From Reflection to Strategy: TheCG-International Learning Journey

The CG-International project has demonstrated the value of international peer learning as a driver of institutional change, enabling VET providers in the Western Balkans to explore successful European career guidance models and transform those insights into concrete actions and long-term strategies.

Through two study visits organised — first in Finland and later in the Netherlands — project partners explored different approaches to career guidance, reflected on their own institutional realities, and began designing sustainable strategies to strengthen guidance services in their schools.

Finland: Understanding Career Guidance as a System

The study visit to Finland offered participants a first-hand view of a CG model where guidance is not treated as an isolated activity but as an integral part of the education system. Participants explored how career guidance is embedded throughout learners’ educational journeys, supported by specialised professionals, clear structures and strong links between education, employment and lifelong learning. 

However, the greatest value of the visit was not simply observing good practices. It was the opportunity to critically analyse what elements could realistically be adapted to the contexts of Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro. 

Through a series of workshops, each participating institution carried out a self-assessment of its current career guidance provision and developed an initial Action Plan. Despite their different contexts, the schools identified remarkably similar challenges: the absence of structured guidance systems, limited staff training, insufficient use of labour market information, and a lack of dedicated career guidance professionals. 

At the same time, the process revealed important strengths, including strong employer networks, committed teaching staff and growing experience in international cooperation. This reflection helped schools move from identifying problems to defining concrete priorities for improvement. 

Focus on Innovation: Omnia Makerspace 

Alongside the sessions on the Finnish Career Guidance system and Action Plan workshops, participants also visited Omnia Makerspace, located within A Grid, Aalto University’s start-up hub. The visit offered a different and highly practical view of how career learning can be supported through experimentation, entrepreneurship, and cooperation with the world of work.

Omnia Makerspace is an open learning environment where VET students, teachers, start-ups, and community members can meet, develop ideas, test technologies, and work on real projects. The space offers access to tools such as 3D printers, virtual-reality equipment, and media production facilities, and hosts workshops, hackathons, prototyping activities, and collaborative projects. 

What makes this example especially relevant for Career Guidance is the direct connection it creates between learning and real professional experiences. Students can contribute to real challenges proposed by start-ups, test ideas, develop products and services, and receive direct feedback from professionals. These exchanges can also lead to internships, new professional contacts, and employment opportunities. 

The model shows that Career Guidance does not happen only through formal counselling. It can also take place when students are given opportunities to explore their interests, test their abilities, meet professionals, and understand different roles through direct experience. 

The most transferable lesson is not the physical space itself, but the approach behind it: bringing education, employers, innovation, and the local community together to create meaningful career-learning opportunities. While the full model may not be replicated in every institution, its main principles can inspire smaller-scale initiatives adapted to local needs, such as student innovation labs, employer-led challenges, collaborative workshops, or spaces where learners can experiment and explore career opportunities.

 

The Netherlands: From Action Plans to Strategic Thinking

While Finland provided inspiration and a basis for reflection, the study visit to the Netherlands focused on turning that work into more structured and sustainable Career Guidance strategies. 

Building on the Action Plans developed in Finland, each Western Balkan VET provider presented the work carried out within its institution, including its current Career Guidance provision, main challenges, strengths, vision, strategic objectives, and initial action ideas. 

A dedicated peer-feedback workshop then allowed each school to refine its strategy with input from EU experts and colleagues from the other Western Balkan institutions. Working in mixed groups, participants discussed the main Career Guidance challenges faced by each school, existing good practices, realistic actions for the next academic year, ways to involve employers more actively, support for vulnerable learners, and ideas from Finland and the Netherlands that could be adapted locally. 

This process helped the schools move beyond isolated activities and begin shaping clearer institutional strategies, with more defined priorities, actions, and responsibilities. It also created a direct link between the practices observed during the two study visits and the long-term development of Career Guidance within each institution. 

Alongside this strategic work, the Netherlands mobility also introduced participants to innovative educational models showing how Career Guidance can be supported through entrepreneurship,

personal coaching, and learner ownership. One particularly inspiring example was the Start-up School Eindhoven. 

Focus on Innovation: Start-up School Eindhoven

Part of Summa College, the Start-up School Eindhoven offers an alternative to a traditional learning pathway. It is designed for learners who are curious, enterprising, and still exploring who they are and what direction they want to take. The school creates a flexible environment where students can learn by doing, develop their own ideas, and test them through real projects. 

A central element of the model is student ownership. Learners are encouraged to define their own learning goals, choose projects that match their interests, and decide whether they want to develop their own start-up idea or work as an “in-house entrepreneur” on a project connected to an existing organisation. This makes the learning process closely connected to self-discovery, initiative, and future planning. 

The role of teachers also changes. They act less as traditional instructors and more as coaches, supporting students in reflecting on their choices, documenting their progress, collecting evidence of learning, and identifying the next steps in their development. Students are also supported by entrepreneurs and external experts, who provide feedback and help them connect their ideas with real professional environments. 

From a Career Guidance point of view, the Start-up School is particularly interesting because it does not start from the question “Which job should I choose?” but from broader questions: What motivates me? What am I good at? What kind of impact do I want to create? Through projects, feedback, reflection, and contact with professionals, students gradually build a clearer sense of their strengths, interests, and possible future pathways. 

For the CG-International participants, this example showed how Career Guidance can become part of the learning experience itself. It can support students not only in choosing between existing options, but also in developing confidence, initiative, adaptability, and the ability to create opportunities. This is especially relevant for VET institutions aiming to prepare learners for labour markets where entrepreneurship, 

flexibility, and self-direction are becoming increasingly important. 

Key Lessons Learned

Several common lessons emerged from both study visits. 

Career guidance is most effective when it is systemic. Successful institutions do not rely on occasional activities; they embed guidance into their educational processes, curricula and organisational structures. 

Career guidance is a shared responsibility. Teachers, counsellors, management teams, employers and external stakeholders all have a role to play in supporting students’ career development.

Labour market connections matter. Strong partnerships with employers and access to up-to-date labour market information help students make more informed decisions and improve their transition to employment. 

Professional capacity is essential. Schools need trained staff, dedicated resources and opportunities for continuous professional development to provide quality guidance services. 

International cooperation accelerates innovation. Exposure to different systems challenged assumptions, generated new ideas and provided practical examples that can be adapted to local realities.

A Lasting Impact Beyond Mobility 

The most important outcome of these study visits is not the knowledge acquired during a few days abroad, but the institutional change they have initiated. 

The three participating VET providers are now moving from reflection to implementation. The Action Plans developed in Finland and the Career Guidance Strategies initiated in the Netherlands provide a roadmap for strengthening career guidance services, improving employability support and creating more structured pathways for students’ career development. 

By combining international learning with local action, the CG-International project is helping VET institutions build career guidance systems that are more strategic, more inclusive and better aligned with the realities of today’s labour market.