During December 2017 and January 2018 the 2 participating schools piloted the Manual that has been developed during the Carma project. Please read the experiences of the piloting classes in Raahe below.

Most of our students find these Carma classes partly useful. At least it was something different compared to their everyday studying. The most useful were the discussions during Carma classes and also after. The questionnaries were usually filled out too fast and students did not really think through the questions. The best feedback came from students that said Carma classes really made them think about their future career and time after vocational school. In Finland every basic school has Counselling in their timetable. During those classes they have had almost similar activities like the Carma classes. That could be partly the reason that all of our students were not so satisfied according the answers in questionnaires. According our students’ feedback (after discussions) these Carma activities were useful and/or interesting.
 

Here in Finland the most important benefit of the Carma manual is that we got a compact booklet of career counselling for the VET teachers. We have already had this information but from several different sources. So, a teacher has to be very active and has to have a lot of time to find the materials for career counselling classes.
 

In Finland we are just having the biggest change in the history of VET. This so-called VET reform took place at the beginning of 2018. This reform updates the entire vocational education and training. In the future, work life requires a new kind of competence, while there are fewer financial resources available for education.
 

VET has to respond more swiftly to the changes in work life and operating environment and adapt to individual competence needs. This all means that career counselling will be more important in the future. The bigger part of the teaching will take place outside school buildings: work is carried out in various learning environments and teachers go to workplaces to provide guidance. Guiding and coaching are emphasised in teachers’ work and Carma manual will give VET teachers some new ideas and material for their needs.
You can download the CARMA Manual here 
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Career Management Skills at VET School Level (CARMA) Project number: 2016-1-HU01-KA202-022981