NICE Academy 2021 in Paris from November 2-5

"Building Career Management Skills"

From November 2-5, 2021, the Network for Innovation in Career Guidance and Counselling will hold its third NICE Academy at the University of Paris. The academy will be dedicated to the challenges of “Building Career Management Skills.”

We thank our host, Dr Laurent Sovet from the University of Paris, for his kind invitation and very much look forward to this event, which also marks the 10th Anniversary of NICE.  We already have a great lineup of keynote lectures and workshops. Further calls for presentations will be announced soon. If you want to receive our regular updates, please subscribe by contacting us (below).

If you have any questions, please address them to paris2021@nice-network.eu. We will respond within 7 days.

Theme of the Academy

Following Sultana (2012), career management skills can be defined as “a whole range of competences which provide structured ways for individuals and groups to gather, analyse, synthesise and organise self, educational and occupational information, as well as the skills to make and implement decisions and transitions” (p. 229). They have become a key focus for implementing career educational programs and career competence-based curricula across EU countries. NICE (2016) attributes the professional role of Career Education to this important task and defines relevant competence standards for career practitioners.

When its educational component is forgotten or ignored, career guidance and counselling cannot unleash its full potential. By incorporating the promotion of career management skills in our practice, we can empower people to master their career-related challenges autonomously; we can support them in attaining more control over their career development; in becoming more independent.

And we need to do so. While globalization and innovation bring many benefits, they also challenge people to engage in lifelong learning. Organizations, too, are under continuous pressure to adapt, with many of them become less hierarchic, smaller, and more flexible. In this kind of an environment, citizens’ ability to manage their own career development becomes crucial. We need to prepare people to deal with career-related challenges across their lifetime, not only at the beginning of their careers. For this purpose, we need to support citizens’ learning and development of career management skills. However, many questions arise with this realization:

• What are the career management skills that actually support clients in mastering their career development? How do we know that they work?
• Does everybody need the same set of career management skills? Or are there meaningful differences between national contexts, labor markets...?
• How can career professionals effectively support clients in developing their career management skills? What approaches work? Why? And what if time is extremely limited?
• How and why should we assess career management skills? What techniques and tools are there?
• How can career professionals work together with educational bodies to promote career management skills? How could the role of career professionals evolve in the future?
• Are there any risks attached to the promotion of career management skills? Could we be misleading clients in the long run? Could the promotion of career management skills damage our profession?
• How can career practitioners be trained to build citizens’ career management skills at schools, universities and through further education? What knowledge, skills and competences are needed? How can they be developed?

These are the sorts of questions that the third NICE Academy in Paris will focus on. Through interactive keynote lectures, various training workshops to choose from, presentations of innovative approaches and important research findings, and various networking activities, we hope to foster a meaningful exchange of knowledge about the promotion of career management skills and career education.

References

NICE (2016). European Competence Standards for the Academic Training of Career Practitioners. Opladen: Barbara Budrich.

Sultana, R. G. (2012). Learning career management skills in Europe: A critical review. Journal of Education and Work, 25(2), 225–248. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2010.547846

Target Group and Level of NICE Academies

NICE Academies are aimed at two main target groups:

1. Career Professionals, who practice career guidance and counselling as their main profession.
2. Career specialists, who train career practitioners, conduct related research, provide supervision to career professionals, manage career services, etc.

NICE Academies provide advanced training in career guidance and counselling. We expect that all participants have completed an initial qualification in career guidance and counselling, ideally through a targeted degree program at a higher education institution, or have developed an equivalent degree of expertise (e.g., through university training in a discipline like education or psychology, through professional supervision, research, etc.). Our courses are offered at Master's level (EQF 7).

Keynote Lectures

At the NICE Academy in Paris, we will welcome three international keynote lectures offered by:

• Hazel Reid, Canterbury Christ Church University, United Kingdom
• Ronald Sultana, University of Malta
  
• Laurent Sovet, University of Paris, France

Descriptions of the keynote lectures will follow soon.

Training Workshops

Training workshops provide highly interactive learning opportunities. They last 90 minutes and don’t require any preparation from participants. No more than 30 minutes should be dedicated to speeches or presentations. Activities can comprise group discussions, individual or group exercises, peer learning, discussions, collegial counselling/intervision, playing educational games, structured reflection, etc.

Presentations

Presentations at NICE Academies allow career specialists to share expertise from research and practice, and discuss it with academy participants. Presenters are given 20 minutes for their presentation, followed by 10 minutes of discussion, which are facilitated by the session moderators. Typically, three presentations with similar topics are combined.

Registration Fee

The registration fee covers food and drinks at the academy, the programme, and all learning materials. Participation at the gala dinner and cultural activities come with additional fees. Participants are expected to organise and pay for their travel and accommodation autonomously.

(1) Founders are registered supporters of the NICE Foundation, either individuals or representatives of institutional founders (e.g., universities or professional associations). For an overview of the relevant bodies, please consult http://www.nice-network.eu/founders/

(2) The special discount is available for participants with very low budgets, e.g., unemployed students or practitioners with relatively low incomes. Please request a special discount via email to the organisers.

Organisers

NICE Foundation (Responsible Organisation): Dr Anne Chant & Johannes Katsarov

University of Paris (Host Organisation): Dr Laurent Sovet & Emmanuel Wassouo

In Dialogue (Partner Organisation): Yvor Broer

Scientific Committee

Caroline Arnoux-Nicolas, University of Paris Nanterre, Nanterre, France

Yvor Broer, In Dialogue, Gouda, The Netherlands

Sandra Cheyne, Skills Development Scotland Leasachadh Sgilean na h-Alba, Glasgow, Scotland

Lea Ferrari, University of Padua, Padua, Italy

Gill Frigerio, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

Rebeca García Murias, University of the Federal Employment Agency, University of Applied Labour Studies, Mannheim, Germany

Lorraine Johnson, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

Eva Kavkova, EKS, Prague, Czech Republic

Monika Kil, Danube University Krems The University of Continuing Education, Krems, Austria

Paul King, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

Aira Klampe, Liepaja University, Liepaja, Latvia

Seija Koskela, JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Jyväskylä, Finland

Czesław Noworol, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland

Monika Petermandl, Danube University Krems The University of Continuing Education, Krems, Austria

Shékina Rochat, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Valbona Rraci, Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation, Prishtina, Kosovo

Teresa Maria Sgaramella, Università degli Studi di Padova, Padova, Italy

V. Scott H. Solberg, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Tomas Sprlak, European Federation of Centres of Career Guidance and Bilan de Compétences (FECBOP), Vichy, France

Åsa Sundelin, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

Inger-Lise Vanja Lund Petersen, University College Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark