National Initiatives Concerning the Career Guidance/Information/Vocational Counselling

National Initiatives Concerning the Career Guidance/Information/Vocational Counselling - Finland

In Finland careers information, guidance and counselling services are provided mainly by two established public service systems: student counselling within the public school system, and the information, guidance and counselling services run by the public labour administration. There is a clear division of labour between these two systems. Schools have the main responsibility for student counselling, with the guidance and counselling services of the employment offices complementing school-based services, being mainly targeted at clients outside the education and training institutions.

The Ministry of Education is responsible for the organisation of guidance and counselling services in comprehensive and upper secondary schools and in higher education. The regulations concerning the educational environments and system are drawn up by the Ministry of Education.

The National Board of Education is responsible for the establishment of national curriculum guidelines for the different school subjects, including rules for guidance and counselling in comprehensive and upper secondary schools.

Because education has been decentralised, the organisations maintaining educational institutions, usually municipalities, share the responsibility for providing educational services, including making decisions about the amount of resources to be allocated for delivering guidance and counselling services at schools.

In 2002 the National Board of Education began a reform of curriculum guidelines for comprehensive and upper secondary general education. The aim is to prescribe and guarantee in more detail the minimum level of guidance services that should be available within these educational settings. In other words, the trend is towards a more centralised approach to educational and guidance policy.

In higher education, the AMK institutions (polytechnics) and universities are themselves responsible for their careers services.

The vocational guidance and career planning services offered by the employment offices of the Finnish labour administration are a part of labour services, divided into employment services (for job-seeking clients and labour-seeking employers) and ”vocational development services”. The second type of services includes, among other things, vocational guidance and career planning, educational and vocational information services and vocational rehabilitation. That is, the labour services offered at employment offices comprise a broad range of services delivering for various categories of individual client, job seekers being the main target group.

Employment services for job seekers in the proper sense of the word have not traditionally been included in the concept of “guidance services” as it is understood in the Finnish labour administration. In recent years, job-seeking services for, for example, unemployed job seekers have developed towards more guidance, requiring more demanding forms of individual customer service or services in groups.

The most important reason seems to be the growing number of adult-clients. In 2001 the amount of adults (25 years or older) was 62%. Moreover, it seems that the amount of oldest clients (over 40 years) is growing at the same rate as the amount of youngest clients is declining. The situation of older clients is often more demanding because of health problems, long term unemployment, poor or out-of-date education and situation in the labour market.

Another reason for the growing need of guidance can be found from the overall development of working life: the qualifications for jobs are more demanding, the need for life-long learning, rapidly changing working life where it is hard to find own paths with the old maps and the fact, that nowadays there is a growing demand for multiprofessional joint work (labour-, education-, social- and health sectors) in order to help the clients.

As for the customer services offered as a part of labour services, no explicit definition of which services should be referred to as "guidance or counselling" has ever been made. Even if psychologists are the only professional group among the various types of official running guidance services to have qualification requirements, all officials working in customer service have to pass an internal staff training course which familiarises them with customer work.

The public labour administration has a three-tier organisation. The central Ministry of Labour is responsible for establishing the political guidelines and strategic goals making up the national labour market policy and for seeing to it that these guidelines are adhered to. The implementation of the labour market policy is monitored by the administrative regional labour-market departments (15) which supervise and monitor the local employment offices (180).

The main objectives of the labour services (and labour market measures) are promoting the functioning of the labour market and the employment and integration of immigrants and preventing unemployment and exclusion from the labour market. In the context of labour market policy, the promotion of skills development and lifelong learning is an important policy guideline.

The Ministry for Social Affairs and Health is responsible for guaranteeing a minimum standard of living and social and health care by producing sufficient social and health services for all citizens. These services include information, counselling and advising services delivered mainly within the health and social welfare sector. Especially with certain special groups, such as the handicapped, people with mental problems or drugs abusers, these services are of great importance and a precondition of the clients’ career development. The purpose of educational advice and family counselling centres is to support and promote the positive development of children and families. The work of the personnel in these centres includes counselling and advising, and the target groups are parents and families. The need for health education is increasing as is the need to counsel people in life management skills and daily survival. More information on these issues is available at http://www.vn.fi/stm and http://www.stakes.fi/.

