G-Guidance project is designed to address the need to implement integrated, comprehensive and effective career guidance services and methodologies in educational settings, identified and underlined both at European and national level in a report by the European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network (Oomen & Plant, 2015). In the report, career guidance is considered across the EU state members as a focal point for preventing the widespread problem of early school leaving, poor qualifications and disadvantage, which will have an impact on societal and economical problems (productivity, criminality, employment, health, social exclusion, etc.) across all the European state-members G-Guidance has three main objectives: a) create, develop and implement web based, gamified platform, which will be at the centre of a comprehensive career guidance methodology for middle and high school students, with ages between 13 and 17 years old, that will enhance and broaden the reach of career guidance in schools; b) train and support school psychologists, teachers and parents/caregivers, on different levels and with different roles, on the use of the platform as a tool to actively participate and contribute to youths’ career guidance and vocational and personal development; and c) create an open source multimedia database with high quality career/vocational information, presented in the platform through gamified elements and on and offline activities to carry inside and outside school. To achieve these objectives, G-Guidance will develop a Professions Guide (IO1), a Career Guidance Method (IO2) and a Digital, Web Based and Gamified Platform (IO3), using a methodology traditionally used as a reference in the production of learning technologies, based in a 5 phases structure, Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation (ADDIE). After Analysis, Design and Development phases, the career guidance method and the platform will be implemented on a national level, in school setting, to a group of 300 youths, 30 teachers, 5 psychologists and 300 parents/caregivers (one per youth), across the 5 participant countries (local piloting intervention, A4), that comprises one university and one school partners per country. The implementation phase includes training Psychologists on the career guidance method, and Psychologists, Teachers, Parents and Youths on how to use the platform for career guidance. For this purpose, a training manual and a users’ manual (IO4) will also be developed and used on the local training activity of the project (A4). Finally, an Handbook of Good Practices on Technology-Based Education for Teachers and Policy Makers (IO5) which will collect and share realiable guidelines for other schools or professionals to apply or be inspired to apply in their context. We expect that G-Guidance’s gamification orientation will make career guidance more appealing, motivating and useful, since it empowers and engages youths in their self and career development, and thus with higher chances of causing positive impact in short, medium and long term. At the same time, career guidance becomes more inclusive, as these tools will allow career guidance experts and educators to reach a wider range of kids, especially those less engaged, more absent and at risk of dropping out. The fact that all career related contents will be available in multimedia format (text, images, sounds, video) also promotes interest and engagement in career guidance, and foster inclusion for students with different characteristics and/or learning disabilities. Also important is the expected positive impact on higher levels of participation and support from teachers and parents/caregivers to youths’ career guidance, which will contribute greatly to the quality and success of career guidance in schools. All the outputs (content, manuals and tools) developed in this project will be made available in english, besides in portuguese, greek, spanish, italian and bulgarian, in digital format, on the platform and on an open access format. That, together with the multiples ways by which this information can be disseminated, makes it easy to replicate G-Guidance, and the career guidance method and platform to be used in any school/educational context internationally. All aspects of the project are designed to be used beyond G-Guidance, in any educational context, thus contributing not only to enhance career guidance, but also as tools to help psychologists and teachers develop new and efficient skills, namely in terms of digital literacy, tools to assess the impact of technology in education and evaluate and monitor technology based interventions. Therefore we believe that G-Guidance will have a positive impact at various levels and in a long term.
By implementing the project we aimed to achieve the following objectives: a) develop an innovative career guidance methodology for students between 13 and 17 years, that would improve and expand the reach of conventional career guidance practices, centered around a web-based, gamified platform, developed to be the main tool and resource hub; b) engage and support school psychologists, teachers and parents/caregivers on their respective roles in students’ career guidance process, accordingly with our vision; and c) create a database of multimedia resources relevant for career guidance. In terms of concrete results, we expected to create a career guidance program, complete with method, toolkit, and contents, that could be implemented in school contexts (across countries and cultures), and would be interesting, fun, interactive, significant, and engaging for students, as well as allowing, especially, teachers and parents, besides psychologists, to participate. Also, we aimed to provide school psychologists with updated and more efficient tools to perform career guidance. For students, we expected to give them a much better and interesting experience of career guidance, helping them to develop the right skills to design their careers.
The reason driving our proposal was to create a better and more efficient way to do career guidance in schools, particularly with youths between 13 and 17 years old. Recognizing the difficulties that schools have to engage students in career guidance, or the lack of efficient procedures to provide career guidance in schools across Europe, with particular focus on southern European countries, our project aimed to create and provide updated and effective career guidance program and tools, that could help fill that gap. This means that, from a global perspective, the project addressed the need to implement an integrated, comprehensive, and effective career guidance services in educational settings, identified at a European and national levels by the European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network. From a more localized, microsystemic, perspective, the project addressed the need that professional such as school psychologists, as well as teachers, have of effective tools, materials, and methods to help their students develop the necessary skills to consistently plan, build, and implement individual career (and life) projects. Ultimately, our project contributes to prevent early school leaving, poor qualifications and inherent societal problems.