In January all members will be mailed a copy of our new Occasional Publication Learning from Adult Guidance Practice: NAEGA Case Studies - England
These case studies collected by NAEGA members formed part of the NAEGA submission to the English IAG Review. But they will be useful to members outside England well. In the foreword to the Occasional Publication, Professor Jonathan Brown says
“I commend it to all our members not only to those who practice in England. Although the case studies were collected in England ... the voices here both of clients and of their advisers speak universally. I am sure that equivalent voices collected in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and outside the UK distinguished by different accents, would tell a very similar story of the service they received. So the reading is recommended to all members wherever they practice. We are united by practice, only divided by policy and funding.”
The decision to separate Careers Scotland from Scottish Enterprise was taken in principle in March and was followed by an extensive consultation exercise. There are now many rumours about what is to happen. In Scotland on Sunday on 10 December, an article which appeared to be quite authoritative appeared under the headline Crunch time for Careers Scotland. In the article, Terry Murden reported that Careers Scotland's 1,250 staff could expect to hear about their future before Christmas with an announcement from Deputy-First-Minister and Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Nicol Stephen. This will impact on the 1,100 staff from Scottish Enterprise. In the North of Scotland, Highlands & Islands Enterprise will retain responsibility for providing Careers Scotland services.
However some observers believe that the decision on Careers Scotland is now complicated by increased political activity prior to the elections to the Scottish Parliament in May 2007. The Murden article says that uncertainty remains “and has been clouded by political posturing over skills training in the warm-up to next year's elections”
. So there is a possibility of a delayed decision: “Scottish Enterprise expected to lose its responsibility for Careers Scotland next April, but there is growing concern that this date will now slip and that nothing will change until after the elections next May”
.
Full article
Scottish Executive consultation on the de-merger (download PDF file)
NAEGA welcomes proposals for a new universal adult careers service in England, unveiled last week by Lord Leitch in his Review of Skills, particularly:
Vivienne Rivis, NAEGA's president said: “As a UK-wide organisation we are pleased that Lord Leitch has recognised the valuable work done in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in the development of universal careers guidance services for adults and young people. We welcome his proposal for a universal careers service for adults in England, but we want to see much more detail about how the service will be managed and how it will be funded.”
“In the past, advice and guidance services have been encouraged to target adults with low-level, or no, qualifications, but sometimes at the expense of people with just a few, or out-of-date, qualifications. Now Lord Leitch agrees with us that all adults, whatever level they are at, may need help to learn new skills or up-date their existing skills and qualifications.”
“The new system of funding he proposes for services delivered flexibly to those hard-to-reach needs to be carefully designed. Funding local advice centres by rewarding them for the short-term outcomes achieved by the people they help, such as enrolment on any course or getting a job with no further skills training, may repeat the mistakes of previous systems.”
“We want to see high quality services, with secure funding, so that advisers can concentrate on helping individuals to achieve their full potential, even if that takes a long time. Our members, who manage and work in successful services, point out that real changes in people's lives and careers often take place across timescales that are not easy to measure. Our evidence from practice shows just how effective support over time can be.”
One woman, helped by one of NAEGA's member organisations, said: “Without such support I would have severely struggled to obtain the traineeship and would most likely not be using my previous educational attainments or supporting myself by now; I cannot thank the centre and the staff enough for this.”
Ann Ruthven, NAEGA chair, said: “I welcome the Review's recognition of the importance of helping people to make informed choices by providing access to good quality, impartial information and advice on local learning opportunities. However, it is also important that people have access to information on regional, national and international opportunities for learning and work so that they can make their way in the global economy that Lord Leitch wants us to prepare for.”
“We look forward to working with learndirect and the DfES in helping to develop the new service. We hope that, in drawing on all the work already done by the on-going Review of Information, Advice and Guidance in England, to which NAEGA has made significant contributions, Lord Leitch's report will bring about a genuinely universal adult careers guidance service for the whole UK.”
NAEGA is looking for a new person or organisation to run our administration services. Download the Invitation to Tender for full details. Closing date is 3 January 2007.
The 2006 Julie Hamill Memorial Lecture: A Blueprint for Careers Development was delivered in May by Deirdre Hughes (Director and Reader at the Centre for Guidance Studies at the University of Derby). Deirdre explains that the blueprint approach 'makes explicit the competencies that all individuals need to develop in order to manage effectively life, learning and work'. The approach will
The lecture can be downloaded from EGSA.
