EU Project
The vision of the ECADOC project was to set up a sustainable European Doctoral Programme specialized on career guidance and counselling (CGC, our field) which offers highly promising graduates of European higher education institutions the opportunity of becoming the spearhead of CGC-related research and higher education in Europe (and thus perhaps throughout the world). The project aimed to attract diverse actors in the field, including higher education institutions, policy-makers, senior and junior researchers, and people involved in the academic training of career practitioners to invest into the development of career guidance and counselling as a specific area of multi-disciplinary research and training.
Concrete objectives of the project were to develop and validate a concept for summer schools and work out a research agenda for the area of career guidance and counselling. Furthermore, the project entailed numerous activities to build the sustainability of doctoral training in the field of CGC.
The ECADOC consortium involved higher education institutions from 15 European countries, which offer academic training in career guidance and counselling and bring together a multitude of disciplinary perspectives. The involved experts brought together state-of-the-art perspectives on qualitative, quantitative and collaborative research, academic writing, higher education and training, and the management of degree programs and projects, to offer an innovative training curriculum.
To foster collaborative learning on what kinds of structured doctoral training is relevant in the field of CGC, the project continuously consulted with doctoral researchers in the field and involved them in the evaluation of its activities. A common European research agenda was developed involving more than 100 experts from more than 30 countries in the mapping of current research and the collaborative description of gaps and challenges for the future (also involving policy and practice).
Three doctoral summer schools were organised, involving more than 100 doctoral and senior researchers from more than 30 countries. The summer schools received excellent ratings and were improved continuously through a quality assurance and enhancement strategy involving surveys, peer evaluation, and participant evaluation, among others. This report presents many of the key lessons learned.
The project has enjoyed a very high visibility through its website, five symposia at international conferences, the active promotion of doctoral researchers, numerous articles in diverse national and international newsletters. In 2017, “International Perspectives on Current Research in Career Guidance and Counselling” will appear, a book, which includes the research agenda and numerous articles for doctoral researchers involved in the programme – an important contribution to our field, and an important way of promoting ECADOC.
The sustainability of ECADOC has been secured for the next years. The next summer school will take place at the University of Applied Labour Studies in Mannheim from September 4-9, 2017 and another one is planned for Greece in 2018. The established committees are remaining active, and working with the established tools and procedures.
Final public report: click here
Disclaimer
The ECADOC project was co-funded by the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme from October 2013 to November 2016 (Project No. 539608-LLP-1-2013-1-IT-ERASMUS-EQR). The European Commission’s support for the ECADOC project does not constitute an endorsement of its achievements, contents, or professed opinions. These reflect the views of the project partners only, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use of these products.
