TBB 10.2.2014
1 http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/more_info/consultations/skills_en.htm
2 IT, MT, NO, LT, PL.
Version 10 February 2014
Integration of Lifelong Guidance Policies into Europe 2020 Strategies Draft ELGPN Position Paper
1. Aim of this Position Paper
1.1 Europe 2020, the European Union’s ten-year growth strategy, calls for European policies and tools for transparency and recognition of skills and qualifications to play their role to support competiveness and renew social inclusion within the European Social Model. According to the European Commission3, EU policies and instruments should:
be coherent and centred on the learner, promoting flexible learning pathways;
support new phenomena such as the growing use of digital learning and internationalisation of education;
provide better services to learners and workers;
be simpler, more understandable and more coherent;
support national structural reforms that aim to achieve these objectives.
1.2 This Position Paper outlines a proposal for recognising lifelong guidance policies as an integral part of the Europe 2020 strategy and acts as the ELGPN response to the European Commission’s public consultation on the European Area of Skills and Qualifications. It aims to:
present the rationale for lifelong guidance policies within broader EU policies (Section 2);
outline the need for future structured European co-operation in lifelong guidance practice and policy development (Section 3);
provide responses to the seven consultation questions, presenting lifelong guidance system and policy developments as key tools for integrating the different European mobility initiatives (Section 4).
2. Key EU policies – rationale for lifelong guidance policy development
2.1 Lifelong guidance has been receiving increasing attention at both European and national levels. It is recognised as a cross-cutting theme of European policy design, touching upon general principles applicable to all policy areas, as well as being an important connecting element between policy fields such as schools, VET, higher education, adult learning, employment (including the reform of the Public Employment Services) and social inclusion, plus special horizontal policies (youth and active ageing policies).
3 European Commission (2014). Stakeholder Consultation on the European Area of Skills and Qualifications: Background Document.
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/more_info/consultations/documents/skills-back_en.pdf
2.2 Lifelong guidance refers to a range of activities4 that enable citizens of any age, and at any point in their lives, to: identify their capacities, competences and interests; make meaningful educational, training and occupational decisions; and manage their individual life paths in learning, work and other settings in which these capacities and competences are learned and/or used. Lifelong guidance is provided in a range of settings: education, training, employment, community, and private.
2.3 The wider paradigm of lifelong guidance is both an integrated entity and part of a broader social context. Lifelong guidance can be examined as a policy, as an activity of individual organisations or networked services (sometimes in collaborative contracts between the public administration and the private and voluntary sectors), as well as an individual process. Lifelong guidance provision is directed by official documents such as laws, decrees and plans, as well as unofficial traditions. As citizens progress in constructing their life or career, they may look for services from several professional groups or service providers. There is accordingly a need to develop consistent networked lifelong guidance services in order to guarantee access and social equity in accordance with local cultural, economic and social contexts. Effective policies for lifelong guidance therefore need to involve a number of different authorities and stakeholders. A national lifelong guidance forum or other similar representative structure is a mechanism for bringing these bodies together, in order to produce more effective policy development and more harmonised and consistent service provision.
2.4 Lifelong guidance as a system and as a policy is often described as a ‘hidden’
element because it is frequently integrated into lifelong learning or national employment strategies or into sub-strategies related, for example, to schools, VET, adult education, occupational health, ageing labour force etc. Related policy work is commonly part of the portfolios of different ministries (education, employment and others) without a department or unit responsible specifically for lifelong guidance within these ministries or across the ministries. Because lifelong guidance covers life-span and life-wide approaches, it is related to the work of several European and national entities. The new European strategy refers to this type of policy theme as ‘cross-cutting’.
2.5 In relation to the European and national targets of Europe 2020, lifelong guidance should be recognised as an essential tool to achieve these targets. The current lifelong guidance policy development aims to meet the goals of the four key priorities of the Europe 2020 Strategy (smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, with greater economic policy co- ordination). Of the five Europe 2020 headline indicators, three (Employment, Education and Poverty/Social Exclusion) are linked directly to the further development of European lifelong guidance systems and policies.