Paul McCash from the Career Studies Unit at the University of Reading writes on a paper entitled: We're all career researchers now: breaking open career education and DOTS. Those who enjoyed the workshops run by Bill Law at the 2006 NAEGA conference at York will find this a useful additional to the literature. Paul's paper is the winning entry in the BJGC's 2006 postgraduate student competition.
Full details list of one-week training programmes available under the Guidance Exchange Leonardo programme are now available. Placements are available in 14 countries across Europe and examples of the programmes include:
The closing date for applications is 12 December.
Further details from Careers Europe
NAEGA's Company Secretary writes about her experiences on the 2006 Guidance Exchange Programme.
The NAEGA Board held in London on 16 November made several key decisions including:
DfES events for over 16s and their parents/guardians
In partnership with the National Association for Student Money Advisers (NASMA), the DfES is repeating its series of regional events to explain the student finance arrangements for students entering Higher Education. The events are running during November and early December 2006 in:
The purpose of the events is to inform those who advise young people and their parents/carers on the student finance package of fees and financial support for students entering higher education in 2007 and beyond. An updated Advisor Pack which provides a range of materials for use in your dealings with students and parents/carers will be available at the event, but this publication can also be ordered by calling 0800 587 8500 and quoting SFADPACK07.
Event dates/locations and to register for an event.
A group of 12 SSCs have worked together on a project to improve IAG in their respective sectors. The project called Bringing Industry and IAG Services Together has just concluded and received a positive evaluation. Co-ordinated by Skillset, the project also involved: e-skills UK, SEMTA, ConstructionSkills, SkillsActive, Skillfast-UK, Cogent, Lantra, Skills for Health, Skills for Justice, Skills for Logistics and Improve. They have all now produced a forward-looking model for IAG within their sectors that will be taken forward as part of their Sector Skills Agreements work.
This is a significant report and the summary is worth looking at. It is very positive about the use and potential of the National Guidance Research Forum.
You can download a PDF file of the Evaluation executive summary and conclusions.
Early notice of 8 March 2007 conference in Glasgow organised by Careers Scotland.
Over the last three years a very exciting project has been bringing together partners from across Europe to look at 'Third Age Guidance'. This has led to the development of a website which offers information and advice for professionals working in the field of vocational guidance.
Vocational guidance for people nearing the end of their careers is, for many, a novel concept, but one that is very relevant in today's labour market. This conference will bring together practitioners, researchers and policy-makers to share their knowledge and experience of this exciting field of guidance.
It is important to note that 'older people' are not a homogeneous group, but sub-divided by gender, age, education, work experience, ethnicity, health, family situation and personality. Models of guidance must take into account individual circumstances. This project, therefore, concerns vocational guidance, both proactive and reactive, and carried out by guidance services, employers and trade unions. It will assist in giving guidance practitioners tools with which to work.
Fax 0141 248 1600 if you wish to attend.
Careers Scotland's occasional paper, The Development of Careers Scotland's Service Delivery Framework, which has been published by the Centre for Guidance Studies at the University of Derby (CeGS) is now available here.
It records of the work of Careers Scotland in developing differentiated services as a key element of the Careers Scotland operating model. The paper is designed to be of use to both Careers Scotland staff and to other organisations interested in exploring the adoption of similar models of service delivery.
NAEGA is grateful to Careers Scotland and CeGS for permission to re-publish this occasional paper on our website. Copyright remains with Nick Fairweather, Doug Govan and Marlene McGlynn.
Members are invited to comment on the strategy which was presented at our conference in York. You can find the strategy in the in the Members Section under Board Resources. Comments to NAEGA admin please:
The EGSA conference will provide a focus for presenting and discussing key issues which will influence the successful delivery of a more competitive economy through a dynamic knowledge-based workforce.
Speakers include: Declan Billington, CBI Chairman, Deirdre Hughes, Director of Centre for Guidance Studies, University of Derby, BT, Ofcom, ANIC, DFP Delivery and Innovation Division, Sector Skills Development Agency, Management and Leadership Network and One Small Step Campaign.
Conference MC: Donna Traynor, BBC Northern Ireland
Details and booking
ENTO, as the responsible standards body, has been commissioned by the SSDA (Sector Skills Development Agency) to develop a UK-wide sector qualification strategy for advice and guidance. Round 2 of the consultation process to develop an SQS is now underway.
