Competency Framework and Assessment tools for Career Professionals

A proposal for a National Competency Framework for Career Professionals (Vuorinen, Kasurinen, Kettunen et al., 2024) is a respond to the need presented in the Finnish National Strategy for Lifelong Guidance 2020–2023 to prepare national competence descriptions to improve the quality of guidance and strengthen the professionalism of the field. 

The development of national competency descriptions is based on a literature review that examined international and national competency descriptions for guidance work. The competency descriptions were specified and elaborated in cooperation with career professionals and experts: several hundred professionals participated in the co-creation process.

The competency descriptions for career professionals offer several opportunities for utilisation. They can be used to examine both professional requirements and competency in various guidance tasks. The various competency areas complement each other and together they form a comprehensive set of competencies for both professionals and organisations.

In addition, assessment forms and online tools have been developed to support the use of the competency framework. They allow guidance professionals, teams, multidisciplinary networks and organisations to assess their own guidance competencies in relation to the specific descriptions. In a group, team, or network, insights from group assessment can help to identify collective strengths and areas in need of development. Organizations can use forms as part of a broader strategic planning process. With the systematic planning and monitoring, the resources and measures needed for competence development at any given time can be allocated more precisely.

The following three online tools/resources have been published to support the use of the competency framework:

• Interactive figure of the competency framework: the competency framework can be easily explored through an interactive figure, where each competency area and its corresponding description can be examined simply by clicking on the associated area
• The online version of the competency framework: the competency descriptions can be conveniently browsed online
• Online tool for competency assessment as well as competency development planning: this online tool enables guidance professionals, teams, multidisciplinary networks, and organisations to assess their guidance competence against the Competency Framework for Career Professionals and to set targeted competency goals