General guidelines on career education and guidance adopted in Sweden
New general guidelines on career
education and guidance were issued by the Swedish National Agency for
Education in March 2009. The guidelines are, in part, an answer to the
shortcomings and deficiencies that were found in two assessments of
Swedish school guidance, conducted in 2005 and 2007.
These assessments showed big differences in practice between different
municipalities and a quite weak governance and management. All in all
it seemed that career education had been given low priority. The
purpose of the new guidelines is now to contribute to the improvement
of career education and guidance and also to involve all school staff
in the task.
The new general guidelines provide recommendations on how laws and
regulations should be applied and promotes a uniform use of the
legislation. The aim is also to influence development in a certain
direction. The guidelines are followed by comments intended to clarify
the advice given. The comments provide information on how the
guidelines can be interpreted and why the legislation should be used.
There are four areas of priority in the guidelines;
- Governance and management
- Personnel and competences
- Cooperation between schools and the working life
- Information and guidance
In the first area of priority it is stated that ‘there should be a
system…for planning, follow-up and evaluation of the goals of career
education and guidance’ and that ‘the head of school should make it
clear how…teachers, career counsellors and other personnel are to
cooperate to provide career education and guidance’. In the comments it
is emphasised that the overall ‘quality of career education is
dependent upon how the municipality and school prioritise and organise
their work’.
When it comes to personnel competences, the Swedish Education Act
stipulates that only those who are qualified to work as a career
counsellor can be employed as such in Swedish schools. Still, according
to the previously mentioned assessments, only half of the employed
guidance counsellors have this qualification.
The guidelines recommend
that ‘the need for competence development…is continuously mapped and
analysed’. Competences such as knowledge about working life, sector
knowledge and counselling methodology are mentioned, but also digital
competence and the ability to make use of available educational
resources is essential, according to the guidelines.
Under the heading Cooperation between school and working life the
guidelines emphasize how important it is that ‘the students have the
opportunity to meet adult professionals and confront various tasks that
exist in the working world and that the students’ work experience
should be…related to teaching and guidance’. It is also said that the
‘contact with the working life can be particularly important for
students who…do not like school’, as ‘this can give these students
another opportunity to be appreciated and find other adult role models…’
Information and guidance should, according to curricula, help to
counteract restrictions in the students’ educational and vocational
choices based upon gender, social or cultural background. Here the
guidelines stipulate that career education and guidance should ‘result
in students’ ability to critically review information and an awareness
of their responsibility to make their own educational and vocational
choices’. The importance of being able to search and evaluate
information about education and jobs and to prepare applications is
also mentioned.
The guidelines are based on laws, ordinances, rules and regulations and
should therefore be followed in all municipalities and all schools,
unless they can show that education is conducted in another way which
fulfils demand. The hope is that the guidelines will contribute to:
- Comprehensive and clear governance on all levels
- Making career education and guidance a responsibility for the whole school
- More research in the area
Those who are interested in more details can find the whole set of
guidelines on the website of Skolverket
(The Swedish National Agency for Education). The document also includes
excerpts from Swedish legislation in the area of guidance which have
been translated into English.
General guidelines and comments on career education and guidance
Nina Ahlroos
Euroguidance Sweden
