Career services in Estonia
Career guidance has been practiced in Estonia for about 90 years. The service has been called in different ways – the latest version being career services. Later development of this field has taken place due to the changes in expectations and requirements of the labour market as well as due to the advanced concept of lifelong learning.
The former staircase-image of one’s career has come to be gradually replaced by the one of a road passing through life and encompassing all contexts that people operate in and all roles that they take.
Career services contain career education, career counselling and career information – its development and provision. These may include services in schools, universities, colleges, training institutions, public employment services, and companies, in the community sector and in the private sector. The services can be provided as face-to-face or distant sessions on an individual or group basis. The service package may include career information, assessment and self-assessment tools, counselling interviews, career education, work search programmes, and transition services.
Guidance in Estonia is mainly provided by the public sector within the education and labour market structures. Provision in the education sector tends to be more complex and divided across many institutions compared to the labour market sector. In 1998, the Ministry of Education and Research (MoER) founded the National Resource Centre for Guidance (NRCG) – Estonian Euroguidance Centre – to support guidance practitioners in promoting mobility and the European dimension within education and training and in the field of guidance. The main target group is guidance practitioners, whom we support by producing different information and methodological materials (printed and electronic versions), organising seminars and trainings on regional, national and international level, and developing web sites.
In 2008, a contractual agreement to develop career services was signed between MoER and Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA) stating the areas of responsibility in providing high quality
career services to the whole population. Within this agreement development of methodology, training system, service provision, quality and co-opetation in the field is being assured.
After ten years, NRCG has become the main partner of MoER and MoSA in developing career services system. Developments mainly take place through different European projects within Lifelong Learning Programme (incl Euroguidance) and European Structural Funds projects and programme.
Working Areas
