Programme

The workshop will draw on some key findings and obstacles encountered during the implementation of the ongoing national project “Standards” which is set to establish a complex guidance ecosystem in educational sector in Slovakia. This ecosystem is based on the premise that career guidance providers (psychological centres, schools) and pupils with their parents represent equally important parts of the system and that the needs, possibilities and ideas of all actors are respected and taken into account. Centres and schools are not only providers of the guidance services but also their creators. Active engagement of pupils and their parents takes not only the form of the feedback but they are also encouraged to participate in designing the services. 

These principles are embedded in the newly prepared career guidance standards as well as in support materials and educational programmes for guidance counsellors which were also created in a collaborative manner with engagement of different practitioners. Key questions addressed during this creative process are: 

1. Co-creation can be seen as the highest level of counselling/cooperative relationship – can/should we aim at this level with all actors and at all times?
2. How do we recognize and respect different levels of cooperation and engagement?
3. Should we (as professionals) only address clients’ needs and requirements or is our responsibility also to shape their expectations of service?

Mária Jaššová is a psychologist with experience in career guidance provision for youth and adults employing creative techniques and methods. She is currently working at the Research Institute of Child Psychology and Pathopsychology on the national project “Standards” (project activity: Education and Human Resources Development)

Through the Get Ready – Enrol at University programme, career guidance and counselling is provided for students of final years of secondary schools who belong to social groups underrepresented in higher education (people from poor and/or rural areas, people with disabilities, Roma people, children without parental care, etc.). The programme is carried out in student dormitories in Belgrade by University of Belgrade, Centre for Career Development and Student Counselling. It encompasses educational workshops and information and counselling sessions, enabling students to gather information, discover their own potentials, prepare for university studies and plan their career. The entire programme is appropriate to the needs of the target group and continuous support is offered through numerous resources available on the Centre’s website. During this lecture you will have opportunity to hear more about its activities and some guidelines for preparing similar programme.

Katarina Milovanovic is a pedagogue at High school students dormitory ‘Jelica Milovanovic’ in Belgrade

Jelena Radivojevic is a teacher at High school students dormitory ‘Jelica Milovanovic’ in Belgrade

The most important tool in career counselling is us – career guidance practitioners. In order to understand the individuality of clients and their diverse career paths, we must first understand who we are and how our experiences, values, attitudes and qualities can affect our work with clients and our ability to provide tailor-made guidance. Can we distinguish the client’s voice from our “inner voice”? Do we really serve the needs of our clients or are they our needs?

In the workshop, I will present an introduction to critical reflection and narrative counselling through “hands-on” activities. We will discuss why it is important – regardless of the length of our practice – to critically review our own approaches and what benefits this brings to our clients and ourselves. Let’s discover the roots of our own uniqueness together.

Helena Košťálová works in EKS in the Czech republic as a lecturer, career development professional, methods specialist and author of scientific publications. She is interested in all levels of career counselling – from policy level and theories to practical work with clients. She also leads in-service trainings for career professionals She works with clients of ages 9 to 60+ with diverse life experience. Currently, she is working on her PhD thesis in school counselling at Charles University Prague. She was awarded the National career guidance award in 2013 for her lectures in career guidance.

Given the growing needs of an individualized approach to career development and the challenges of the labor market – the specific lines of occupations and jobs are unclear and work conditions are changing (e.g. working from home due to Covid -19 measures, reducing or increasing the need employee profiles), we’ll show parts of our workshops by which we analyze our skills and values. Through various self-assessments we realize that, in addition to technical knowledge, we must be well aware of our attributes in order to select and develop a career.

Mateja Tolj is a psychologist and licensed psychotherapist who has been working at Croatian Career Guidance Centre (CISOK) as senior expert adviser. That job provides the best of two worlds – working directly with people in smaller capacities and being able to be part of big organisation that ensures labour and career policies. Over seven years of counselling career provides the experience of working with challenging cases and diverse clients and every day becomes a new challenge and opportunity to learn.