EUROPEAN SOCIETY FOR VOCATIONAL DESIGNING AND CAREER COUNSELING
ESVDC The European Society for Vocational Designing and Career Counseling ESVDC was founded in 2011 in order to stimulate and promote European and international collaboration in research and development in the fields of life-designing, vocational guidance and career counseling. It brings together existing networks of researchers and networks of academic teachers in these fields, in order to facilitate the emergence of a new generation of specialists all over Europe. ESVDC reinforces the identity of European scientists, by sharing information, ideas and projects, by creating a program of post-doc exchanges, by offering access to high quality expert resources and by enhancing sustainable long term developments in life-designing and career counseling. Among work in progress, the creation of a marketplace for research projects and job or exchange opportunities for young researchers and establishing relations with other associations, institutions or policymakers are under way.
International networks
The Network for Innovation in Career Guidance and Counselling in Europe (NICE) involves 45 partners from 28 European countries. Most of them are higher education institutions that offer degree programmes in career guidance and counselling or engage in related research. Supported financially through the European Commission, the members of NICE will engage in several activities to enhance academic cooperation in our field from 2012 to 2015. Important projects within the “NICE 2” programme will be:
• the formulation of a joint memorandum on the role of higher education in career guidance and counselling,
• the development and testing of common points of reference for the academic training of career guidance and counselling professionals (e.g. the NICE Core Competences),
• activities to support the exchange of lecturers, researchers and students between the participating institutions, and
• the development of a sustainable infrastructure for future networking, including an online community and database.
The NICE 2 programme will be accompanied by many international workshops and three large conferences. In particular, a wide range of actors interested in the academic training and research in career guidance and counselling (including policy-makers, members of professional associations, and representatives of research and training institutions) will be invited to a large international conference in Canterbury from September 3-6 in 2014. For more information about NICE, please visit the homepage: