Professional guidance & counseling in transformation - academic knowledge and skills of CGC practitioners (CGC - DigiTrans))

Professional guidance & counseling in transformation - academic knowledge and skills of CGC practitioners (CGC - DigiTrans))

Digital transformation is a challenge that calls for actions on individual but also on institutional level in Europe. In accordance
with the EU PACT FOR SKILLS the project is focusing on the development of digital skills by better tuning between the
institutional actors and the individuals and their needs. Career Guidance and Counselling (CGC) practitioners play an
important role bringing individuals, companies, and training providers closer together. This is especially important for
disadvantaged learners who experience a digital divide.

This project results in academically trained CGC practitioners having a greater impact on the digital transformation: they will learn in higher education (HE) how to effectively collaborate with all actors involved in digital training. As this is a new and wider understanding of Career Guidance, academic training for CGC practitioners and experts needs enhancement.

The prime motivation of the project is to integrate a curriculum for career guidance and counselling (CGC) professionals into
European HE programmes that empowers them to take on a pivotal role in overcoming the digital divide in the labour
market, which affects mostly workers and job seekers from lower socio-economic and other disadvantaged backgrounds.

Project period: 01.09.2022 – 31.08.2025 (36 months)

Erasmus+ program: KA220-HED - Cooperation partnerships in higher education

Target groups: CGC practitioners as well as other professionals in the field (e. g. in-company trainers, HR experts,
adult education experts).

Stakeholders: Higher education institutions, education experts, students.

The project "CGC - DigiTrans" focuses at the learning goals for study- and training programs for this target group delivered by higher education institutions (HEI). Digital transformation is also a challenge for HE and study programs in this context.

A second important aim of the project covers innovative methodology used to organize academic teaching of CGC students
(and other relevant groups). The project develops innovative learning, teaching and CGC practice. This requires a transformation of the HEI and the guidance offerings and concepts systematically:

  • Level of digital skills
  • Level of needs-based education in the local and regional context.
  • Level of cooperation in networks and the methodical design for cooperation
  • Level of the psychological-individual situation, which should be reflected in resource orientation, encouragement and strengthening of identity.

These aspects will be reflected in the academic education and training of counselors as well as in the approach to the development of CGC services. HEI and practice need to be linked for this purpose. Networking all partners, cooperation at eye level, recognition of people as important actors, local and targeted offer development are some central approaches that will be brought together in the project. The project will develop and test a concise method to improve consulting in the network on topics of digitization and digital learning. The method will be communicative, inclusive, and participatory. Through this method, students will learn how to work in the field of digital education in a responsible and active way to reach more people for further education in the context of digital transformation.

In order to make the curriculum effective and practical, a new CGC method, the Roundabout for Digital Transformation, will
be developed on the basis of the principles of attentive CGC and research circles. The Roundabout is a multi-stage and
multi-actor process, in which in a number of in-person, hybrid and online conversations, the CGC professional, their client,
current or prospective employer(s) and TVET provider(s), identify learning needs and aspirations, existing workplaces, job
openings and current training opportunities – and develop strategies of utilisation and adjustment to achieve sustainable
employment based on digital resilience and innovation potential. The Roundabout method will be a contribution to sustainable employment in a digitally transforming labour market. It will, as a concept and as an empirical experience tested out in different European institutional and market environments, form the centrepiece of a research-led and highly praxis-relevant curriculum.

 

Activities/Objectives:

  1. Developing and implementing a CGC method “CGC Roundabouts for Digital Transformation” in which CGC professionals manage an inclusive iterative process of counselling and exchange involving (employed or unemployed) workers.
     
  2. Developing and implementing an HE curriculum for current and future CGC professionals, teaching essential digital skills and relevant knowledge on the digital transformation, and – based on the practice-run methodology, key skills to set up a participative-iterative multi-actor process to assess digital learning needs and support finding strategies to address them.
     
  3. Provide a Web Portal as one-stop shop for all information, material and resources needed to implement/develop CGC Roundabouts in nationally and locally different settings and implementing the HE curriculum in HE and FE institutions.

 

Project partners:

1. HOCHSCHULE DER BUNDESAGENTU R FUER ARBEIT (HdBA) (Germany)

2.  VšĮ "eMundus" (Lithuania)

3. UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PADOVA (Italy)

4. UNIVERSITAT FUR WEITERBILDUNG KREMS (Austria)

5.  STICHTING SAXION (The Netherlands)

 

Project website: digitransformation.net