Aims• Produce an overview of:

– existing quality guidelines and criteria for guidance services and products

– the principles and assumptions underlying the approaches

– the challenges of their implementation• Capture good examples of policy and practice

particularly of citizen/user involvement• Identify options for approaches at European

level to assure quality guidance provision

The Project Team

• The Guidance Council• NICEC

Method – Stage 1• Literature/knowledge Review – reports

and Virtual Community discussions• Development of search tool• Analysis of responses in

OECD/CEDEFOP/World Bank/ETF questionnaires, and data in country notes

• Development of initial proposals on core criteria and approach

Preliminary Overview (1)• Career guidance found across many policy

areas and legislation• Lack of central co-ordination and support

within and across Govt departments• Influence of OECD and other international

programmes• Use and adoption of EFQM model• Monitoring processes mainly based on

quantitative measures and targets

Preliminary Overview (2)• Few countries with separate bodies to

inspect/monitor guidance provision• Few examples of systematic

approaches to evaluation• Few examples of self-assessment• Very few examples of accreditation

processes against sets of standards• Guidelines developed but little evidence

of monitoring

Preliminary Overview (3)

• Reliance on professional competence to quality assure guidance

• Unregulated ‘Career Counsellors’ – particularly in informal guidance settings

• Prevalence of staff qualified in pedagogy and/or psychology

• In-service training/CPD approaches variable• Little mention of staff monitoring/appraisal

Preliminary Overview (4)• At least one professional association in most

countries – several with voluntary ‘Registers’• Codes of ethics of professional associations

frequently mentioned• Little evidence of how adherence to codes of

ethics is monitored• Adoption of IAEVG code of ethics by some• Citizen/user involvement• Involvement of related professional bodies

Preliminary Overview (5)• Little or some evidence of a range of

methods used to consult and involve service users and stakeholders

• Few examples of involvement at service design and planning levels

• Increasing use of ICT for guidance and data collection/monitoring

• Shift to self-help, enabling approaches• Little evidence of learning from research

Current Thinking…• Proposal to follow the approach taken by the

Quality TWG• Use of framework (planning, implementation,

evaluation and review)• Development of ‘meta-criteria’• Identification of a set of additional indicators • Possible development of self-assessment

guidelines • Suggested for potential co-operation

Next Steps• Survey development, piloting,

distribution and follow-up• Data analysis• Collection of in-depth case studies and

good examples of policy and practice• Development of proposals to identify

indicators, a self-assessment tool and a co-operation network

• Production of Final Report

Issues?• Quality assurance AND quality improvement• Meta-criteria - how prescriptive/flexible• Risks of top heavy bureaucracy• Monitoring and sustainability• Incentives and levers• Accreditation – what happens when criteria

are breached?• Changing methods of delivery• Professionalism as a ‘proxy’ for quality