Accreditation of career guidance practitiones working outside the school context: European Project EAS

Abstract

ABSTRACT
The European project EAS has been financed by the Leonardo da Vinci program with the aim of developing and validating an European frame of basic professional standards —a common accreditation system— for those working as career practitioners outside the school context. Four phases along two years were necessary, with the following objectives: 1) Revision of the existing systems of accreditation for guidance practitioners, 2) Development of a list and a system of accreditation of competencies for guidance practitioners, 3) Pilot study through 350 practitioners in 17 European countries, and 4) Development of the Users Manual for the accreditation system obtained. A mixed methodology (qualitative and quantitative), different sources of data gathering (online questionnaire, personal surveys and review of documentation) and several samples were used for the pilot study. For the descriptive analysis, an intended sampled was chosen.The results obtained are a common system of competencies accreditation for guidance practitioners and a user’s manual. Conclusions point the existence of a real need for such accreditation systems and the contribution of this proposal to fill the gap for this type of tools.