Definition

Continuous process that enables an individual, at any age and at any stage of life, to identify his/her capacities, competences and interests, to make well-informed educational, training and occupational decisions, and to manage his/her life path in learning, work and other settings in which those capacities and competences are learned and used.

• Lifelong guidance covers a range of individual and collective, formal or non-formal career development activities such as information-giving, counselling, competence assessment / skills audit / competence profiling, support, and the development of decision-making and career management skills through career education;
• it can be undertaken throughout life, from school and throughout both working and non-working life;
• lifelong guidance services can be provided face-to-face, remotely (e-mail, chat) or in a blended mode in a wide range of settings:
  
  
• schools and VET centres;
• tertiary and higher education institutions;
• public and private employment services;
• public and private career guidance centres;
• enterprises, trade unions, NGOs and professional bodies as well as in local communities;

• lifelong guidance guidance can be seen as occurring at specific transition points, as a subset of lifelong guidance that involves capacity building; it enables an individual to reflect on his/her ambitions, interests, qualifications, skills and talents through learning – and to relate this knowledge about who s/he is to who s/he might become in life and work;
• lifelong guidance includes provision of:
  
  
• careers education;
• careers information;
• individual and group guidance/counselling;
• skills audit / competence profiling and psychometric testing;
• engagement with employers;
• development of skills needed for job seeking and self-employment.