A view of Career Guidance and Counselling (CGC) as an important set of services to be made available to individuals and groups at any stage of their lives is supported by various policy-oriented international networks for over a decade. These networks have focused their efforts on defining career guidance and related concepts (e.g. ELGPN, 2014), emphasizing the lifelong dimension of these services (e.g. CEDEFOP, 2025; ELGPN, 2015), and guiding national policy developments across Europe (e.g. Interagency Working Group, 2025). In recent years, the OECD has joined these efforts by providing extensive data, mainly from PISA, as well as from longitudinal studies on Career Readiness. These data show that secondary school students who frequently explore, experience, and reflect on their future working lives encounter lower levels of unemployment, receive higher wages, and report greater career satisfaction as adults (Covacevich et al., 2021). Moreover, PISA data indicate that a high proportion of all students are uncertain about their career plans and that students from disadvantaged backgrounds face greater uncertainty, lower occupational ambition, and higher levels of career misalignment (OECD, 2025). Extensive PISA data further show that students from disadvantaged groups are less likely to participate in regular school-based career guidance activities; therefore emphasizing the importance of high-quality, tailored guidance for vulnerable groups (OECD, 2024).

However, career guidance provision and governance differ greatly across countries and regions, as do guidance practitioners’ job profiles and qualifications (CEDEFOP, 2021). Only a few European countries have clearly regulated practitioner qualification levels and professional development requirements (Barnes et al., 2020). Moreover, in many European countries the delivery of guidance services is often fragmented, with services established only for specific targeted groups (Barnes et al., 2020). However, recent efforts to define practitioners’ roles and to recognize their competencies are noticeable across Europe (CEDEFOP, 2021).

In Serbia, the CGC landscape is similar to the situation described above. Career guidance services are delivered across three sectors, education, employment, and youth, with varying levels of regulation governing service provision in each sector. Professionals providing these services differ considerably in terms of job requirements, qualifications, and continuing professional development (CPD) pathways (European Training Foundation, 2022), thus forming a heterogeneous group. A specific feature of career guidance provision in educational institutions is that, by Law, CGC activities are an integral part of school activities. These activities may be provided by teachers and/or professional associates (most commonly psychologists, pedagogues, andragogues). While the latter may acquire CGC-related competences through their initial education, teachers typically do not (European Training Foundation, 2022). Consequently, CPD remains the primary mechanism through which teachers can gain knowledge and understanding of the field and enhance their CGC competences. At the system level, continuous efforts are being made to promote service quality, enable cross-sectoral cooperation, and bridge competence gaps through the development of CGC standards, guidelines, and training opportunities (European Training Foundation, 2022). However, these processes are still ongoing.

As part of an organization and team specifically dedicated to supporting the quality of career guidance at the national level, primarily through the activities of the Euroguidance Centre, the author team sought to further examine guidance practitioners in schools. Given existing constraints, such as limited opportunities to develop CGC competences through initial education and the multiple responsibilities these practitioners face within their roles, they are in a specific position in the provision of CGC. Therefore, this study aims to explore teachers’ and professional associates’ perceptions of the role of schools in the career guidance of young people, their own role within this process, as well as the contextual barriers they encounter and the strengths they recognise.

This study uses a qualitative approach to identify common themes in practitioners’ reflections on the role of educational institutions and their own role in career guidance and counselling, as well as possible future directions of their work in this field, including contextual constraints and strengths. The study anticipates participation from career guidance practitioners from primary and secondary schools, as well as adult education institutions, across Serbia, with a total of approximately 60 respondents. Reflections are collected during accredited training programmes on CGC in educational settings. Three distinct training programmes on this topic are offered to school employees throughout the year. The first programme focuses on basic information and activities that can be organised for students in primary and secondary education; the second is also a basic programme but covers career guidance activities for adult learners; and the third is designed for more experienced practitioners and focuses on improving career guidance activities offered by schools through teamwork and planning. While their focus varies slightly, all programmes share the common aim of improving practitioners’ knowledge and understanding of career guidance, taking into account their prior experience with the topic. All three programmes are accredited by the national accreditation body for CPD programmes, the Institute for the Improvement of Education, and are led by experienced trainers. The programmes are offered as one of numerous options teachers may choose from based on their interests and professional development plans, although they are required to complete one CPD programme (on any topic) per year. The programmes are designed using active learning methodologies and are based on a “practitioner-to-practitioner” approach, offering concrete examples of activities and practices. Participants’ reflections are gathered using a self-reflection tool administered at the end of the training. The aim of the tool is to guide reflection and encourage action towards implementing the acquired knowledge and information, as well as to capture participants’ immediate thoughts following a day of training focused on career guidance as part of their professional activities. The reflection tool consists of several simple open-ended questions addressing the aforementioned topics. The data are analysed using a general inductive approach (Thomas, 2006). The analysis process foresees four stages: (1) familiarization with the data and definition of the unit of analysis; (2) development of initial codes from a data sample; (3) researcher discussions to reach consensus on code definitions; and (4) coding of the remaining data and synthesis of findings.

An initial look into the partially collected data provides insight into multiple perspectives on the roles of school and practitioners in the provision of career guidance services. More in-depth analyses are expected to clarify the nature of these roles. Existing PISA data mentioned above, have demonstrated the importance of so-called career conversations with teachers for students’ career readiness; therefore, it would be valuable to further examine practitioners’ references to specific activities associated with perceived roles and their potential relationship to student outcomes. Additionally, respondents offered a range of reflections on possible future directions for their actions in the provision of CGC services, as well as on job-related and school-level constraints. At the same time, they identified personal strengths and school- and local-level resources that may help to overcome these barriers. The findings of the study are expected to inform the further development of practice and system-level support measures, as well as to contribute to relevant policy efforts. In the national context, where school-based career practitioners represent the largest group of practitioners, the study aims to support the development of tailored assistance not only for practitioners but also for schools as a whole. Internationally, given the diverse landscape of CGC service providers, practitioners’ backgrounds, and the ongoing process of defining the career practitioner role, occupation, and/or qualifications, this study may also be informative for similar contexts.

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