2.6 Lifelong guidance policy development can be integrated under the implementation cycle of the Europe 2020 strategy, the European Semester. This structure can be useful for two reasons: (a) the European Commission and the member-states have to follow the designed policy goals and steps agreed within the Europe 2020 Strategy; and (b) member-
4 Examples of such activities include information and advice giving, counselling, competence assessment, mentoring, advocacy, and teaching career decision-making and career management skills. A variety of terms is used in different countries to describe these activities. These terms include educational, vocational or career guidance, guidance and counselling, occupational guidance, and counselling. To avoid ambiguity, the term
‘guidance’ is used in the text to identify any or all of these forms of provision; the term ‘lifelong guidance’, parallel to ‘lifelong learning’, indicates the aspiration to make such guidance available on a lifelong basis.
state administrations gather and analyse data based on the national targets. If national/regional lifelong guidance policy design and implementation as well as evaluation can contribute to these national and European policy goals, then national guidance communities can be identified as strategic partners of national/regional policy development.
2.7 Lifelong guidance policy usually appears within the developments and reform of the different policy fields listed within the yearly updated National Reform Programmes5 (NRP), published annually by April by the member-states, and can be part of the Country- Specific Recommendations (CSR) produced in June/July, and formally adopted by the Council. Sometimes lifelong guidance also appears in European documents such as the Joint Employment Report (JER), an annex of the Annual Growth Survey (AGS). In these documents lifelong guidance (sometimes referred to as career guidance, counselling, or vocational guidance) can be identified as a relevant policy tool. National practices are also relevant to the Europe 2020 Integrated Guideline6 No.7 entitled ‘increasing labour market participation’, and to the implementation of the European flexicurity strategy7.
2.8 More specifically, it was agreed in Berlin in June 2013 that at the member-state level, lifelong guidance services provide an infrastructure and expertise to help make the Youth Guarantee Initiative (YGI) work within the values of the European Social Model: the concluding statement referred to ‘how best to build up career guidance structures systematically and extensively, co-ordinating them with school-based career (and PES) advice services so that school leavers are in a position to make sound career choices which take account of the labour market context’8. The effective implementation of the YGI needs to bring together a range of actors to support young people’s integration into the labour market. Its success will lie in the effective co-working of a range of community institutions including schools, guidance organisations, PES, private providers, voluntary groups and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs), as well as families and young people themselves. Guidance services provide an interconnection between all these partners and are an essential part of the process of integrating young people into the labour market.9
2.9 Awareness of the need for lifelong guidance is also evident, explicitly or implicitly, in many recent EU policy documents in both the education and employment/social-inclusion fields. Within this broad context, lifelong guidance can assist policy-makers in addressing a range of policy goals:
Efficient investment in education and training: Increasing the rates of participation in and completion of education and training through improved understanding and matching of individuals’ interests and abilities with learning opportunities.
Labour market efficiency: Improving work performance and motivation, and rates of job retention, plus reducing time spent in job search and time spent unemployed
5 http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/making-it-happen/country-specific-recommendations/index_en.htm
6 http://ec.europa.eu/eu2020/pdf/Brochure%20Integrated%20Guidelines.pdf
7 See ELGPN Concept Note 1 on this issue: Sultana, R.G. (2012). Flexicurity: Implications for Lifelong Career Guidance. http://ktl.jyu.fi/img/portal/23229/Sultana_Flexicurity_concept_note_web.pdf?cs=1350649862
8http://www.bmas.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/PDF-Meldungen/03-07-2013-eu-gipfel-
jugendarbeitslosigkeit-abschlusserklaerung-kanzlerin-englisch.pdf?__blob=publicationFile. No.243/13, 3 July 2013. Concluding Statement by Federal Chancellor Merkel to the Berlin Conference on Youth Employment.
9Borbely Pecze, T. & Hutchinson, J. (2013). The Youth Guarantee and Lifelong Guidance. ELGPN Concept Note 4.
through improved understanding and matching of individual’s competences and interests with work and career development opportunities, through raising awareness of current and future employment and learning opportunities, including self- employment and entrepreneurship, and through geographical and occupational mobility.
