In 2021/22 the ETF conducted reviews of national career development support systems in all Western Balkan countries aiming to collect facts and information about existing policy and practice. The reviews cover lifelong career guidance for all, career education, career development support for workers, including for non-standard forms of employment.
Summary of key findings from the review in Serbia
The existing policy framework in education, employment, and youth recognizes diverse career development support mechanisms and clearly outlines responsible institutions with their roles identified and differentiated depending on the priority target groups. The Action Plan related to the comprehensive overall Strategy for career guidance and counselling expired in 2014. The Standards for career guidance and counselling, published within a rulebook, are recognized in strategic and regulatory documents as a framework for the quality assurance of the career development support system in all areas. Stakeholders and providers of career development support activities cooperate at the national and local levels. However, this cooperation is task or project based.
The well-developed regulatory framework establishes a solid base for various services. Teams composed of teachers and professional associates are supposed to offer the most considerable portion of the CGC activities in secondary schools and professional orientation in elementary schools primarily as extracurricular and non-mandatory activities. There are no precise recent data about their work, but available evidence shows that the extent and quality of the services offered to students vary significantly. CGC in dual education programmes is additionally encouraged but mainly seen as a tool for promoting enrolment in dual VET and supporting the success of WBL programmes. Optional subject Civic Education offers limited curricular coverage of career development-related topics. The number and quality of career guidance services offered to students vary depending on the capacities. Some higher education institutions started with introducing elective modules on CMS; however, further efforts are needed to promote career management skills development.
National Employment Service is the key career development support services provider for the unemployed and employed citizens within its registry. However, limited resources and low ICT usage impede more extensive and targeted outreach. The dominant career guidance mindset is to prevent wrong occupational choices and match skills supply to the labour market demand. Other career development service providers are youth offices, civil society organizations and projects that demonstrate flexibility in tailoring approaches to target group needs. Lack of professional career practitioners, sustainability and continuity in service provision hinder their development.
The key career development support services for employed persons are companies` HR departments. Collective agreements available for public administration workers guarantee professional development, but no support in career guidance is foreseen. The involvement of employers` associations is limited to training. Small and medium companies fall behind the large ones in offering career development support to their workers. There is an increasing need for services for a growing group of self-employed that is left unattended and for those employed in the informal economy.
The funding of career development support activities is provided from the central budget, grants and donations from international organizations or private sources. Ministry of Labour, Employment, Social and Veteran Affairs and Ministry of Youth and Sport plan sources for active labour market measures implemented by the National Employment Service and programmes delivered by youth offices and civil society organizations to encourage youth employability. The budget of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development and provincial educational authorities plans for covering teachers` and professional associates` salaries without incentivizing CGC activities.
NES provides services tailored for various vulnerable groups or hard to employ citizens and prioritizes their access to active labour market measures. However, only one-third of young unemployed is registered with the NES. Data (collected within Connect! project) also show that people with disabilities, older employees, employees preparing for retirement, migrants, are less likely to be recognized by career guidance practitioners. As high as 54,8% of young people stated that they have not participated in any career guidance and counselling activities, according to the Ministry of Youth and Sport report, which shows that access to career development support remains a challenge even for a general population of young people.
Due to an urge to shift online as caused by pandemics, almost all service providers adjusted their career development support services to the online or hybrid format, and some new ones were launched. The action plan for Education Development Strategy defines several indicators related to increasing digital competencies, but none specifies eGuidance or similar. On the other side, recent analysis show that there is an evident need among young people to seek online career development support.
The purpose of the Standards for career guidance and counselling services is to provide guidelines on how to develop services, programmes, organizational procedures, competencies of the practitioners so that the goals and outcomes are focused on the development of career management skills, and to evaluate, self-evaluate, and enhance existing programmes and services. Strategic documents in education, employment and youth envisage the implementation of standards, mostly through promotion. The qualifications of CGC practitioners vary as there are no master’s or bachelor’s degrees or at least short studies programmes and no licencing mechanisms. Nevertheless, most of the programmes for training of teachers and other practitioners offered in Serbia are in line with the standards, although this alignment is still not set as a mandatory requirement despite recent initiatives.
Numerous web-based materials providing career information are available, but they are neither comprehensive nor integrated. Another challenge is the usability and youth-friendliness of some information. Efforts to monitor the implementation of standards in a coordinated manner have been in place but need further impetus to ensure the continuity of data gathering.
Three priority policy areas
Based on the key findings from the review and consultation and validation meetings with key stakeholders, the following priority policy areas have been identified.
1) Coordination and cooperation. Identify an inter-ministerial and cross-sectoral body by building on one of the existing structures and mandate it to coordinate career development support policies and practices in a system approach, to assure structured long-term coordination across different sectors and steer the development of reforms in coordination, services, funding, access, use of technology in career guidance, and quality assurance. Focus the work of the working group around the adaptation of all services to the CGC standards and monitoring implementation of all 4 standards` elements primarily in education, employment and youth sector.
2) Capacity building for access. Assure access to career education and career guidance and counselling for all students from primary till higher education and for more unemployed people. Build capacities of career guidance practitioners and teams from education, employment, and youth services in line with the CGC standards to tackle the issue of high numbers of young people without access to CGC and high numbers of unemployed and inactive; thereby helping young people in Serbia to deal with continuous experience of difficulties in accessing the labour market, to find a stable job and remain in employment on the basis of career management skills.
3) Use of Technology. Review existing online and digital services for CGC and especially career information, in education (qualifications, educational profiles, schools, etc.), employment (classification and description of occupations, labour market information), and youth organisations (also from civil society and donor projects) and develop a plan for integrating services into a one-stop entry platform in the medium to long term. Involve user groups to ensure the user-friendliness of services. Build on platforms planned in Education and Employment Strategy.