The materials translated from Danish into English are divided into four sections and are chosen to give insight into issues in relation to guidance and equal opportunities:

Guidance and Breaking the Mould (Pattern Break)

This section contains the translated material in the category 'Guidance and Breaking the Mould'.

These documents have been selected to cast light on a particular aspect of guidance in Denmark: ‘pattern breaking’, i.e. breaking social moulds. Questions raised in this section are how ethnic minority youth can transcend marginalisation and what the counsellors and educational institutions can do to reduce the drop-out rate. The key issue is how guidance can contribute to obtain equal opportunities in the educational system disregarding social inheritance.

In 2004, the Danish Ministry of Refugee, Immigration and Integration conducted a qualitative study of the reasons for drop-out among the ethnic minority youth in vocational education and training (Jensen and Jørgensen 2005). This section shows the results of the study along with the guidance needs of the different groups of youth in vocational training programmes.

Guidance and Competences

This section contains the translated material in the category 'Guidance and Competences'.

In 2004, the Danish government launched the concept of prior learning, non-formal and informal learning, and in 2005 The Ministry of Education set forth to develop recognition of prior learning. Since then, central actors have emphasised different aspects of guidance in relation to the concept of prior learning. This section contains the view and findings of the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), of the Danish Ministry of Education, and of Ph.D student, Rie Thomsen. The latter has created a model for the process of recognition of prior learning, including the guidance component.

Recognition of prior learning is an opportunity to improve and support equal opportunities for unskilled to further training, adult education and employment.

Third Age Guidance

This section contains the translated material in the category 'Third Age Guidance'.

This section gives an introduction to the issues in relation to ‘Third age guidance’. It describes the strategies and actions of Danish companies and of the voluntary sector with the aim to maintain and develop the competences of older people. Links are provided to the Leonardo da Vinci project: ’Third age guidance - Developing and testing models of labour market guidance suitable to the needs of older people’, see www.gla.ac.uk/tag, which displays overviews and discussions of the Danish labour market situation for those aged 55+, of Danish guidance offers for the 55+, and of Danish learning opportunities for the 55+.

The inclusion of older people in the labour market and the need to create of smoother transitions from working life into part-time work, voluntary work or leisure activities, are all part of an effort to improve and support equal opportunities of older people. Guidance is a pivotal part of such efforts.

Guidance Research in Denmark

This section contains the translated material in the category 'Guidance Research in Denmark'. The documents give an insight into current guidance research in the Guidance Research Unit, School of Education - University of Aarhus. It provides an overview of some of the exiting guidance research in Denmark and could feed into the ICCDPP. The documents contribute to the ongoing discussion among the partner countries about the guidance research agenda for the 21st century.

Literature on this particular topic includes two anthologies by Peter Plant (ed), with contributions from the Danish projects partners:

• Plant, P. (2005) (ed). Vejbred – En antologi om vejledning. København: DPUs Forlag
• Plant, P. (2007) (ed). Ways. On career guidance. Copenhagen: DPUs Forlag

Link to Denmark's materials for translation.

The four distinct areas of interest identified by the Finnish partner are:

Young People

Guidance for Adults

Improving accessibility - This section contains documents, translated from Finnish to English, on improving the accessibility of guidance and counselling, including a brief review of the issue and reports on two relevant CHANCES projects

Improving systems - This section contains documents, translated from Finnish to English, on improving systems for careers guidance and counselling, including reports on projects, legislation, and the interaction between research and practice 

Link to Finland's translated materials.

The four areas of interest for Greece are:

Career counselling and Social Exclusion - A section containing several documents, translated from Greek to English, describing organisations pertinent to Social Exclusion issues in Career Guidance & Counselling in Greece

Equality Issues - A section containing documents, translated from Greek to English, on equality issues in Career Guidance & Counselling in Greece, together with links to a page of brief abstracts, in English, of relevant papers

Key Issues in Career Counselling and Guidance - This section contains documents translated from Greek to English on key issues in Career Guidance & Counseling in Greece

National Projects - This section contains a number of translated Microsoft Word documents describing Greek national projects, and links to a page of brief descriptions, in English, of eleven 2nd & 3rd Community Support Framework projects.

Link to the Greek translated materials

The Slovenian partners took a slightly different approach to this project.  As the career guidance system in Slovenia is at a much earlier stage in its development than most of the other partners, a decision was made to carry out any relevant translation in the opposite direction, i.e. from English into Slovenian.  However, it is still of interest to see which English language reports and documents were identified as being the most relevant to the theme of Equal Opportunities and Guidance.  Broad topic headings were identified - you can view the documents in full in the English language section for Slovenia within this website.

Key issues in career guidance in Slovenia

The role of career guidance in ensuring equal opportunities of young people in the labour market 

Review of career guidance policies in Slovenia

Guidance in fostering employability of young people

Link to Slovenian Translated Materials.

The English partners had the advantage of working in their own language.  There is extensive literature and websites relating to career guidance across the UK.  If you are particularly interested in the UK system, then the following websites are recommended:

The National Guidance Research Forum: www.guidance-research.org

LMI Learning - On line module for labour market information: http://www.guidance-research.org/lmi-learning

Links to career guidance organisations and other related information across the UK can be found at: http://www.guidance-research.org/EG/ip/ip/network_sharing/BD/uk/

Centre for Guidance Studies, CeGS, University of Derby www.derby.ac.uk/cegs/ 

Link to the UK section of the site here