The advancing internationalisation of services as a part of careers development

CIMO: The Centre for International Mobility CIMO acts as the National Resource Centre for Vocational Guidance (NRCVG) in Finland, that is, as a Euroguidance Centre,a part of a network of such centres in Europe. CIMO is an expert and service organisation under the Finnish Ministry of Education that promotes the internationalisation of Finnish society, focusing on education and training, work and young people. CIMO gathers, processes and disseminates information and coordinates, at national level, international education and training programmes such as Socrates, Leonardo da Vinci exchanges and placements, Tempus, the EU Youth Programme and Culture 2000. CIMO is the host organisation for the youth information network Eurodesk. CIMO also supports the university-level teaching of Finnish language and culture throughout the world.

Additionally, the main aim of the Euroguidance activity in Finland is to meet the information and in- service training needs of guidance counsellors from both education and the employment administration in dealing with clients who are interested in studying and training opportunities abroad.

In the educational sector students are delivered for by a fairly comprehensive student counselling system, receiving their basic guidance services within the educational system. In such cases, the guideline for guidance services offered by the labour administration has in recent years been twofold, emphasising on the one hand the division of labour between these guidance systems while on the other hand stressing that students standing at the crossroads between studies and working life must be given the guidance service that they need to support their career development.

Some overlapping exists in information services between employment offices and schools: The educational and vocational information services of employment offices are targeted at all citizens, including students, who need information or advice on education and training or on options available on the labour market when making decisions about their future education, training and work. The information provided at the employment office covers both all nationally available openings and study opportunities abroad. The data supplied through computer systems are usually more comprehensive than those to be had at schools. The educational advisers working in employment offices have good knowledge of this field of information, being specially trained for the task. Employment offices co-operate with educational institutions on the provision of information, supporting student counsellors in their work and marketing the education and training offered by the institutions to their own customers.

The primary duty of the Ministry of Labour is, similarly, to produce, collect and disseminate both vocational and labour-market information and information about education and training opportunities to support their clients’ vocational and educational choices and the guidance services in general. In accordance with the guidelines for the training and vocational information service, the emphasis is on a comprehensive provision of training and guidance information for all clients planning to take up vocational training. For more than a decade, educational and vocational information systems have been developed for use within the guidance services and by the clients themselves.

Finnish legislation governing guidance and counselling at schools establishes guidelines for the school counselling system. The Basic Education Act (628/1998, §11) states that every pupil must be provided with adequate counselling services (§30). Counselling services in vocational schools (630/1998, §29) and upper secondary general education (629/1998, §7, §22) are similarly prescribed by law. The Council of State decides on educational objectives, qualification requirements and compulsory courses. The Ministry of Education defines the scope of qualification requirements more precisely. The National Board of Education draws up the curriculum, which gives more comprehensive instructions for delivering education and counselling in different school settings. Within this context school counselling includes careers education and individual counselling.

The legislation on labour market services (the Employment Services Act (1005/1993 and the Employment Services Decree (1251/1993) provide detailed instructions concerning the purposes and principles underpinning the information, guidance and counselling services offered by the employment offices.

The Centre for International Mobility (CIMO) Act (passed by the Finnish Parliament on 1 February 1991) stipulates in its Article 1 that "to promote the exchange of students, trainees and other people between Finland and other countries, there shall be a Centre for International Mobility which shall operate under the Ministry of Education". According to Article 2, CIMO has the following tasks:

During 2001 almost 300 000 Finns moved from one part of the country to another, mainly to southern Finland or major university cities. This has had a very strong impact on access to career services. The rural areas find it difficult to provide equal educational opportunities and minimum career services because of a lack of funding and qualified staff. On the other hand, in southern Finland, demand for vocational training and career services has increased dramatically.

Changes in the labour market and working life reflected in the challenges facing service provision The internal goals of the labour administration and the current major labour policy goals involve mainly reducing the high long-term unemployment rate and preventing exclusion. Among current challenges present in the operational environment of the labour administration are checking the increase in early retirement in the workforce raising the employment rate and maintaining the work skills and working capability of the working populations. Thus, there is a need for developing more services delivering for people in employment. Another important current goal is to guarantee the supply of labour, particularly in the economic growth sectors, that is, the expanding IT industry. Due to changes in society, jobs are less secure than they used to be. Atypical work contracts, job-swapping and vocational retraining are characteristic features of Finnish society today.