Lifelong learning: Facilitating personal development and employability of all citizens of all ages through continuous engagement with education and training, assisting them to find their way through increasingly diversified but linked learning pathways, to identify their transferable skills, and to facilitate the validation of their non-formal and informal learning experiences.
Social inclusion: Assisting the educational, social and economic integration and reintegration of all citizens and groups including early school-leavers and third- country nationals, especially those who have difficulties in accessing and understanding information about learning and work, leading to social inclusion, active citizenship and to a reduction in long-term unemployment and poverty cycles.
Social equity: Assisting citizens to overcome gender, ethnic, age, disability, social class and institutional barriers to learning and work.
Economic development: Supporting higher work-participation rates and enhancing the upskilling of the workforce for the knowledge-based economy and society.
3. Need for structured European co-operation in lifelong guidance policy development
3.1 The Conference Conclusions from the 4th European Conference on Lifelong Guidance Policy (Larnaca, Cyprus, 24 October 2012) emphasised the need for a more comprehensive strategy for lifelong guidance policy development in the EU and the member-states. The conference requested the Commission to reinforce European co- operation on lifelong guidance, in both the education and the employment sectors, through ELGPN, with the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme or other European financial instruments, and in liaison with CEDEFOP, ETF and Euroguidance, in order to assist member-states in implementing the priorities identified in the Europe 2020 strategies.
3.2 Two Resolutions of the Education Council (in 200410 and 200811) have highlighted the need for strong guidance services throughout the lifespan, to equip citizens with the skills to manage their learning and careers and the transitions between and within education/training and work. The Resolutions drew attention to four priority areas: the development of career management skills; accessibility of services; quality assurance and evidence base for policy and systems development; and co-ordination of services. Member- states were invited to take action to modernise and strengthen their guidance policies and systems in these respects.
10 Council of the European Union (2004). Strengthening Policies, Systems and Practices on Guidance throughout Life. 9286/04. EDUC 109 SOC 234.
11 Council of the European Union (2008). Better Integrating Lifelong Guidance into Lifelong Learning Strategies. 15030/08. EDUC 257 SOC 653.
3.3 As the Europe 2020 Strategy indicates, some of these issues require not only specific sectoral measures and policies but also a cross-cutting approach (horizontal policy design, development, implementation and evaluation)12, as they touch upon general principles applicable to all policy areas and demand multi-sectoral responses. These cross-cutting issues are objectives in themselves and also vital factors in strengthening the impact and sustainability of co-operation.
3.4 ELGPN, with the support of the European Commission and in particular DG Education and Culture, has since 2008 been assisting the EU member-states and the other countries participating in the EU Lifelong Learning Programme to support European co- operation on lifelong guidance in both the education/training and employment sectors. The Commission contributes 75% of the funding; the remaining 25% is contributed by the Network’s 31 member-countries. The Network was born after the 2006 presidency conference (Jyvaskyla, Finland) and the first work programme was endorsed by educational and/or employment ministries of 28 European member-countries. Network members from the beginning were looking for benchmarking and peer learning on lifelong guidance policy design, adaptation and implementation.
3.5 The first seven years of ELGPN (2007-14) have created active collaboration between relevant governmental and non-governmental bodies across ELGPN member-countries and other parallel networks, as well as with the relevant units of DG EAC and DG EMPL, to support the development and implementation of European lifelong guidance systems.
ELGPN is in a position to demonstrate, through its activities as a network and the work carried out by member-country teams, the way this cross-cutting approach can function in practice and the results that can be achieved, and so to inspire other policy-makers and other stakeholders by its good practices. Member-country teams work at a horizontal level within their countries, usually covering education, employment and social inclusion policies at national and regional levels.
3.6 Benefits from membership of ELGPN that have been expressed by ELGPN member- countries include:
Benchmarking and peer learning on national lifelong guidance services, service design and policy adaptation and customisation for the national/regional contexts.
