"<< Background >>CONTEXTThe COVID-19 is no doubt a crisis of historic proportions and should be considered as the strongest economic shock and crisis since the Second World War – following the OECD it is “the most serious economic crisis in a century”. COVID-19 pandemic is transforming and affecting the nature of work, leisure, family life and society. In effect, it is changing the way that individual careers work because the future workers are going to live in a world where going into the office, networking and attending an interview for a job position are already things from the past career guidance. The CEDEFOP skills forecast predicts that almost 7 million EU jobs will be lost or not created due to coronavirus pandemic over the period 2019-2022.Across Europe, in order to ensure a swift recovery, it is more and more necessary to guide and to support the citizens in finding their pathway to a career in an evolving economic cycle and job contexts. The traditional career guidance approach is not any more effective in terms of adaptation to changing skills needs, green and digital transitions, inclusion and economic cycles. It is necessary to develop and implement new and more relevant training and learning approaches in order to be more relevant to the current and future needs of the economy and society.NEEDSThe European Commission would like to develop the European Education Area to support European Union Member States in building resilient and forward-looking education and training systems, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic where it is essential to prevent structural barriers to learning and skills development from impacting citizens’ employment prospects and participation in society. The partners believe in a brand-new approach based on the practices, knowledge and expertise coming from international contexts and that is able to bring innovation, increased capacity and professionalism in the career guidance.Effective career guidance helps individuals to reach their potential, economies to become more efficient and societies to become fairer. It provides people with personalised, impartial and timely information and support to make decisions about their lives.As suggested by CEDEFOP, in light of the growing negative impact of COVID-19 on national labour markets and people’s lives, the role of career guidance has become ever more important to individuals, families, communities, the workforce, employers and society.A quality career guidance in line with the evolution of society is more and more needed to provide integrated learning pathways and access to innovation, as well as validation of skills and job-search support. Effective career guidance will be necessary to help people understand and address their needs, by choosing effective/appropriate distance and digital learning solutions, which lead to the right skills and credentials.Career guidance should support people to understand how the job market works, what strategies and approaches are more effective and how to deal with challenges ad ongoing evolutions.As suggested by CEDEFOP in ""Career Guidance policy and practice in the pandemic"", it is important to intensify cooperation between different service providers, stakeholders and employers in rethinking and reposition in guidance in the national COVID-19 recovery strategies. The pandemic can constitute an opportunity for governments to pay further attention to and rethink career guidance provision from a systemic perspective. This might include actions to develop career guidance that moves from information delivery to more collaborative approaches, enhances using technology, integrated in the services, and underpinned by appropriate/effective strategies for career management skills development. Effective guidance will be necessary to help people understand and address their needs, by choosing effective/appropriate distance and digital learning solutions, which lead to the right skills and credentials.<< Objectives >>Across Europe, to ensure a swift recovery, it is more and more necessary to guide and to support the citizens in finding their pathway to a career in an evolving economic cycle and jobs contexts. The traditional career guidance approach is not any more effective in terms of adaptation to changing skills needs, green and digital transitions, inclusion and economic cycles. It is necessary to develop and implement new and more relevant training and learning approaches in order to be more relevant to the current and future needs of the economy and society.MAIN OBJECTVEThe project would like to build up a new generation of professional European Career Guide able to support people to improve their career journey through learning, skills, reskilling and upskilling, work and transitions - a need more and more important especially in difficult and evolving times.Thanks to an international context and to the background coming from different partners it is possible to increase partners' staff skills, prepare and equip the professional ""European Innovators in Career Guidance”.The project results will be distributed as Open Educational Resource in order to be used by educators in different context and building up a European network of professional career guides.WHAT IS AN INNOVATIVE CAREER GUIDANCE?Career guidance should support people to understand how the job market works, what strategies and approaches are more effective and how to deal with challenges ad ongoing evolutions.There is a need for individualised solutions to overcome the uncertainty created by the pandemic, the change coming from distance and blended learning, the increased difficulties in accessing to guidance services and the social inclusion that only a renovated career guidance could bring. It is a complex process and the partnership would like to innovate career guidance. Effective and innovative career guidance should support individuals to act on the basis of 4 elements:1 - REFLECT: starting from a personal point of view the individuals are invited to self-awareness, self-consciousness and IKIGAI (a Japanese concept referring to having a direction or purpose in life)2 - GROW: individuals are stimulated to a lifelong learning perspective to personal and professional growth thanks to soft