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Counselling & Vocational Guidance in Greece - Today
Competent Ministries
A. Today the responsibility for Vocational Guidance in the sector of Education lies with the Ministry of National Education & Religious Affairs and branches down to the Directorate of Career Counselling & Educational Activities, and the Office for School Vocational & Career Guidance of the Pedagogical Institute (P.I.).
B. In the sector of Employment, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs is responsible for Vocational Guidance, with OAED acting as chief spokesman and executive of the Ministry in this respect.
Community Support Frameworks (CSF)
The CSFs are the result of negotiations between the European Commission and the Member States of the European Union (E.U.) with respect to the developmental priorities of each Member State.
As a consequence of the 2nd CSF (1994-1999), the 3rd CSF reflects the joint developmental strategy between Greece and E.U. for the period 2000-2006. This strategy aims to bring about convergence for systems and levels of development between Greece and the rest of the E.U. Member States.
The development of human resources in education and vocation constitutes one of the priorities of this strategy. It aims to upgrade human resources in Greece through education, initial and on-going career training as a means of strengthening development. In this context, specific Operational Programmes and Community Initiatives have been designed and implemented, which also include actions on Vocational Guidance.
Operational Programmes (O.P.)
There are a number of actions for Vocational Guidance in Greece that come under the umbrella (financial & other) of Operational Programmes for the development of human resources, e.g.:
a) with respect to Education (Ministry of Education) - O.P. Education, Initial Vocational Training I, 2nd CSF (1994-1999).
O.P. “Education, Initial Vocational Training II” - EPEAEK II, 3rd CSF. This programme includes action Counselling and Vocational Orientation, currently running with the aim to upgrade the quality of Education and Vocational Guidance,
b) with respect to Employment (Ministry of Labour) - O.P. "Continuing Training and Promotion to Employment", 2nd CSF (1994-1999), and O.P. "Combating Exclusion from the Labour Market". In the 3rd CSF there is O.P. "Employment and Vocational Training" which includes Counselling & Vocational Guidance actions targeting specific individuals and/or groups as a means of affecting a “preemptive strike” on unemployment. The same type of support is provided to Special Social Groups (SCG).
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Community Initiatives
Here we also have Community initiatives spinning around Counselling & Vocational Guidance actions that come under the authority of the Ministry of Labour.
These are in the form of operational programmes in areas of keen interest to the European Commission. They aim to solve specific problems or promote actions of cooperation on a national or European level in the E.U. Member States. For example, the ADAPT initiative (1994-1999) aimed to effect adaptation of the labour force and systems of production to changes in the industrial sector. The Employment initiative was taken up to combat discrimination and inequalities in the labour market. Taking advantage of the experiences gained from the previous two initiatives, the Community launched the EQUAL initiative (2000-2006) in order to investigate new methods for combating discrimination and inequalities sustained by both the unemployed and employed population groups.
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The role of the EKEP
E.K.E.P. aims to strengthen cooperation among those agencies and organizations in the public and private sector that run actions and take initiatives in Counselling and Vocational Guidance. E.K.E.P. places particular emphasis on the dissemination of information about education, training and employment in Greece and Europe. Through its participation in the Euroguidance Network (NRCVGs), E.K.E.P. makes its own contribution to the convergence of Counselling and Vocational Guidance systems developed by the Member States of the European Union.
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