Pilot actions in Italy: Career Management Skills Framework in guidance services

The Career Management Skills (CMS) are those skills that every person must have to manage independently and consciously their choices of study and work. Reflection on this issue is a fundamental element in the organization of guidance services, in order to guarantee every student and every person in life transitions phases the adequate guidance pathways to make the right step, to select the best opportunities, to apply effectively for jobs.

For this purpose the LE.A.DE.R. Project partnership has started a testing phase of the model, with identification of "pilot actions" in each country involved, in order to integrate the Career Management Skills framework as part of the main guidance services, from schools to employment offices, from professional training to guidance and placement services of the universities.

Also in Italy there are about to start some important testing activities on this model, with the launch of pilot actions on the CMS framework defined by the international partnership of the project. The project aims in particular to test on the field which models and guidance tools (also digital ones) better respond to this new approach and then develop pathways and training resources for guidance counselors and teachers.
In Italy, in particular, the pilot actions will be implemented within a wide range of services / contexts:

High Schools

The schools will test the framework within the guidance provided during the school-work dual education pathways. Schools will also have the opportunity to use the guidance software SORPRENDO to allow students to explore professions and related training, to understand the characteristics and differences, comparing them with their own aspirations and motivations.

Vocational training institution

The training institutions will test the model within guidance actions addressed to two target groups:

- Students involved in the school-work dual education pathways experimentation;
- Young people aged 11 to 22 years receiving guidance services carried out within the guidance offices in different territorial contexts.

Employment Offices

The individual guidance actions provided within the Youth Guarantee program will be the testing ground for the CMS framework within the employment offices involved in the pilot actions.

Associations offering guidance services to schools

Pilot actions include the testing of the CMS framework within the guidance activities implemented to accompany:
- Students of technical colleges in choosing the specialization at the end of the first two years course;
- Students of junior high schools in the process of choosing the future educational pathway.

Universities

The CMS framework will be tested during the guidance activities proposed for high school students who have to choose the university course of study and also as part of the placement services for the graduate students.

The pilot actions will return an analysis of methods and tools that have been shown to be the most adequate to support the development of such CMS and verify the framework's ability to map the guidance skills promoted within the various services and related to activities for target groups with specific needs. In Italy the aim is also to share at national level the first working proposal for a construction of a common framework at the institutional level recognized by the different educational, training and employment systems.