skills, mindsets, antifragility, upskilling and reskilling, frequent Vocational Education and Training, networking 3 - GO OUTSIDE: to explore the possibilities and to interact with the job market thanks to personal branding, skills intelligence, networking, understanding the world and how it could affect the personal careers4 - MANAGEMENT AND EVOLUTION: management of a position, the evolution of careers, transitions, antifragility and challengesBENEFICIARIESDirect Beneficiaries- a new generation of innovative professional European Career guides composed by career guides and counsellors, coaches, VET trainers, teachers, VET providers, employment centres' staff, psychologist, Human Resources personnel, occupational consultants and at large, any educator or person supporting in the job research and career development.Indirect Beneficiaries- the population in contact with the above-mentioned category: workers, students, NEET, unemployed, recent jobless, people that would like to reskill or upskill their professional background and competencies in order to ensure their sustainability, educators from formal, non-formal or informal contexts dealing with a call for support in terms of employability.<< Implementation >>OBJECTIVES IN ACTIONThe partnership will cooperate in bringing relevant content, sharing practices and, mainly, training the staff, intensive testing of the approaches, methodologies and results.The innovation coming from the project results will be able to adapt the career guidance to labour market needs with evident benefits in terms of employability of the people to be guided and supported with their careers in difficult contexts and times. The project outcomes will be shared and exploited at the international level as Open Educational Resources thanks also to their characteristics (availability in different languages than English, practicality and tips for their effective implementation, interactive resources and readiness to be used in different contexts.ACTIVITIESThe activities are focused on 2 levels: oTrain the career guides – a new professional profile of “European Innovators in Career Guidance” to be trained during meetings, intensive training events and by collaborating in producing project resultsoEquip the trainers with materials ready to be used during the activities to deal with unemployment, upskilling and reskilling needs for the future job force with tested project results and intensive communication and dissemination plansThe approach guiding the activities are based on a triangle (knowledge – inspiration - action) with tested outcomes, strong innovation and effective implementation processability such as:•Intensive testing of the outcomes by the project partners in a series of peer-learning sessions, via workshops at local level and with the involvement of several stakeholders in an inclusive context•Research about relevant cases, policies and local features to increase the knowledge of different national contexts•Creation of a guidance system to face with success the post-COVID19 pandemic’s impact on jobs and the need to drive a transition process in order to increase the employability•Design an effective training based on a scientific approach dealing with the academic pedagogy in counselling and occupational psychology – the training will be delivered within partners and described in a training module •Building up a practical digital toolkit for the inclusion in the career guidance thanks to innovative and effective ways to implement a new approach•Creation of a database of relevant OER including reports, handbook, training module and a digital toolkit about innovation in career guidance•Availability of materials in 5 different languages (English, Italian, Finnish, Spanish and French)•Creation of a brand-new professional profile of ""European Innovators in Career Guidance” recognised under the ECVET and EUROPASS systems•Networking within professionals in the career guidance across Europe•Large communication and dissemination activities with the support of informative materials such as an interactive project website, leaflets, social networks, newsletters, blended multiplier events (webinars and seminars)•Creation of a quality system management including coordination control, management of the risks, key performance indicators, steering committee, assessment and evaluation•Blended mobility scheme including frequent online meetings (once a month minimum), 3 Transnational Project Meetings and 3 Intensive training events<< Results >>OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESULTS IN 5 DIFFERENT LANGUAGES (English, Italian, Finnish, Spanish and French) AND IN DIGITAL INTERACTIVE FORMATS:1.KNOWLEDGE – REPORT: Career Guidance in Europe: policies, system, relevant cases, evidence-gathering about local and regional needs 2.INSPIRATION – HANDBOOK: Guidance to post-COVID19 jobs and transitions: •Skills intelligence •New EUROPASS curricula and personal branding•Challenges post-covid19•VET evolution •Professional transitions over the crisis 3.ACTION – TRAINING MODULE: PEDAGOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY FOR AN INCLUSIVE CAREER COUNSELLING AND GUIDANCE: •Antifragility•Mindset building•IKIGAI•Career counselling tips•Pedagogical approaches to career guidance4.ACTION – DIGITAL TOOLKIT FOR INCLUSION IN CAREER GUIDANCE: Open Educational Resource ready to be used to innovate the career guidance practices:•LEGO bricks for career guidance•Soft Skills•VET Excellences implementation tips •Self-reflection and self-construction•Inclusive Career guidance tipsOTHER RESULTS5.Creation of a brand-new professional profile of “European Innovator in Career Guidance” recognised under ECVET and EUROPASS systems6.Website containing multimedia materials7.2 project Newsletters8.Social networks dissemination: Facebook project page, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter9.Traditional media dissemination: press, newspapers, radio broadcasts10.Leaflet in English and all partners’ national languages11.A large series of MULTIPLIER EVENTS to present the project results both via online webinars and seminars in each partner’s national county and also at the international level12.Creation of an international network of European professional career guides."