The consultation events are as follows:
A summary of feedback and outcomes from round 1 consultations and a revised project plan for round 2 will be available on the ENTO website.
To reserve your FREE place at one of the events, contact Frances Miller at
NAEGA became a company in 2002 when we were still considering if any advantages could be gained from also becoming registered as a charity. On recommendation of our accountants and Interchange (who provide legal advice to voluntary organisations) we decided to remain as a company limited by guarantee but not to seek charity status. The time was right, therefore, to review the documents which set out our aims and way of working. The changes are not substantial and mostly focus around clarification of our status as a company limited by guarantee.
Copies of the revised Articles and Memorandum of Association can be found in the Members Section; Resources; Other Resources - Board.
The documents will be presented to the AGM in York on 25th September when members will be able to vote on whether to adopt the revised documents.
Many NAEGA members are well aware of the personal challenges faced in following a career which has at the same time to be family friendly. They know about this from their own work-life patterns and choices and also those of their clients. Although there has been recent rhetoric about family-friendly policies by politicians, the media and employers, there has been little in standard career and guidance literature. So anyone interested in discovering more is advised to look at the latest volume of a major learned journal.
The August 2006 edition of the British Journal of Guidance and Counselling (BJGC) publishes a special symposium on Critical Perspectives on Careers and Family Friendly Policies. BJGC is the major academic journal in the guidance field and is published four times per year. Volume 34 Number 3 devotes 109 pages this issue. The symposium arises from an ESRC-funded seminar series and the six substantive papers published in BJGC is a product of this work.
The six papers are:
The symposium contains papers of varying levels of complexity all of which raise questions about the changing world of careers and the relationship of this to governmental and organisation action (and inaction). Hakim for example uses preference theory to assert that there are three almost separate types career. She gives this in a classification of women's work-lifestyle preferences in the 21st Century
Audrey Collin argues that a systems approach to career theories may assist with joined up thinking on career and family-friendly issues. Writing from Swedish experience, Thornqvist raises the question of what 'family-friendly' is really about arguing that whatever it is cannot be separated from gender issues in the labour market. The belief now is that further progress may come not from action (regulation) from the government but from changes in how people themselves view family-friendly: in short it is a hearts and minds challenge. Bagilhole reports on research in a large public sector organisation on the impact of gender equality and family friendly policies. Unsurprisingly the results paint a complex picture. However it is clear that “women want better FF policies”
but see the key as being awareness and commitment to such policies from senior managers.
Across Europe the role of the line manager is becoming increasingly relevant to career development. Penny Dick and Rosie Hyde investigate how this works for staff whose hours have been reduced as permitted under family-friendly policies. The conclusion is that “gendered assumptions, deeply embedded in organisational practices and structures, may render the career development of reduced-hours staff invisible to many line managers”
. In the final paper Jennifer Tomlinson looks at why women choose to part-time when the conditions for and status of such employment are inferior. Tomlinson argues that perceived 'choices' in this area and thus career trajectories are determined by care networks, work status and welfare policies as well as personal preferences.
Jonathan Brown
NAEGA Conference: 25-26 September
Hello. Since bulletin No.1 in February things have moved rapidly. Then I reported on a sparky first meeting of the conference planning team. Since then we have met again and the meeting was even more interesting. In the meeting, we actually talked about guidance and its practice. Moreover the meeting itself became a kind of CPD workshop. Gosh that sounds grand doesn't it? We had a really creative discussion about the programme and its shape over the two days of the conference. It was when we started talking about what was involved and talking creatively that the planning meeting began to feel like CPD. I produce two examples of creativity from our discussions which illustrate this.
And if that is not sufficient we also have as a keynote speaker John McCarthy [Director of the International Centre for Career Development and Public Policy based in CEDEFOP, an agency of the European Commission] to give a pan European view. The other keynote will be given by David Russell, [DfES] on the English IAG Review.
But at the centre of the activity of the Conference is a wide selection of workshops: 36 in all.
Members will be receiving the Conference Prospectus by post in early May. It should be good. It will be good. Note the date [Monday 25 September & Tuesday 26 September] for your opportunity to participate in this exciting CPD event. Hear what others have say and say your own twopenn'orth.
DOTS was a model introduced by Bill Law and Tony Watts to assist understanding of guidance in education in about 1977. It is widely used in most training courses for guidance. Although DOTS is used as the algorithm the sequence is SODT where:
S = Self-awareness “Who am I?”
