Guide2 aims to improve IAG practice for young adults, especially those facing multiple and complex barriers to progression, through the further evolution, adapation, digitisation and extension of the case study method as a guidance approach developed in its predecessor Erasmus+ project Good Guidance Stories Plus (Guide+) . The primary target group for Guide 2.0 are those tutors, trainers, educators, IAG and careers guidance practitioners, and those directly involved in the design and provision of adult education for young adults failed by existing provision, and for whom there is presently little or no contemporary, imaginative and peer-to-peer continuing professional development provision. Guide2 offers to provide innovative, challenging and thought-provoking learning exchanges that contribute not only to competency development but also to improvement of IAG service provision and practice. Guide2 is a complex and ambitious project with five foundational intellectual outputs generated by partners from six countries. Project implementation is scheduled over a period of 26-months to enable the testing and production of high quality products/intellectual outputs and results, as follows: IO1: Methodological Concept: comprising a programme of systematic enquiry and validation of methods applied to IAG/career guidance, in order to capture, in each partner country, effective practice examples of flexible frameworks for provision of IAG, including that provided through partnership and joined-up working, and good examples of how young adults are best engaged as active participants in the process of transforming IAG practice and provision. IO2: Blended Learning Curriculum: review of the existing Methdological and Recommendation Guides produced by Guide2's predecessor project in light of the results of IO1, and the digitization of these Guides, along with the existing Case Studies, Teaching Notes and Curricula as an online learning resource. IO3: Facilitator Resource Pack: comprising a suite of interlinking, flexible and inter-active (online) Teaching Notes and Materials, How To Guides and Curricula for IAG practitioners to enhance CoP participation and Action Learning Sets, specifically themed for IAG/careers guidance practitioners. IO4: Case Study Learning Resource: production of a suite Case Studies as Peer Learning Tools, Community of Practice Method, Action Learning Sets, Co-Production Guides. Seven brand-new Case Study produced will include: 1) Personal Employability Skills, (2) Self-Management, (3) Working Together and Communication, and (4) Creativity, Enterprise and Innovation, (5) Flexible Frameworks for Learning and IAG, (6) Long-term Joined-up Approach, and (7) Re-thinking Roles, Relationships and Mindsets. IO5: Effective Practice Guide for IAG Guidance Managers: specifically focusing on presenting Case Study examples of effective IAG/careers guidance practice and provision, expressing the stages of a 'journey of change' and the conditions needed for that change to take place. To generate its results Guide 2.0 is founded on a work programme which features: (i)forming a virtual community of practice (CoP) to extend and develop IAG practitioner competence; to facilitate personal and professional development through innovative peer-to-peer learning exchanges and the production of Case Studies as effective continuing professional development online learning tools. (ii) the CoP drawing upon existing good practice, on the experiences and insights of those inside the system, to improve the system and to innovate, especially in being able to address the widely differing needs of individuals, and adapt to new challenges brought about by the changing nature of society and work. This addresses the need for effective outreach, guidance and motivation strategies via long-term, joined-up approach where IAG is understood as on-going, life-long and life-wide processes. (iii) Setting out the value of a co-production agenda: addressing the need for local applications of effective practice IAG models that are co-designed in partnership with young people to rethink roles, relationships and mindsets. Addressing priorities in Adult Education and the Horizontal Priority of Social Inclusion Guide 2.0 envisages a range of impacts and results that include: - Good and effective examples of flexible frameworks for learning and IAG and how to embed effective and co-produced IAG into a range of Adult Education environments; - Increased networking and peer-to-peer learning opportunities between diverse IAG practitioners in urban environments through a virtual community of practice (CoP); - Greater understanding of how new approaches such as co-production can significantly improve IAG provision through shared learning exchanges (CoP); - Creative, innovative and inter-active peer-to-peer learning methods (Action Learning Sets) as an integral element of on-going and flexible continuing professional development
Good Guidance Stories 2.0 ("Guide") brings innovation in the discourse on continuous professional development of Information Advice and Guidance (IAG) practitioners by blending a set of engaging and thought-provoking learning approaches and methodologies, which, as a whole, represents an original way of imagining new training routes for IAG professionals for more responsive and people-centred guidance provision. Throughout Guide an innovative learning approach focused on peer-led and social learning using highly participatory methods that not only formed a professional IAG network at a European level, it exposed members of the Community of Practice (CoP) to a constructive knowledge exchange with colleagues facing similar issues in their national context. Across Europe, labour markets are rapidly transforming through globalisation, migration, the impact of new technologies, and new elements of insecurity brought into the picture by a global health crisis that is shaking economic and social systems of many countries. In such a mutable, challenging and precarious working context, young people, especially those with lower levels of educational attainment, are potentially a vulnerable group that deserves specific actions, measures and policies. Today, young people are making more decisions than before - the rapidly changing demand for skills, increased labour market dynamism, the growing diversification and fragmentation of education and training provision is making decision-making more difficult. Accessible and well-informed guidance services are now, more than ever, extremely valuable. Whilst participation in the CoP and Action Learning Sets fostered self-reflection, active listening/questioning and problem solving capabilities, which are highly valued in today's guidance work, the 12 practitioners and service managers directly engaged understood, through direct involvement, the value of a co-production approach applied to real-life case studies production, appreciating the relevance and sustainability of this bottom-up approach which enables to re-think roles, relationships and mindsets. As a result of the four interrelated areas of innovation that underpinned the approach (see below) 81 young people (18-29) along with 65 IAG practitioners and 38 service managers participated in focus groups and interviews in which they exchanged good practice experiences and outlined current challenges and gaps, enabling deep insight and learning exchanges. (i) Applying the co-production approach to careers guidance delivery (ii) Using participatory appraisal for improving and co-constructing empowering development pathways (iii) Cross-national community of practice (CoP) and (iv) Action learning sets to facilitate CoP learning exchanges and case study co-production. The common thread that connects the four interrelated areas of innovation experimented in the project is the value of participation and interaction as key enabling factors of a successful learning experience, which "spills over" into a more proximal and empowering guidance experience. By fostering a culture of participation in guidance, young people as active participants in the guidance process, learn how to actively co-construct their own career in empowering interactions with others, while practitioners, through the experimentation of online collaborative learning opportunities have chance to review, question and update their daily practice in the light of a constructive and critical interaction with peers. Guide was implemented by a consortium of partners from six European countries, working collaboratively to generate five foundational outputs: (i) Methodological Concept: building the ground for the andragogy vision through qualitative enquiry to extract effective practice examples of how young adults are best engaged as active participants in the process of transforming IAG practice and provision. (ii) Blended Learning Curriculum: a Moodle e-learning platform develop IAG professional guidance practice competencies (iii) Facilitator Resource Pack: indepth suite of interlinking, flexible and inter-active materials focusing on co-production, action learning sets and community of practice methods. (iv) Case Study Learning Resource: dynamic online learning exchange and peer-led case study learning resources. (v) Effective Practice Services Guide: project "log book" accounting for the project's objectives, activities, results and insight for effective practice. Guide's comprehensive evaluation shows a clear and consistent picture; a great value has been placed upon the equitable and mutual approach that underpinned the project, resulting in a high satisfaction rate in terms of the partnership's performance; the quality of relationships, collaboration and knowledge exchanges, resulted in high-quality, highly transferable learning experiences and resources and generated wider accessibility - 114 student and 16 trainer e-learning accounts created.