Perspectives on guidance and social inclusion in a global society

The world is changing rapidly. People today face numerous challenges in achieving a meaningful and fulfilling life. In many countries, there are enormous systemic barriers to address, such as: massive unemployment, HIV/AIDS, social disintegration, and inadequate infrastructure. One job for life is over. For many it never existed. Old metaphors and old models of career development no longer apply. New ways of thinking about careers are necessary, that take into account the context in which people are living, the reality of today's labour market, and the fact people's career-life journey contains many branching paths, barriers, and obstacles, but also allies and sources of assistance. Flexibility is important, as is keeping options open and making sure the journey is meaningful. Guidance professionals need to begin early, working with other professionals and those seeking assistance to develop attitudes that facilitate people taking charge of their own career-life paths. People need a vision for their life that will drive a purposeful approach to career-life planning and avoid floundering. Helping people achieve that direction can be most effectively accomplished when policy makers and practitioners work together to ensure that effective and accessible services are available for those who need them and when a large part of focus in on addressing the context in which marginalized people work and live.

Vocational guidance and development of competences

The present "post modern" socio-cultural modalities and the restrictions of the economic globalization lead us to reflect about the configuration of the transformations in the Vocational Guidance, committed to the concepts of "freedom", "epistemological knowledge", "competences of the subject and new roles of the school. This first exploratory incursion if the research has the purpose of retrieving the concept of freedom from the existential philosophers Heidegger and Sartre and of introducing the subject of "competences" from the social theory of Habermas. The aim is to establish new bonds between the Vocational Guidance and the above-mentioned philosophical lineaments: the freedom of the subjects and the possibility of development of those "competences" that allow to establish social, ethical and epistemological interrelations in the sphere of the Vocational Guidance, that promote a greater solidarity facing the "era of emptiness" of the post-modernity supported by Lipovestky.

The computer paradigm in vocational guidance

The technological advances in last decades have transformed the external resources of Vocational Counseling, Occupational Information and assessment of clients. Most computer systems follow a behaviorist-cognitive approach. However, the use of vocational counseling software is not exclusive to one conceptual approach. Computers are introduced in education from primary school; counselors and other educators are expected to use those systems. The attitude of counselors ranges from enthusiastic acceptance to complete refusal. Many counselors fear that computers will replace them. An underlying theory holds that counseling is based on the counselor-client interaction. A computer- client interaction cannot be considered vocational counseling. Counseling has five basic aims: prevention, assistance, education and development, service of diverse groups and research. The most relevant trends in computer-based counseling are: tests and questionnaires based on computers, adaptive development, computarized information, vocational counseling systems and research. Basic aims and the potential role of computers in achieving them are discussed. Present vocational counselors can use the technology of computers to link the past of our profession to its promising future. In view of these premises we have developed two computer systems that assist the vocational counseling process: "Professional Interests Questionnaire, Computer Version", and "Computer-based System of Vocational Counseling".

History of professional guidance in Argentina

Professional guidance has developed in Argentina since 1940, influenced by the guidance which in that time came from Spain, France, Belgium and Switzerland. The paper analyzes the first experiences in professional guidance, developed both in the great industrial cities as Buenos Aires and Rosario, and little urban centres as Tucumán or San Luis. The institutional and political context of such experiences is also analyzed, as well as the State's full support of them.

Equity and guidance : The challenge of a proposal

La presente propuesta corresponde a un proyecto de extensión universitaria, acreditado y subsidiado por la Secretaría de Extensión Universitaria de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Este plan de trabajo interinstitucional e interdisciplinario formó parte de una de las acciones de transferencia de nuestro último proyecto de investigación denominado La Orientación Vocacional Ocupacional en escuelas denominadas de alta vulnerabilidad psicosocial.

Career guidance in Denmark : Social control in a velvet glove

La Orientación Vocacional en Dinamarca está bien organizada y es altamente profesional. Esto refleja una política orientadora centrada en el papel que la orientación juega como instrumento en el ejercicio de un leve control social. Con este telón de fondo, el dilema de la Orientación en Dinamarca reside en el delicado equilibrio existente entre la orientación considerada como una herramienta para el desarrollo personal, y como un instrumento de control social.

Career guidance in Quebec, Canadá

First, the guidance counselor profession in the province of Quebec will be described: the professional association to which it belongs, the required in- struction, the counselors' tasks and the institutions for which they work. There follows the description of the main current tendencies in career guidance devel- opment in this French-speaking area of Canada with about 7.2 million inhabit- ants, approximately one fourth of the total country population. Finally, a brief description of the Center for Research on Education and Labor of the University of Shebrooke as well as of some instruments that one of the teams is constructing will be provided.