O = Opportunity awareness “Where am I?”
D = Decision Learning “What will I do?”
T = Transition learning “How will I cope?”
Jonathan Brown, 4 April 2006,
In double quick time NIACE has given a most thoughtful initial response the Further Education White Paper: Further Education: Raising Skills, Improving Life Chances (Cm 6768). Colleagues should note several of NIACE's key points about the way in which the White Paper impacts on adult learners including:
“NIACE believes that the balance of the white paper over-emphasises measures to improve (indeed 'goldplate') arrangements for the 14-25 age range but offers less to people over 25. Why, for example, is there not an entitlement for an "Educational Healthcheck" at age 50 or 55 for adults re-thinking their late career in the labour market beyond 60 and 65?”
The deadline for responses to the DfES is 19 June.
NIACE response
White Paper
Now available. Priced at just £23.95, the Yearbook contains over 3000 key names, with contact details and websites, as well as a list of acronyms and key education resources. It is the most valuable directory for anyone involved in adult education.
NAEGA has just received an email from a member working in the South of England drawing attention to the advantage that membership of NAEGA may have in completing NOCN Advanced Certificate (level 3) in Information, Advice & Guidance
“Re-reading my NAEGA magazine, I realise you mention attending NAEGA branch meetings & conferences as satisfying NVQ IAG unit requirements.”
“Members might also know that there is a similar requirement in the optional Unit 9 - 'Operating within Networks' of the OCN (Open College Network) Advanced Certificate in Information, Advice & Guidance (NVQ level 3 equivalent).”
“I think this is worth mentioning - the OCN seems to be becoming more popular as a qualification, certainly in the South where I work.”
The February 2006 edition of the British Journal of Guidance and Counselling (BJGC) publishes a special symposium on careers guidance structures in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. BJGC is the major academic journal in the guidance field and is published four times per year. Volume 34 Number 1 devotes no less than 91 pages to recent developments of careers guidance in a period of devolution and diversification. There are five articles included in the journal of which that by Professor Tony Watts gives the overview Devolution and diversification: careers guidance in the home countries. Watts is, as ever, clear about what has happened. In England, he sees the process as “seeking horizontal integration of services for adults and young people”
whereas in the other three countries differing forms of “vertical integration on an all-age basis”
have developed. He sees the English position as weakening structures for guidance provision and because of the size of the country (relative to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) this is having an impact on the profession throughout the UK.
The English contribution is by Dr Rachel Mulvey who writes on Career Guidance in England: retrospect and prospect. The retrospection is over the last 25 years and sees the position as one of tension and incoherence. Indeed, her conclusion is that the current policy is stretched across “a fretwork of polarities”
. Rachel identifies four polarities:
“youth at one end, adults at the other, with little shading along the spectrum in terms of which agency deals with which client, and under which budget heading”.
“falling within or without a designated target group”.
“between those who are not in education, employment or training (irrespective of age) and those who are...”
“the former having the power, and the latter the responsibility”.
The Scottish article Careers Guidance in Scotland: retrospect and prospect is by Cathy Howieson and Sheila Semple. The authors suggest that the national publicly funded, all age service under the banner of Careers Scotland is a dividend from devolution, “the agency would not have been established in the absence of devolution”
. They point out the influence of England in terms of the unity of the profession (in training and practice) and over quality assurance. Another issue hinted is the tension involved in having Scottish Enterprise as the host agency for the major part of Careers Scotland. Scottish Enterprise in its core role is a strategic agency. Acquiring an operational arm which needs to “ensure a working careers guidance service on the ground requires some changed perspectives and procedures...”
From Wales Mike Clark and John Talbot offer Careers Guidance in Wales: retrospective and prospect. This paper describes the development of an all age service on the different model to that of Scotland. The retaining over time of a free impartial service is seen as a crucial issue. The introduction of Learning Coaches pilot schemes is also discussed.
The Careers Service in Northern Ireland has been developed with the Civil Service. This and other issues are discussed by Moira McCarthy and Rob Millar in Careers Guidance in Northern Ireland: retrospective and prospect.
The BJGC symposium provides an up-to-date and challenging series of papers on the present position of careers guidance in the UK. In all of the papers, the specific issues facing adult guidance in this changing world are addressed. This issue will become for some time a compulsory background reading for those already in the field as well as those training to join us.
