Professional

Career management and cultural diversity in working life – Career choices are becoming more complex worldwide due to greater careers diversification and multiplication of career-related transitions. Especially in the current economic circumstances, more targeted measures (including guidance) should be introduced to support migrants’ labour market integration in all EU Member States. Migrants often are not necessarily that well informed about the local learning and working opportunities, and thus they require special attention.

Continual identity transformation – Identity as a social construct with multiple dimensions is a complex and elusive concept. At any given point of time, we are affiliated with a plurality of groupings (such as gender, race, profession, religion, sexuality, ethnicity, nationality, belief systems) that define our personal identification in the prevailing context. All individuals have multiple identities through their identification with the allegiances they have developed to different groups and sub-cultures within the broader society. Identity is a lifelong evolutionary process, in which becoming as well as being are closely intervowen. An individual’s understanding of their own and others’ identity develops from birth and is shaped by the values prevalent at home and in the surrounding community. Ideally this results in a positive notion of identity, which is capable of recognizing and respecting otherness.

EU policy and strategy developments – More collective action between relevant sectors (education, training and employment) and key players (including social partners, employers, guidance practitioners, guidance service users, NGOs, etc.) will be needed to facilitate the implementation of the EU lifelong learning and employment policies and strategies at national, regional and local levels in the EU Member States. In addition, the use of several EU initiatives – such as the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), the European Skills Competences and Occupations (ESCO) and Europass – will have to be further supported across Europe.