A NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR LIFELONG GUIDANCE: CROATIA

Did you ever wonder why a country might benefit from having a national strategy for career guidance and what a national strategy for lifelong guidance might look like?

In general, most countries have subsystems of career guidance in the education, training and employment sectors, that often are not connected to each other. The development of these subsystems are historical accidents: they respond to inspirations or needs at a particular point in time, and are developed without reference to pre-existing subsystems. Consequently, the collection of subsystems in any one country may looks quite haphazard, and with quite an amount of overlap and duplication of effort and resources.

In the context of the new possibilities and challenges that Information and Communications Technology provides and of the economic challenges facing countries, it is becoming more commonly accepted that citizens need lifelong learning provision to facilitate their continued employability and their longer work life. Career guidance has a key role to play to ensure that citizens and governments invest wisely and efficiently in supporting their employment and employability.

Governments and other stakeholders face the challenge of putting the subsystems of guidance together in a coherent fashion to enable citizens to access career services and tools over their lifespan. Developing national strategies for career guidance is a first step.

STRATEGY FOR LIFELONG CAREER GUIDANCE IN THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA 2016-2020 is one example of a government’s response to that challenge.

March 13, 2017 / National Strategies and Implementation Plans, Europe, EU, Coordination and leadership, Ensuring quality, Expanding access to guidance, Funding career guidance, ICCDPP Blog