CMS DEVELOPMENT IN GREECE and proposals for a CMS Framework

In Greece, a CMS National Framework has not been yet developed but, based on the above common rationale, there is a wide state/public policy interest in CMS.

The National Organisation for the Certification of Qualifications and Vocational Guidance (EOPPEP) is an all-encompassing body operating under the supervision of the Ministry of Civilisation, Education & Religious Affairs, which invests on better quality and more efficient & reliable lifelong learning and lifelong guidance services in Greece. EOPPEP, as being a member of the European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network, and implements actions that contribute to the promotion of career guidance in Greece and to the upgrading of the services provided in accordance with the latest career guidance developments and the EU priorities and guidelines.

EOPPEP introduced the term “career management skills” in Greece by implementing several activities targeted:

  • to guidance practitioners at national level in order to develop the relevant knowledge, competencies and skills required to serve the needs of the different target groups in acquisition of CMS.
  • to the end users by providing them with innovative guidance tools and services in order to help them acquiring CMS.

In this respect, EOPPEP has organized several trainings and has developed relevant training material for Guidance Practitioners working in education, training and employment public and private settings and the end users on the issue of CMS. In addition, several CMS tools are introduced in the EOPPEP online guidance portals for adolescents and youngsters http://www.eoppep.gr/teens (E-portfolio development Tool, The Real Game for adolescents aged 12-15 and 15-18) and the Lifelong Career Development Portal for adults http://e-stadiodromia.eoppep.gr (E- Lifelong Career Portfolio Development Tool, Career Management Skills Section including interactive CMS activities and CMS learning material).

Also in the field of secondary education in Greece, the development of relevant skills (without introducing the term CMS) has been enhanced for more than 25 years through the teaching of the course of School Vocational Guidance in Gymnasium (Class C) and Lyceum (Class A), while at the same time considerable efforts have been made to embed the objectives of vocational guidance and acquisition of relevant skills in the curriculum of various courses. In addition, various Career Education Programs have contributed to career management skills development, which have been implemented for more than 10 years in the field of secondary education, with the cooperation of all members of the educational community. In recent years, the traditional approach to career and vocational guidance through the traditional teaching of a relevant course embedded in the curriculum is gradually abandoned and new and innovative methods have been initiated, such as research work (project), the school and social activities and modern online career development tools (EOPPEP online portal http://www.eoppep.gr/teens).

In the field of employment, the Greek Manpower Employment Organization (OAED) in the context of active employment policies recently introduced new advisory interventions supporting the unemployed to enter or re-enter the labor market. These services include group counseling workshops focusing on Counseling and Career Guidance, Career Management, Job searching techniques and Entrepreneurial Counseling.

In Greece, EOPPEP, in the process of developing the CMS training material for guidance practitioners and the end users, has defined CMS based on the ELGPN definition, but also gave it a wider perspective derived from recent career theories. In brief, the skills analyzed in the EOPPEP CMS material are the following:

  • Readiness to happenstance: identifying, creating and capitalizing on fortuitous situations, either positive or negative ones.
  • Creating alternative career perspectives: to invent practical ideas about how we can promote ourself and how we can discover new career opportunities.
  • Career adaptability: it helps to cope and “negotiate” successfully with changes and transitions in the world of work (Porfeli & Savickas, 2012; Savickas, 2013).
  • Social awareness: helps to develop empathic understanding and act more effectively as a part of the society as a whole
  • Career resilience: our inner ability to cope with adversities and changes which take place in career exactly at the moment they occur.
  • Self-efficacy in career planning: our self-efficacy beliefs in performing the appropriate actions and activities needed to cope effectively with career issues (Sidiropoulou-Dimakakou, Mylonas, & Argyropoulou, 2012)
  • Positive orientation to the future: to know ourself better through various phases of our life and have positive images, thoughts and emotions about it in the future.
  • Job search skills, social networking skills, mobility skills, and leisure time management skills

The above analysis within EOPPEP’s scientific training material (2013), tried to highlight the meta-competencies, which are considered to facilitate career management within the framework of the new contemporary circumstances of change and uncertainty and that are connected to the concepts of “protean”, “circular”, “transitional”, “boundaryless” and “portfolio” career (Sultana 2011).

A CMS framework should:

  • propose a clear CMS definition that can easily be introduced to different cultural environments and national contexts.
  • be based on the learning outcomes approach, including the relevant knowledge, coptencies and skills.
  • include a range of contextual elements to cover the implementation differences in each sector and the needs of different target groups: Schools, Vocational Education and Training (VET), Higher education, Adult Education, Employment, Social Inclusion.
  • involve and analyze issues in relation to learning competences for decision making, self awareness, transition management, personal management, life and career building, exploration of learning and career opportunities, management of career information etc.
  • include innovative teaching and assessment methodologies for CMS learning outcomes.
  • be developed beyond conventional career domains of work and learning to include also aspects of personal and social life.

Also, a very interesting approach which was proposed by Sultana (2011) is the need for a CMS framework to connect with the European Reference Framework of Key Competences for Lifelong Learning, as following:

 

Domains of the European Reference Framework of Key Competences for LLL Links to Career Management Skills
1. Communication in mother tongue
  •  Able to search, collect, process written information
  • Able to distinguish relevant from irrelevant data
2. Communication in a foreign language
  •  Able to work with diversity
3. Math (sic), science, techno- logical literacy
  • Able to manage a budget
  • Cultivating a disposition towards critical thinking
  • Able to manipulate tools and data to reach a conclusion
4. Digital competence
  • Able to use internet-based data and services
  • Able to use ICT to support critical thinking, creativity and innovation at leisure and work
5. Learning-to-learn
  •  Effective self-management of learning and careers
6. Interpersonal and civic competences
  • Able to interact effectively with institutions
  • Able to distinguish between work and personal life
7. Entrepreneurship
  • Skills in project development, implementation
  • Able to identify one’s strengths and weaknesses
  • Able to assess and take risks when warranted
8. Cultural expression
  •  Able to realise economic opportunities in cultural activities

                

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