Economy and ecology : towards a change of paradigms in career guidance

Abstract

It is the same the whole world over: globalisation of the economy has come to stay. All economies are linked, global computer networks shift billions worth of dollars across national borders overnight, international transport systems are 'Just In Time', and so on. In Europe, for example, one of the purposes of the Single European Market is to increase personal mobility within the European Union (EU). Careers guidance may facilitate such mobility. European guidance services are in the process of adapting not only to rapid changes in national labour market conditions, but also to the demands for information on education, training, and employment opportunities in other EU member-states and globally. This is not to say that everybody will become educational nomads and migrant workers, but some people, so far a minority, will become more globalised in their outlook. Both transnational and transfrontier guidance will require an extension of nationally based guidance practice into international guidance competencies. This may be seen as a purely technical task: to provide comprehensive, updated information on, among other things, job vacancies, educational opportunities, and living conditions in other countries. This, for example, is the main concept behind EURES (European Employment Services) which are designed to facilitate individual mobility. This paper intends to go beyond such systems and their technicalities: What is the other side of the coin?