Making evaluated national practices available to the whole Network and providing access to national expertise behind the case studies of good or interesting practice.
Catalytic impact on national policy development.
Support for the development of national forums or other co-ordination mechanisms at national and regional levels.
Support for European policy development.
3.7 ELGPN members have provided a number of concrete examples where the Network has acted as a catalyst for national policy development, or where ELGPN products have been used in the national context. Member-countries have expressed the need to examine the advancement of this work in 2015 and beyond towards the development and implementation of European Guidelines for Lifelong Guidance Policies and Systems Development (covering
12 Joint statement by the Council and the representatives of the Governments of the Member States meeting within the Council, the European Parliament and the Commission on European Union Development Policy:
‘The European Consensus on Development’ (2006/C 46/01).
http://ec.europa.eu/development/icenter/repository/european_consensus_2005_en.pdf
schools, VET, higher education, adult education, employment, social inclusion, youth, and active ageing), incorporating possible indicators and the technical basis for such guidelines.
Such a cross-sectoral holistic approach rather than a segmented approach is vital if a unified message is to be issued to the learner/citizen.
4. ELGPN responses to the seven consultation questions13
4.1 How to place a stronger focus on higher and more relevant skills
4.1.1 Lifelong guidance is rarely a single event such as a life-changing conversation.
Rather it is a series of activities that encourage people to reflect on their own strengths, capabilities and values, to vision a positive future for themselves, and to plan and effect a series of actions that move them towards this vision. Such guidance activities include
‘information and advice giving, counselling, competence assessment, mentoring, advocacy, teaching decision-making and career management skills’.14 These activities begin in school and continue throughout life. Establishing career management skills requires well- established career education during compulsory schooling. This may include developing a career education curriculum, or integrating learning about career within other subject teaching alongside support from guidance professionals outside the schools. Partnership development in local communities can help to build opportunities for young people to learn about work (e.g. summer work, voluntary activities, apprenticeship etc.) and this can play a crucial role to support the delivery of well-established guidance systems in schools.
4.1.2 Lifelong guidance policies within the European Area of Skills and Qualifications support transparency and recognition of skills, and also support educational and training systems as well as Public Employment Services in placing a stronger focus on learning outcomes and on acquisition of these personal outcomes for work and life.
4.1.3 The major goal of guidance is to build the career management skills (CMS) of all citizens – particularly young people, who can then use these skills throughout their lifetime.
CMS can be described as an explicit set of competences required by citizens of all ages in order to manage their career decisions and transitions effectively in a lifelong perspective.
Career management skills ‘refer to a whole range of competencies which provide structured ways for individuals and groups to gather, analyse, synthesise and organise self, educational and occupational information, as well as the skills to make and implement decisions and transitions’.15 These skills are crucial for citizens who are increasingly encouraged to re- engage with education and training at different points in their lives. Sometimes such re- engagement is rendered inevitable due to loss of employment, or through the desire to change one’s career path. The promotion of CMS (self-awareness, opportunity awareness, decision-making skills, and transition skills) can be potentially enhanced by education programmes, and indeed can be an integral feature of such programmes.
13 http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/more_info/consultations/documents/skills-back_en.pdf
14Resolution of the Council and of the representatives of the Member States on Strengthening Policies, Systems and Practices in the field of Guidance throughout life in Europe. 8448/04 EDUC 89 SOC 179.
15 ELGPN (2010). European Lifelong Guidance Policies: Work in Progress. A report on the work of the European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network 2009–10. Jyväskylä: ELGPN.
4.1.4 European key competencies for lifelong learning16 do not explicitly mention career management skills as such. The Recommendation17 on key competencies for lifelong learning was formulated and passed (2006) before the second European Resolution (2008) on lifelong guidance18 which explicitly described the role of CMS within lifelong learning.
The harmonisation of the two Resolutions in future could build on the outcomes of the ELGPN CMS-related activities.
