Career Management Skills – methodological framework for career learning at school

Career Management Skills – methodological framework for career learning at school, is the first intellectual output (IO1) of the Erasmus+ project Jobland. It has been coordinated by CNPEE-UCE Romania and addresses the need of building effective models and innovative resources for preventing early school leaving and educational disengagement.

The report draws evidence from the data collected as part of a first research phase of the project, exploring the concept of early career learning in relation to the methodological framework of Career Management Skills from the perspectives of the partner countries: Italy; Spain; Romania; Turkey; Denmark and the United Kingdom.
Data were collected using three methodological approaches: desk-based research, questionnaire and focus groups, all involving the opinion of the partners involved in the project, teachers and practitioners working in career learning in the partner countries. Responses to the questionnaire were received from 288 respondents from six partner countries and over 140 individuals contributed to focus groups.

The main results obtained shows that:

• Career learning activities bring an essential contribution to the successful preparation of students for their future roles, educational and life pathways
• Helping children believe in their abilities is considered as the most important activity to be part of a career learning program
• Related to the modalities of evaluating the career learning activities the highest percentage of partnership level declare that they are observing classroom behaviours
• There is a need to develop the skills of teachers and guidance counsellors to carry out career learning activities in the primary cycle, but that there are only few programs in this area
• The JOBLAND training course on early career learning should comprise: attractive face to face and on-line activities, interactive approaches, exchanges experiences, innovative methods and techniques, connections to future careers
• Career related activities should be implemented in collaboration between teachers, guidance practitioners and partners with expertise in the field of career learning.