Map – Keyway Project

Keyway Map of Impacts of academic and career guidance

The following is the Keyway map of the impacts of guidance services on the Individual throughout his/her life. The focus is on the impact of the three main elements of guidance services: career information, career education and career counselling. Two broad levels of impact are differentiated:

the micro level centered on the individual aspects (the main aim of guidance services) and
the macro level that comprises all the societal aspects.

Context

Career guidance can be defined as a helping process operating in three main domains i.e. personal, vocational and educational. Such activities might include information and advice giving, counselling, competence assessment, mentoring, advocacy, and teaching career decision-making and career management skills. They may be collectively known by a variety of names, including “career development”, “educa-tional / vocational / career guidance”, “guidance and counselling”, “occupational guidance”, and “counselling”. The process is informed by five main principles: user-friendliness, confidentiality, impartiality, equality of opportunity, and accessibility. It is provided in a variety of different contexts and delivered through a range of methods (Hughes, 2002). Additionally, the OECD definition makes it clear that career guidance refers to individual and group activities, online and onsite activities and education, counselling, world of work experiences and system development. Career guidance refers to services and activities intended to assist individuals, of any age and at any point throughout their lives, to make educational, training and occupational choices and to manage their careers. The activities may take place on an individual or group basis, and may be face-to-face or at a distance (including help lines and web-based services).This definition encompasses a range of activities including the provision of career education, information, advice and guidance. It also includes many activities not normally described as “career guidance” such as education/employment brokerage and the work of public employment services. The result of the output is a map of the impacts of guidance services on the Individual throughout his life. It is a diagram of where, referring to the individual, guidance interventions have an impact: personal, societal or economic. The focus is on the impact of the three main elements of guidance services: career information, career education and career counselling.

Methodology

For the creation of the Intellectual Map there was foreseen specific methodology that includes 5 steps- activities to be made among the partnership:

A1 – Desk Research
A2 – Brainstorming session
A3 – Interviews with experts
A4 – Group session
A5 – Proposal of the Map

In order to create the Keyway impact map of guidance services, the partnership did desk research in order to gather the collective existing studies on guidance impact and then prioritized and selected those that are most relevant to the Keyway project. So, every partner collected studies, articles, researches that have been done in their country or in international level, referring to the impact that career guidance services have on personal, social, political, economic level etc. The most important of them were written down in a report, for further elaboration. Then, the Keyway Project team held a brainstorming session, in order to define the areas of Career Guidance Impact and the most important impacts divided into categories. The partners had first the chance to have a preview of the most known categorisations of impacts and afterwards through discussion and brainstorming they concluded into the KEYWAY categorisation. The next step for each partner was to make Interviews with 3 experts, in order to give their feedback and ideas on the construction of the Impact Map. The intention of the interviews was to gather information by asking individuals to respond to questions posed by the moderator, and then asking them to prioritize those ideas or suggestions. The experts first answered questions regarding the Impact of Guidance, without having seen the results of the brainstorming session of the partnership. Then, after having a preview of the results they gave their feedback, making changes, adding outcomes, proposing new ideas. The next step was the group session with experts. The partnership employed consensus methodologies in order to review the proposed impact map with experts, thus creating ownership and ensuring of reflection of the on-the-ground reality. The methodology that was used with experts is the Nominal group technique (NGT), which is a structured type of small-group discussion technique in order to reach consensus. NGT gathers information by asking individuals to respond to questions posed by a moderator, and then asking participants to prioritize the ideas or suggestions of all group members. The methodology prevents domination of the discussion by only one participant and results in a prioritization of recommendations from the group. The experts answered questions regarding the Impact of Guidance, taking into consideration the proposed Impact Map and the results of the interviews with the experts, making changes, adding outcomes, proposing new ideas. After completing the 4 steps, the partnership concluded in the final proposal of the Impact Map, presented here.

Bibliography

Careers Scotland (2007). Demonstrating Impact, Final Report. May 2007. Careers Scotland (2009). The impact and value of career guidance. June 2009 ELGPN (2014). The evidence base on lifelong guidance. A guide to key findings for effective policy and practice. Finland, 2014. Hooley, T. and Dodd, V. (2015). The economic benefits of career guidance. Careers England Hughes, D. et al. (2002). The economic benefits of guidance. Department of Education & Skills, 2002. Law, B. and Watts A.G, (1977).Schools. Careers and Community. A Study of Some Approaches to Careers Education in Schools. London: Church Information Watts, A.G. (1999). The Economic and Social Benefits of Guidance, Educational and Vocational Guidance: Bulletin, 63/1999. International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance.

Context

Methodology

Bibliography

download the desk research and brainstorming report

download the summary of the interviews

download the summary of the interviews