4.1.5 As OECD recently suggested, information and guidance are important for potential learners: less-educated individuals tend to be less aware of education and training opportunities or may find the available information confusing. A combination of easily searchable, up-to-date online information and personal guidance and counselling services is needed to help individuals to define their own training needs and identify the appropriate programmes, as is information about possible funding sources.19
4.2 Further strengthening links between education/training, mobility and the labour market
4.2.1 Lifelong guidance policies have been developed in each member-state to bridge the European employment / social inclusion initiatives and education initiatives. Lifelong guidance should be presented as a key link at the level of the individual, helping him or her to thread together learning and work on a continuing basis. ELGPN has a catalytic role, on one hand supporting the member countries on national lifelong guidance system and policy development, and on the other hand linking lifelong guidance to different European employment/education initiatives. Cross-cutting (cross-sectoral or cross-policy) co-operation is one of the strengths of ELGPN. To enhance European mobility in the labour market as well as within the VET and higher education systems, personal learning outcomes and goal setting are a way forward, enabling European citizens to undertake bridge building at an individual level between the education and employment sectors.
4.3 Adapting to internationalisation trends
4.3.1 The transparency tools of the European Union such as EQF, ECTS and others can play a central role in supporting European educational and labour market mobility among the member-states and between the EU and the outer world.
4.3.2 Lifelong guidance is a tool in the ‘war for talents’, helping the brain gain of the European Union. Several member-states have been using lifelong guidance services to provide information and more personalised counselling services for outstanding young people on migrating back to the European continent, and also for supporting skilled migrants to find employment or set up businesses within the European Union.
4.3.3 Lifelong guidance as a service and as a system can contribute to the development of internal mobility among the member-states, by providing career information as well as personalised counselling services within the vocational and higher education systems.
16 http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/education_training_youth/lifelong_learning/c11090_en.htm
17 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32006H0962:EN:HTML. Recommendation 2006/962/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 on key competences for lifelong learning [Official Journal L394, 30.12.2006].
18 http://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/educ/104236.pdf
19 OECD (2012). Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Lives: A Strategic Approach to Skills Policies.
http://skills.oecd.org/documents/OECDSkillsStrategyFINALENG.pdf
4.3.4 Current European reforms such as EURES or EQF have interfaces with lifelong guidance system and policy developments. Lifelong guidance as an activity cross-links different staff at the member-state levels (e.g. Euroguidance, Eurodesk, EURES, Europass) and provides better understanding of end-users’ needs as well as offering improved service design for responding to these needs.
4.4 Ensuring overall coherence of tools and policies and further implementing the learning outcomes approach
4.4.1 Lifelong guidance as a transversal policy is closely related to the implementation of other European policy priorities – such as recognition of informal and non-formal learning, EQF and NQF, the Youth Guarantee, and tools such as Europass.
4.4.2 ELGPN can support member-states in defining online tools and instruments based on a learning outcomes approach for professional guidance practitioners.
4.4.3 Several European mobility tools, procedures, frameworks etc. do not always seem to be coherent or implemented in the countries as intended. It may be an idea to reduce (re- develop) and simplify some of these, on the basis of a closer review and assessment of tools and frameworks and in the view of the most urgent needs. There is an urgent need to harness tools such as ESCO to facilitate a better match between vacancies and qualifications.
4.4.4 However, it can be difficult to relate to countries’ different traditions, systems and
‘cultures’ on how to do things and how things work, when developing and implementing such tools. Joint workshops at top management level and at expert level might be one way of addressing this. Tools could be developed for a few and strategically important qualification areas (like STEM competencies, or competencies especially important to special groups of vacancies).
4.4.5 A body at European level could communicate the EASQ to all member-states.
Lifelong guidance system and policy developments could support these processes through the utilisation of a life-cycle approach and individual-centred approaches.
4.5 Ensuring clarity of rules and procedures for the recognition of skills and qualifications for further learning
4.5.1 Validation is never a stand-alone process. It has a personal outcome and leads to better understanding of the individual’s own skill-set for further learning or working opportunities. Therefore – as many European cases show – validation activities usually go together with lifelong guidance services. The validation process itself can be enriched by guidance, and the further use of the validated skills can be more targeted and better utilised through the individual’s career management skills.