Model of ICT skills and new professional profile of the Guidance Counsellors in some European countries

El artículo analiza la utilización de las Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación en el escenario de algunos países europeos en el ámbito de la Orientación Educativa y Profesional.

Reflections on vocational guidance and counselors' training in contexts of global change

Vocational guidance (V.G.) is currently facing both theoretical and methodological reconsiderations. This demands rethinking ethical and scientific assumptions, counselors' role and training. V.G. provides a space to receive information about oneself as well as about labor world and for the elaboration of projects for the future. Many guidance situations in teenagers and young adults are described in this paper, highlighting the main current emergent aspects. There was a remarkable protagonism of those seeking guidance and the reflective frame of the guidance. This frame prepares for the educational stage changes and also for occupational insertion working on aspects that widen autonomous choice and the development of social abilities and attitudes to carry out the vocational project and the development in work. Troubled sociocultural and economic transformations demand an on-going training on the part of counselors. To that end, possible fields of concern and subjects to be worked in said training are suggested.

In search of the ox : Gateways to understanding human individuation through guidance

Este ensayo sintetiza varias aristas teóricas prácticas dirigidas a una de las decisiones personales más importantes en todo ser humano, el camino del autoconocimiento. Siempre y cuando se reflejen esas necesidades intrínsecas del ser, el hombre contemporáneo está descubriendo que en la satisfacción de los requerimientos materiales, finalmente no se encuentra ni la felicidad, ni la paz verdadera. En medio de este imaginario, el rol del Orientador está en su capacidad de guía fundamentado en unos principios y valores que garanticen que ese camino sea hallado, puesto que su gran compromiso consigo mismo y con los demás es precisamente acompañar en el descubrimiento de los talentos y potencialidades de ese sujeto para aprovechar su genialidad e innatas formas de normal crecimiento hacia la felicidad y armonía. Entre los caminos están los estudiados por un sinnúmero de teóricos expertos en la existencia humana como Ortega y Gasset, Sabater, Jung, Heidegger, Gadamer, Luckmann, Habermas, Bauman, Binswanger. Es un apasionante recorrido por estos análisis motivantes y sobre todo retadores.

International governmental agencies and career guidance

The international Organization for Economic Cooperation and Develop-ment (OECD), like many national and international organizations concerned with economic development believes that career guidance has an important role in promoting the development of a country's human resources. (Mapping the future: Young People and career guidance OECD, 1996). Generally the economic development agencies always recommend that career guidance services should be strengthened. Too frequently, however, they do not recognize the difficulties facing counselor in the schools and do not give clear and specific recommendations, yet they appear to believe that the education or other au thorities who are responsible to guidance will quickly agree and provide more resources for guidance. In addition to economic development agencies, social and educational development agencies also make important recommendations concerning the provision of guidance services. UNESCO, for example, has published two re- cent reports (Policies and Guidelines for Educational and Vocational Guidelines for Equal Access and Opportunity for Girls and Women in Technical and Vocational Education.) It is interesting to compare the OECD and UNESCO rec- ommendations and note that the relative strengths of each set of recommenda- tions, and to imagine how they might be combined in advocating changes in policies and programs.

Career Guidance: Challenges for the New Century under an International Perspective

This paper is dedicated to key issues of the actual challenges in all societies regardless their developmental level and how the international guidance community is coping with these challenges. It deals with the importance of guidance in a changing society, quality assurance, access to services and qualification of guidance practitioners under an international perspective.

Careers guidance: an international perspective

The rationales for comparative studies of guidance systems are outlined. The key differences between guidance systems in different countries can be related to stage of economic development, to the political system, to social and cultural factors, to the education and training system, and to professional and organisational structures. The competing pressures towards convergence and divergence between guidance systems are explored.

Vocational guidance: origin, evolution and current state

The socio-professional sources of the vocational guidance are reviwed, in the world and in Latin America. It stands out that psychology, as science and as a profession, possesses vigorous links to this practice that, however, tends to its epistemic and praxic emancipation in some nations. The contemporary prob- lems of the guidance are presented in their economic, politics, cultural and pro-fessional dimensions.

Some practical guidance for the computation of free trade agreement utilization rates

The literature on the use of free trade agreements (FTAs) has recently been growing because it is becoming more important to encourage the use of current FTAs than to increase the number of FTAs. In this paper, we discuss some practical issues in the computation of FTA utilization rates, which provide a useful measure to discover how much FTA schemes are used in trade. For example, compared with the use of customs data on FTA utilization in imports, when using certificates of origin data on FTA utilization in exports, there are several points about which we should be careful. Our practical guidance on the computation of FTA utilization rates will be helpful when computing such rates and in examining the determinants of those rates empirically.