Abstract:

In the current labour market, Career Management Skills (CMS) are becoming a relevant tool in the view of lifelong career guidance, where individuals can develop resources and competencies to manage their learning and occupational path, thus becoming main characters of their life project (Sultana, 2012).

CMS play a central role also in the development of lifelong guidance programmes at the EU level. Through the constitution of the Lifelong Guidance Expert Group (2002-2007) and the European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network (ELGPN), established in 2008, the European Union endorsed the integration of lifelong guidance into lifelong learning strategies and committed herself in the promotion of Career Management Skills in both the education and the employment sectors across the member states (Council of the European Union 2004, 2008). In the 2008 Resolution, EU countries were invited to
1) strengthen the lifelong acquisition of career management skills;
2) facilitate the access by all citizens to guidance services;
3) ensure quality in guidance provision;
4) encourage the coordination and the cooperation among the different stakeholders at local, national and European level.

Following the above-mentioned goals, the ACUMEN project (Career Management Skills - A New 'Literacy' for Sustainable Employment, project ref. 2016-1-UK01-KA204-024334), funded under the Erasmus+ programme, is focused on the promotion of CMS in education and in labour market settings in order to foster employment and self-employment in eight European countries.

The consortium is composed of nine partners: European Learning Network (ELN) (UK, project leader), Meath Partnership (Ireland), Synthesis center for research and education ltd (Cyprus), LUMSA (Italy), BEST Institut GmbH (Austria), Future in perspective limited (FIPL, Ireland), Team training GmbH (TTG, Germany), Innoventum OY (Finland), Reintegra (Czech Republic).

The aim of the Acumen project is the development and implementation of 24 online career management resources that support adults within the workforce or those seeking employment to develop and/or strengthen competencies suitable in the current labour market and to identify appropriate career progression pathway. The suite of online resources has been created following the four thematic areas included in the Career Management Skills Framework for Scotland (2012): self; strengths; horizons; networks.

After having conducted a summary research report defining the level and scope of learning to be achieved and the tools to assess learning attainment, the Career Management Curriculum Resources, available in all partners’ languages, have been created and uploaded online on a dedicated platform. In addition to this, an in-service training programme have been implemented, in order to support adult educators, workforce development experts, employment services providers and human resource managers in the delivering of the new career management curriculum.

This contribution presents the Acumen suite of Career Management Skills and the development and implementation of the in-service training programme in Italy by LUMSA research group. In detail, through the training activities and the participants’ feedback, it will highlight strengths and weaknesses of the resources developed for the project, stressing the challenges that are related to lifelong career guidance and to the fostering of citizens’ leading roles in their learning and working lives.

Keywords:

Career management skills, online resources, in-service training, lifelong career guidance, Italy.