The changed information and guidance needs of clients directly affect the day-to-day work of careers counsellors. Thus, there is a need for new modes of service: career and recruitment services at educational institutions, international research on guidance and counselling, postgraduate studies of guidance and counselling, and WWW-based guidance and counselling services.

The single biggest education-related influence shaping the national policies that underpin information, guidance and counselling services in Finland is the adoption of policy of lifelong learning. Every Finn should have at least upper secondary school or vocational qualifications. Additionally, the number of students in higher education will be increased. According to the Government’s 1994-2002 development plan for education and research, by 2004 polytechnics (AMK institutions) should have an annual enrolment of 25 000 and universities one of 19 000. This would mean that 65 – 70 per cent of students within the 19 –21 age cohort would have an opportunity to enter higher education. Emphasis should be placed also on the completion of studies. Today’s labour market needs more highly qualified people. Because of this, more attention should be paid to information, guidance and counselling services.

Individual and interdisciplinary study programmes will become more common in the future, which will increase the need to construct more individualised study programmes. Consequently, clients will need all the information and guidance available if they are to benefit fully from the new educational and training opportunities. At the level of educational institutions there will be a need for resources with which to meet the growing need.

Along with the new Finnish educational policy guidelines, reforms of the educational system and changes in the labour market, have led to a considerable increase in the need for educational and vocational guidance in all social groups. The rapid internationalisation of Finnish education and working life has also demanded a great deal of flexibility from guidance and counselling providers if they are to be able to meet the changing needs of their clients. The changes in the educational system, society and working life have meant a growing need for initial and in-service training for counsellors. Their systematic in-service training began in 2001.

The social partners are represented in national, regional and local advisory bodies, concerned mainly with the main labour market policy and with employment issues in general (national and regional level) or unemployment security (local level). Their discussions very rarely focus on issues linked with information, guidance and counselling services.

Where the production of information materials supporting vocational guidance is concerned, there is some national-level networking and some participation in joint working groups between the central employer organisations (the TaT or the Economic Information Office and the TT or the Confederation of Finnish Industry and Employers) and the Ministry of Labour.

Moreover, evaluations of vocational and professional education needs have been accompanied by discussions about the future development of working life with employer organisations, trade unions and the labour administration. The interest of employers and trade unions in these questions has increased because in the near future Finland will face a lack of qualified employees.

The national student organisations have been very active in developing guidance services. In higher education it was the student organisations who suggested a national evaluation of guidance services. Additionally, they train peer tutors both nationally and locally. Upper secondary education student organisations arrange national careers fairs in co-operation with key stakeholders. Student organisations are also represented in key national working groups involved in guidance. (More information about the student organisations is available at: http://www.syl.helsinki.fi/, http://www.samok.fi/, http://www.lukio.fi, http://www.sakkinet.fi/sivut/default.htm).

Student counselling targets students at different levels of the educational system. By law, every student in comprehensive, upper secondary and vocational schools has a right to guidance and counselling services.

In general, the services are delivered especially for students with special needs and students who need more individual counselling. In case of physical or mental disabilities education and counselling can be provided within special education. The procedure related to referral to special education is a joint decision with parents and school administration and it must include a psychological or medical diagnosis or a statement of regional social authorities. The objectives of immigrant education, for both children and adults, are equality, working bilingualism and multiculturalism. The problem with delivering guidance and counselling services at school is that the number of students per one student counsellor may vary from less than 200 to more than 700.

The methods used in service delivery are group counselling in classes, individual counselling, and work practice periods. During the last year in comprehensive schools, information on and counselling dealing with the joint application system for upper secondary education is among the most important contents.

Higher education students have recently become a much more heterogeneous group. They are no longer all the same age with the same basic abilities and the same approach to studying. Their age, experience and backgrounds vary. This makes it necessary to provide a much wider range of guidance services able to meet the growing diversity of student needs. Students on adult education programmes, foreign exchange students (both Finns abroad and foreigners in Finland) and students in practical training have special guidance and counselling needs.