Jonathan Brown, 14 March 2006
Note on accessing BJGC : Most University and College Libraries will subscribe to the Journal. Many careers libraries and services also subscribe though this may be less so than in the past. All subscribers have member access to the online edition of BJGC which is available at ISSN 1469-3534.
In 2004, NAEGA members received a copy of Geoff Ford's report, Am I Still Needed? Guidance and Learning for Older Adults. Geoff has followed up this major work with a briefing note, The Turner Report on Pensions: Implications for Careers Guidance.This seven-side briefing (very nicely presented) can be downloaded from TAEN (The Age and Employment Network). This briefing follows the two Reports of the Pensions Commission [chaired by Lord Turner] (2004 and 2005) and looks at the implications for career guidance with all-age groups from school to 45/50+.
Geoff Ford is a longstanding member of NAEGA, a Fellow of NICEC and a Senior Consultant to TAEN on career guidance.
The conference planning team for 2006 consists of 10 members led by NAEGA chair Kathy Blackmore together with Eleanor Muirhead of Event Management and Marketing Matters. Of the 10 members, seven of us are from Yorkshire and the North East branches. However, we also have Judy Jones from Carmarthen who convened the 2005 conference planning team. Jonathan Brown will post occasional bulletins on progress. Comments and suggestions to .
Well folks, we had the first meeting of the planning team at the University of York last week. It was a sparky, creative meeting. A good one. We found:
At a more prosaic level, the team started its first meeting with little more than booked dates and an abundance of goodwill together with lots of experience of running such events. (Well - Kathy, Judy and Eleanor have recent experience and Jonathan convened the two Durham conferences in the 1990s). By the end of our first meeting we had agreed:
I will continue to report on our progress in future bulletins. My final thought for this first bulletin of the series is that NAEGA was born Yorkshire (in 1982) and held its first residential conference in Yorkshire (1985) so that we have much to live up to when we come together again in Yorkshire on 25-26 September 2006. But we will do it: so do note the date in your diary and try to join us in the ancient City of York on 25-26 September. Be there.
Jonathan Brown, 2 March 2006,
The National Centre for Guidance in Education is an agency of the Irish Department of Education and Science. For the past ten years NCGE has worked to support and develop guidance across the education spectrum. The centre assists guidance practitioners in education, including support teachers in primary schools, guidance counsellors in post-primary schools, guidance practitioners in third level education, guidance practitioners working with adults in education, and guidance in Youthreach and similar programmes.
NCGE has collaborated with the Department of Education and Science on a number of significant guidance projects and has informed the policy of the Department in the field of guidance. Of particular note has been NCGE's lead role in the establishment and ongoing development of The Adult Educational Guidance Initiative. The centre has also collaborated with the DES in the development of the first policy document on the definition and role of guidance in post-primary schools and the development of guidelines and training in Guidance Programme Planning for post primary schools.
At a celebratory event held in Dublin on 26 January to mark the first ten years, NCGE launched its report NCGE in support of Guidance, Policy and Practice 1995-2005. Professor Jonathan Brown, who represented NAEGA at the event, said: “NCGE has an important role in the development of adult guidance in the Republic of Ireland through its supervisory role in relation to The Adult Educational Guidance Initiative (AEGI). There are now some 24 adult guidance projects funded under AEGI. Several of the AEGI projects are members of NAEGA.”
The birthday event was marked by a clear articulation of the nature of guidance as a lifelong and lifewide process. There was also testimony to the role of guidance workers who “at their core we have both goodness and helpfulness.”
The celebration was greatly assisted by a presentation on Integrative Career / life planning: the challenge for guidance by Sunny Hansen, Professor Emerita, Counselling and Student Personnel Psychology, Department of Educational Psychology, College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota.
Integrative Career/Life Planning (ILP) is part of a new paradigm for helping people at any stage of their lives reflect and act on their life career choices and decisions in some different ways. It is a distinctly new way of thinking about old problems in that it pulls together several aspects of life not always included in career planning - aspects which foster thinking about connectedness and wholeness in contrast to separation and fragmentation. Briefly, ILP is a model which identifies seven critical tasks for career development and changing life patterns. These are:
ILP does challenge guidance practice. Professor Hansen spoke with charm, passion and purpose. To find out more, consult her major work, HANSON LS (1997) Integrative life planning: critical tasks for career development and changing life patterns (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass)
This site run by Bill Law and friends (www.hihohiho.com) is well worth a visit. New and revised items in the magazine are:
In the underpinning section:
A recent parliamentary question on the burden of administration from Stephen O'Brien MP (Con, Eddisbury - former education spokesman) has led to the placing of a letter from the chief executive of the LSC.
