Counseling for Labour Market

How can a sustainable and trust-based cooperation be established between those seeking job advice and those providing it?

What elements characterise a career-oriented guidance process that is satisfactory for both sides and successful with regard to the jointly agreed goals? Which presumed disruptions may occur within the guidance process, and how can these be avoided, or at least recognised and minimised at an early stage? And what learning opportunities do past, both successful and less successful, guidance experiences offer?

Which instruments can be used to record career-related orientations and competences, and how can the counselling side find out how far advanced the person seeking advice already is in his or her career orientation process?

How can the respective work ability and employability be determined and understood not only as a diagnostic snapshot but as a design process, in which institutions specialised in work design and rehabilitation can be involved next to the employee and employer?

What work design formats are available, for example in inclusive companies, where the workplace is built around the person, and the person seeking work does not have to first adapt to standard requirements? And what can be generally learned from this, for the employment of vulnerable and/or disadvantaged groups?

To what extent could a professional stay abroad become an asset for the person willing to be mobile, and for whom would this option be more suitable than for others? And how can you prepare people for this?

Finally, which are counsellors’ specific working conditions of action and challenges within the guidance process? How can they make it a successful and satisfying experience for their clients and for themselves and, at the same time, be protected from excessive frustration, burnout risks and other health hazards?

The MOOC Learning about Counseling for Labour Market goes into all these questions through the following 5 Topics.

Topic 1. Building trust and cooperation in a nutshell

Creating a trusting willingness to cooperate is the basis of vocational and placement-oriented guidance. Being aware of and considering mutual expectations, the framework and preliminary conditions of the interaction, as well as the disruptions that may occur in the course of the counselling process, is crucial to establish a fruitful relationship between counsellor and client. A constant “synchronisation” is required throughout the whole process, to provide the customer with the right amount and type of information he needs, according to the step he is in at the moment within an ideal-typical career orientation process.

Topic 2. The career counselling process in a nutshell

Many aspects are at stake when dealing with the client’s professional goals and life plans. Role and tasks of both parties have to be clear, the counselling ethics and the client’s values have to be considered, as well as the primary and secondary motivations behind the customer’s aims, together with objective time and space restraints that may hinder these. The counselling style may be more or less open or directive; the counsellor may need to clarify and break negative thought spirals or turn the client’s vision from a “demand market” into a “provider market”.

Topic 3. The client features in a nutshell

Competence and motivation are the two pillars of professional career choices – besides adapting to current market conditions. Earning an income, structuring and rhythming daily time, self-fulfilling and upskilling, gaining a social status, valuably contributing to the society, are some of the (middle class) motives behind professional goals. Whether the client has the necessary motivation and competences to achieve them is the other side of the coin: there are many tools, both self- and external tests, to identify and assess competences and strengths, as well as vocational aptitude diagnostic instruments that can establish a relationship between personal abilities and certain professions.

Topic 4. The client`s career management in a nutshell

Individual career planning skills are directly linked to finding an appropriate job, fitting to one`s dispositions and competences, and also to one`s life circumstances. The counsellor helps the clients to clear the situation and the career goals, to detect formal and informal competences, to check the local labour market, and to improve their employability (possibly with interfaces to other organisations in the fields of health & disability, VET, companies & internships, child or elderly care, and barrier free work place design) . The learning unit also highlights psychological aspects like the self-confidence of the job seeker and the mutual trust in the counselling interaction, or the openness for a “career plan B” for the case that plan A would not function.

Topic 5. Maintain and develop employability in a nutshell

A successful and pleasant counselling cooperation strengthens the satisfaction not also of the client, but also of the counsellor. Maintaining a fair and appreciating cooperation base, taking care for a good work-life balance, dealing with stress and being equipped to cope with bad and/or unpleasant interaction situations, are crucial aspects, on the counsellor’s side, to create and manage a healthy and fruitful counselling environment and to enhance and maintain successful counselling constellations. Reflection tools and exercises, as well as structured sensitization exercises and procedures for incorporating competences and experiences of colleagues, serve this purpose.