Recent policy development and initiatives on lifelong career guidance at European level
The European Commission has developed and published many policy documents in the past four years that reflect on different aspects of current policy thinking on lifelong guidance. However, recent reviews conducted in 37 countries by OECD, Cedefop, The European Training Foundation and the World Bank have shown that despite good examples of practice, there are large gaps between public aspirations and the reality of services on the ground. Moreover, there is little evidence of coherent and coordinated lifelong guidance systems being widely available throughout Europe both for citizens at work and for those in education and training.

Partly as a response to these findings the EU Education Ministers adopted a Resolution on Lifelong Guidance in May 2004, recognising the importance of guidance activities (such as counselling, competence assessment and career management skills) in the context of lifelong learning, to ensure that individual’s educational and career decisions are firmly based.

The implementation of national evaluation as mentioned in the resolution raises fundamental questions in relation to national guidance policy development. For example:

• What is the added value of evaluation of guidance provision and the recommendations based on potential national level evaluation results?
• How to implement strategic level initiatives in practice or how to draw broad strategic policies from operative level initiatives? Can these processes be modified and transferred to other contexts?

The following paragraphs identify some concrete examples, as to how the interests of users and taxpayers can be served through evaluation.

Evaluation of guidance provision in Finland 2000 - 2004
In Finland careers information, guidance and counselling services are provided mainly by two established public service systems: student counselling within the public school system, and the information, guidance and counselling services run by the public labour administration.

In late 1990s the policy makers of higher education sector in Finland started to pay attention to the prolonged study times and the length of transition from education to the labour market. At that time the aim was large-scale pedagogical renewal towards student-centred teaching methods. Teaching, guidance and advisory services were developed to support progress in studies and to shorten graduation times (Ministry of Education Finland, 1999). In order to support the implementation of these strategies, the National Board of Education (2003) and the Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council (FINHEEC, 2003) launched parallel processes for evaluating guidance provision nationally from comprehensive education to higher education in 2000–2002. The evaluation of guidance in adult education was conducted in 2003 – 2004.

According to the results the educational institutes provide many good quality career services for students, but there seems to be a lack of coherent overall institutional planning of the services. For example, the potentials of already existing ICT applications and technology were not fully utilized. Additionally, the services did not always meet the demand and needs of individual students. Due to the lack of coherent strategies, guidance provision across educational settings and even within individual institutions was very variable in quality and quantity, and often unevenly distributed. The focus of the career education programmes was on completion of programmes, and less on transitional issues from a life long learning perspective.

The evaluation also showed that in all school types it was obvious that the current division of responsibilities within educational settings does not allow the career practitioners possibility to concentrate on their core tasks and on developing overall guidance provision. It seemed that in many cases the guidance provision was reactive in nature. Although the educational legislation requires education providers to evaluate their own operations, the monitoring of the services was not systematic and there were few and weak feedback mechanisms. As a whole there was need for stronger strategic planning and leadership in guidance delivery, both on an institutional and on a national level.

Initiatives generated by the results of national evaluations on guidance provision
The outcomes of the review process have been translated into policy in a number of concrete steps which illustrate the effectiveness of these evaluation processes described above. Every fourth year, the Finnish Government adopts a Development Plan for Education and University Research. The new plan covers the period from 2003 to 2008. It includes key qualitative, structural and quantitative objectives in education and research, as well as the principles for developing student financial aid. Current priorities include the improvement of the effectiveness of the education system, support and guidance for children and young people, promotion of adult education opportunities and research activities. Thus, during this period 2003-2008 the Ministry of Education allocates funding to national and regional initiatives to meet the challenges identified in the evaluations. The Ministry of Labour has also defined the development trends and goals for guidance and counselling services delivered for young people in their programmes.

Initiatives in Higher Education
As one of the significant results of the evaluation in higher education, the Ministry of Education invited all universities to draw up development strategies, in which guidance plays an important part. By the end of 2006, the universities must implement a system which ensures student support in designing and monitoring their individual study plans. In the target outcome negotiations conducted between the Ministry and the universities in Spring 2002, guidance was one of the central themes. In 2003, universities were allocated special project funding for the development of guidance services. Guidance has also been negotiated in corresponding negotiations with the polytechnics.

Initiatives in comprehensive and secondary education
In late 2003, the National Board of Education executed the new national guidelines for guidance provision and career education for the comprehensive and upper secondary level general education. The new curriculum guidelines define the overall goals of guidance and the minimum level of the content of the career education curricula. Additionally the municipalities are required to provide a strategic and operational plan for guidance provision and for regular evaluation of the services.

The National Board of Education, also in late 2003, launched a significant 4-year national initiative (http://www.oph.fi/SubPage.asp?path=1,443,25825) to promote the implementation of the new national curriculum guidelines. The initiative works in partnership with existing parallel national projects which are focusing on holistic services in adult education and social inclusion in the transition from comprehensive education to secondary education. The other goal is also to coordinate regional cross-sectoral activities and share experiences and good practices created in these projects. A long term goal is to develop a sustainable evaluation system and quality criteria for guidance and counseling based on the previous evaluations. This initiative is supported by a network of trained regional consultants and by research conducted within current counsellor training and research units.

Cross-sectoral cooperation is also defined by the new legislation for students’ pastoral care in comprehensive and secondary education. The same legislation emphasises that the schools are obliged to draw up strategies for the cooperation between school and home. Thus, the active role of parents is further promoted in Finnish school system by the legislation from August 2003.

The National Board of Education has launched a web-based service for the institutional evaluation of guidance and counselling services on the comprehensive and secondary level. Another strong strategic initiative is to embed guidance policy issues in national in-service training programs for principals and school administration personnel.

Future challenges
The results of the evaluations and the focus on the recommendations were discussed within national guidance policy seminars in 2002 and 2004 both hosting over 300 delegates. A very strong message from these seminars was a need for more common understanding on guidance and communication tools between guidance policy and practise. Additionally there is a need for more strategic leadership for guidance provision.

In order to strengthen the capacity of policy-makers to more effectively define and communicate the policy objectives for career guidance the Ministry of Education has allocated funding 2004-2006 for the University of Jyväskylä to identify the evidence that is required for the development of sound policies in career guidance. The long term goal is to explore potentials for a national research unit which would work in partnership with parallel transnational networks and act as a resource centre for guidance practitioners and policy-makers. Another national initiative will be extension of the mandate of a cross-sectoral national forum for life-long guidance according to the goals of the Commission supported joint action programme 2005-2006.

The practitioners have a pivotal role in designing relevant services and programmes to meet the increased demand of various client groups. In addition to the competencies and qualifications related to guidance methodology, the training of guidance staff should focus on competencies related to the evaluation and strategic planning of the guidance services in different settings. Thus, stronger links are forged between guidance practitioners, guidance training, researchers and policymakers in Finland.