Sub-theme IV:
Evidence-based practice;
evidence-based policies
Raimo Vuorinen
ELGPN Co-ordinator
International Symposium 2011
Career Guidance and Public Policies
5-7 December 2011 Budapest, Hungary
Proposals from 5th International
Symposium 2009
• We need to continually prove the positive impact of career
development for people, and meet public policy goals including
value for money.
• Proving the impact of career development, skill enhancement and
lifelong learning on social, education and economic goals is critical. ‘
• There is real potential for researchers, practitioners and policy
developers to consolidate thinking on impact indicators and
measures of success
• The 2009 Symposium encouraged countries to establish more
structured links to develop and share accountability frameworks
between the participating countries.
• The ICCDPP was asked to follow up the activities and report them
back at the 2011 Symposium.
International Symposium 2011
Career Guidance and Public Policies
5-7 December 2011 Budapest, Hungary
Strengths
• Increased understanding of the significance of
the accountability and quality frameworks;
• Identification of possible strategies for
developing and implementing them;
• General recognition of the importance of
common indicators to support evidence based
practice and policy development;
• Four different strategic models.
International Symposium 2011
Career Guidance and Public Policies
5-7 December 2011 Budapest, Hungary
Governmental bodies
(Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Latvia, New Zealand)
• Governmental bodies which collect evidence from
different settings to feed the policy development.
• The infrastructure which is developed for service
provision is also used as a feedback mechanism (Croatia)
• Cross-sectoral collaboration (NZ)
• National databases (DK)
• Integrated feedback mechanism in the implementation
of new career education programmes (LV)
International Symposium 2011
Career Guidance and Public Policies
5-7 December 2011 Budapest, Hungary
Allocation the task to other bodies
• Annual working plans and materials for quality control (EE)
• National research programmes with focus on impacts and
cost-efficiency as well as indicators for lifelong guidance (HU,
IR)
• National Framework for the Quality Assurance in Lifelong
Learning Guidance as part of national LLL strategy (GR)
• In Canada the national research team (CDSWG) has
systematically developed an approach which focuses on the
effectiveness and outcomes of the guidance services.
International Symposium 2011
Career Guidance and Public Policies
5-7 December 2011 Budapest, Hungary
New national mechanisms
• Norway has included the development of the
routines to gather evidence base in a new
National Unit for Lifelong Guidance.
• Poland initiated and organization of the
Career Planning and Management Olympiad
both for service improvement and the
development of the evidence base.
International Symposium 2011
Career Guidance and Public Policies
5-7 December 2011 Budapest, Hungary
Renewal of national strategies
• Austria, Croatia, Russia, Serbia and Turkey
informed the endorsement of new national
strategies or policy initiatives with the focus
on more solid evidence base for policy
development across the sectors.
International Symposium 2011
Career Guidance and Public Policies
5-7 December 2011 Budapest, Hungary
Weaknesses
• The evidence collected is splintered between
universities, ministries, public employment services,
schools, information centres;
• Monitoring data is available internally for selfevaluation of sectorally implemented programmes;
• Lack of agreed ways to collect, measure, and analyse
data across the careers sector;
• Lack of coherence or linking across data (different
datasets and different types of data).
International Symposium 2011
Career Guidance and Public Policies
5-7 December 2011 Budapest, Hungary
Weaknesses (2)
• Existing research is fragmented and is largely dependent on
individual researchers;
• The sharing of knowledge is dependent of the professional
networks of the people involved;
• The collected data does not measure what is expected to
measure;
• A common concern is the lack of evidence on long term
impact of guidance service;.
• Due to financial crisis many of the organizations assigned as
the administrative bodies for lifelong guidance are going to
merge.
International Symposium 2011
Career Guidance and Public Policies
5-7 December 2011 Budapest, Hungary
Ways forward
• Structured national or international co-operation to
enhance the quality assurance & evidence based
practice and policy development
• For example
– Canadian research team is an example of a national
network
– The European Lifelong Guidance Policy network (2011-12
WP4) as an example of structured international cooperation
International Symposium 2011
Career Guidance and Public Policies
5-7 December 2011 Budapest, Hungary
Questions
• What kind of data gathering is most useful,
and why? And useful to whom?
• What kinds of indicators are most needed and
by whom?
• What types of research are most needed and
by whom?
• What are the key components of an effective
assessment and evaluation strategy?
International Symposium 2011
Career Guidance and Public Policies
5-7 December 2011 Budapest, Hungary