In a letter of 24 January Mark Haysom says "Since the introduction of the nextstep service in 2004, the LSC has reduced the administrative burden on providers of adult Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) services by:
Before these changes were implemented, consultation was undertaken with a representative of the then Bureaucracy Review Group to ensure their appropriateness. Feedback from our regional IAG working group indicates that the changes have been well received and have had a significant impact on the quality and availability of management information on services provided."
Across Europe the development of non-formal and informal learning is seen as a vital tool in increasing access to education, training for adults across Europe.
The EuroGuideVal project is a European Leonardo project that aims to develop training materials for professionals working in the field of the Accreditation of Prior Leaning. This includes providing advice and guidance for those undertaking APL and also raising awareness of APL for those working in advice and guidance.
Careers Europe will cooperate with NAEGA East within the project and hopes to produce training materials to promote awareness of the accreditation of prior learning by advisers.
Careers Europe would like examples of good practice or projects that have created links between advisers and the APL process, or where advice and guidance has been provided as part of the APL process.
If you have been involved in such a project, contact Phil Williams at Careers Europe 01274 829600 or
RARPA (Recognising and Recording Progress and Achievement in Non-accredited Learning) is being implemented across LSC-funded provision in England as the 'New Measure of Success' for non-accredited learning. As RARPA now applies to all non-accredited learning it should be included in future self-assessments and in scoping for inspection. Even if you don't have LSC funding, RARPA is still a useful learner-centred approach for assuring the quality of learner experience.
RARPA describes a particular approach to a significant part of the quality assurance systems of providers in the post-school sector for non-accredited provision. The term 'non-accredited' in this context describes all provision in the Learning and Skills sector that does not lead to a qualification or to an externally accredited certificate. 'Externally accredited' means that the certificate is awarded by an organisation independent of the provider of the programme. The RARPA approach consists of two interlinked processes:
NIACE is supporting providers in implementing RARPA. (www.niace.org.uk/projects/RARPA). For further information contact Raksha Mistry on 0116 2044237 or email
Europass, the European Commission's initiative to facilitate the mobility of workers and learners in Europe, has now been launched in the UK.
Europass is designed to help people better communicate their qualifications and skills when applying for a job, training or a learning opportunity in Europe. To help achieve this, five Europass documents are available:
Individuals can create the Europass Curriculum Vitae and Europass Language Passport for themselves at http://europass.cedefop.eu.int. The other three documents are to be issued by organisations such as training providers, awarding bodies, higher education institutions and organisations sending and receiving trainees.
See UK National Europass Centre (UK NEC) www.uknec.org.uk and the European Centre. http://europass.cedefop.eu.int. Careers Europe www.careerseurope.co.uk has now also added information about Europass to EXODUS and the Eurofacts sheets.
Source: Careers Europe newsletter.
The February edition of the British Journal of Guidance and Counselling publishes a symposium on careers guidance structures in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The authors of the key papers are:
To mark this publication, our sister organisation, ICG is hosting the symposium Devolution and Diversification at which all the authors of the BJGC will speak. This symposium will be taking place on 17 March 2006, at University of Derby. Download the Symposium programme or go to www.icg-uk.org/symposium.html for booking details.
The National Centre for Guidance in Education (www.ncge.ie) is an agency of the Irish Department of Education & Science. Its main roles are to support and develop guidance practice in all areas of education and to inform the policy of the department in the field of guidance.
To mark its 10th birthday, NCGE is holding a celebration event on 20th February. Guest speaker will be Sunny Hansen, Professor Emeritus of Counselling and Student Psychology, Minnesota University who will give a talk on 'Integrative Career Life Planning'. The organisation will also launch a publication 'NCGE in support of Guidance, Policy and Practice 1995-2005'.
Professor Jonathan Brown, who will represent NAEGA at the event, says, “NCGE has an important role in the development of adult guidance in the Republic of Ireland through its supervisory role in relation to the Adult Educational Guidance Initiative (AEGI). There are now some 24 adult guidance projects funded under AEGI. Several of the AEGI projects are members of NAEGA.”