4.5.2 Lifelong guidance as a transversal policy is closely related to the implementation of Recommendations on recognition of informal and non-formal learning: during the process of providing career guidance services, the needs for recognition of skills and qualification are identified. Guidance service providers need to co-operate effectively with institutions responsible for the recognition of skills and qualifications.
4.5.3 The 2009 European Guidelines on validation distinguish the role of guidance activities in relation to the provision of guidance at different stages of the validation process and in relation to information and guidance on the existing validation mechanisms.
Information and guidance during all four stages (identification, documentation, assessment and certification) of validation of non-formal and informal learning is a necessity, and the competences of assessors and guidance practitioners involved in the validation processes should be revisited in the revised European guidelines in 2014.
4.6 Increasing the focus on quality assurance
4.6.1 As the consultation paper indicates (p.11), European quality assurance arrangements have been put in place in different contexts: European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ESG), European Quality Assurance for Vocational Education and Training (EQAVET) and EQF quality assurance principles. It is also true that several initiatives currently exist in the field of quality assurance at the European level. For example, the Common Assessment Framework (CAF)20 was the EU Ministers’ response to the quality challenges of the European public administrations.
Although the PDCA cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act) is the starting point of all of these initiatives, there are currently several parallel developments without a coherent overarching vision.
4.6.2 ELGPN has been developing and testing out a quality assurance framework and an Evidence Guide for lifelong guidance activities with a strong added value of cross-sectoral operation. These tools take into account the existence of several different QA frameworks in the fields of education, employment and European public administration.
4.6.3 From the lifelong guidance policy and system perspective, the cohesion of the different sectoral QA frameworks can be understood through the viewpoint of the European citizens. The idea of the individual lifelong guidance portfolio goes through the lifespan and links the content of the different frameworks with the individual’s learning and working experiences.
4.7 A single access point to obtain information and services supporting a European Area of Skills and Qualifications.
4.7.1 The new skills and qualification portal as well as the new ESCO developments and EU Skills Panorama will reach the European citizens more effectively if a strong guidance community is able to use these tools and assist the end-users. To encourage such guidance communities, lifelong guidance policy and system developments are crucial at the member- state level. Career-related information provision (including learning and working opportunities) was always a part of the guidance workers’ portfolio. New European tools have been arriving such as the EU Skills Passport and the renewed EURES portal (including internship opportunities), and the renewed Europass has recently been launched. All of these tools could have a deep impact if lifelong guidance policy is further developed to bridge different stakeholders in the education and employment policy areas.
4.7.2 The existence of well-structured education and labour market information is the precondition to providing high-level and validated information to all learners and workers within the European Union. Concentrating this information at one entry-point such as the EQF or ESCO portals is helpful. Portals for lifelong guidance services as well as integrated guidance services (e.g. one-stop shops) could be the access point to inform on other processes and services related to the EASQ (e.g. recognition of skills and qualifications).
20 http://www.eipa.eu/en/topic/show/&tid=191
4.7.3 The Ploteus/EQF portal needs to be developed further. User friendliness based on extensive user testing should be recognised as a very important aspect of this work.
Responsibilities and systems for updating routines need to be clarified.
4.7.4 An important advantage of further development of a single access point is to use new emerging technologies in making access to career information and guidance more feasible and in creating innovative and more diverse service delivery. A further advantage is the impartiality of career information about different educational or employment opportunities.
Moreover, the emerging technology can have an integrative function by promoting the communication, co-ordination and collaboration of all related stakeholders to develop and sustain the system. The development of a European single access point provides an opportunity to create a jointly agreed common conceptual framework for lifelong guidance system and structures which can be applied at a member-state level. This online model would help the countries to structure their services in accordance with the conceptual model, but would also allow national or regional differences in design of the services. The common structure could be used in delivering services and also in collecting feedback in evaluating the national lifelong guidance systems. The interfaces for the system could be customised for the policy-makers, professionals and different end-user groups.