The career counselling services offered by employment office psychologists are open to anyone who might need their help. However, demand is often greater than supply, forcing the local offices to consider whom to serve and to what extent. When assessing the needs of a person, the first priority is always their individual needs, not the target group they might belong to. The first essential is to determine the nature of the client’s case and decide what kind of service is the most appropriate for them: should they be advised to search for information on their own or use self-service facilities or should they be referred to counselling services, group services, extended personal guidance, or to other service systems? This evaluation is always carried out by a career counselling psychologist, also in those cases where the client is seeking guidance through another agency, such as the employment exchange. Thus, there is no national policy of priority.

Locally, however, there may be temporary priorities; for example, employees who have been laid off by an important employer might have priority. There is also some anticipation within the employment office that counselling clients will include more unemployed job seekers. The aim has been to meet these anticipations by developing consultation practices. At times we have to evaluate also how urgent a client’s case is, taking into account such factors as application periods to educational institutions or the client’s rehabilitation process. In such instances, priorities are about when counselling should be given, not about whether counselling will be provided or not.

The main objectives of the Euroguidance network have been defined in the Terms of Reference (ToR) laid down by the DG for Education and Culture of the European Commission in spring 2001. On the basis of these general objectives, a more detailed action plan for CIMO’s Euroguidance activities has been formulated in close co-operation with the National Advisory Group.

The information and advisory services of CIMO can be contacted by telephone and e-mail nationally and internationally. In addition, CIMO has an Information Centre that is open to the general public in Helsinki. Information materials are produced and made available both in printed form and over the Internet. In addition to providing national in-service training courses for guidance and counselling professionals, CIMO organises also regional in-service training events. Besides traditional in-service training CIMO has begun to offer parts of its in-service training courses in the form of distance learning. The aim is to ensure that guidance and counselling professionals from different parts of the country will have equal opportunities to update their professional knowledge and skills related to issues of international mobility and the European dimension in guidance and counselling.

In the social welfare and health care sector, handicapped people are given special services and support from society. The social welfare sector co-operates with employment offices to provide educational and employment guidance.

In comprehensive schools study counsellors are responsible for guidance and counselling services (including career counselling and individual counselling). Moreover, all teachers advice students in studying-related issues. Form masters/mistresses support the students in their class in general school attendance issues.

In upper secondary general education study counsellors bear the main responsibility for delivering counselling services. Group teachers monitor their students’ school achievement and counsel them on issues involved in studying in upper secondary school. Moreover, every teacher advises students in study techniques.

In vocational schools study counsellors bear the main responsibility for counselling, but every teacher takes part in counselling activities as a part of their teaching duties.

In polytechnics study counsellors are responsible for guidance and counselling services. Tutor teachers and other teachers together with peer tutors take part in counselling as agreed on in the polytechnic’s counselling plan. Polytechnics have recently improved their career and recruitment services.

In universities, counselling services are delivered in a variety of ways. In general, the student affairs office is the place where students can ask about things linked with their studies, work practice, and student grants. In faculties there are student affairs secretaries who are responsible for students’ study plans and for planning, developing and coordinating counselling services. (ANNEX 4. Summary of the national evaluation of careers services in higher education in Finland in 2000-2001.)

In different educational institutions counsellors are often called masters of student or study counselling. Study counsellors can counsel full-time or work part-time as counsellors and part-time as teachers. In comprehensive schools most counsellors (84 %) work full-time, but in polytechnics for example only 11 per cent of the counsellors are employed full-time. (Lairio & Puukari & Varis. 1999. Opinto-ohjaajien ammattikunta osana suomalaista ohjausjärjestelmää. [The work of professional study counsellors as a part of the Finnish counselling system.])

In the labour administration (employment offices): vocational guidance psychologists, educational advisers, employment consultants specialised either in special needs clients or in job clubs. The following guidance services available in employment offices and individual job-seeking services are delivered by the following customer-service officials:

CIMO’s Euroguidance team consists of an information specialist, a programme coordinator, a senior adviser and a head of unit.

EMP/SKILLS - Skills and Employability Department