DigiCards

<< Background >>The digitalization of educational and career guidance methods is crucial to take advantage of the opportunities that come with the digital transformation. The landscape showed an urgent need for digital methods for practitioners, as effective virtual guidance goes beyond the mere use of communication platforms. Without the integration of digital methods into daily guidance practice, there is a significant risk that practitioners will revert to traditional face-to-face interactions. This highlights the importance of using technological advances to improve the quality and accessibility of (virtual) guidance. DigiCards has responded to this need by developing practical solutions for guidance. This not only strengthened the digital competences of clients, but also those of the counsellors and supports the digitization of educational and career guidance itself without losing the high standards of guidance.<< Objectives >>With DigiCards, we wanted to help promote the development and strengthening of digital competences, particularly in the context of educational and career counseling, as well as support institutions on the path to digital transformation through the provision of digital methods, as was also anchored in the Digital Education Action Plan. In concrete terms, we have pursued two central project objectives at DigiCars:1. Design & test user friendly, tailored digital competence cards, which are relevant for labour market, social inclusion & personal development.2. Enable career counsellors to use DigiCards in daily work practiceBy programming and developing digital competence cards, we have succeeded in digitizing a central method of educational and career guidance in the context of competence work. This method can be applied in real time between the consultant and the client and is thus made possible in a virtual environment as well as in a face-to-face setting. Furthermore, we have created a framework with our workshops and multiplier events to promote the exchange of good practices and to introduce practitioners to the various possible use of DigiCards so that they can use it in their daily work.<< Implementation >>To determine the needs, 2 focus groups were held with a total of 13 counsellors & 2 expert interviews were conducted. Established competence frameworks were analyzed & compared with the results of the focus groups, which served as a basis for the development of the digital cards (62 competencies in EN & German). After an internal pilot, the competency cards were tested by 53 counsellors from more than 24 countries & 804 competence cards sets have been created. In addition, a competence handbook was created to provide guidelines & we conducted workshops with a total of 94 participants. A website in EN & German & a logo were created (https://digicardstool.eu/). A social media content creation strategy was created & in total 37 posts were published. We included DigiCards in the publication of articles & used EPALE to disseminate the project. The project was presented at a workshop during the Euroguidance conference & presented at the BeSt Fair, the largest education & career fair in Western Austria. In Brussels the project was part of the Lifelong Learning week & was presented at an EVTA event. The final event ‘Empowering futures: leveraging digital tools for career & educational counselling’ of DigiCards reached 32 participants. << Results >>We conducted 2 focus groups & 2 expert interviews with a total of 13 participants. The results were summarized in reports & a total of 62 competences were selected for the digital cards in EN & German. Each competence card included a definition, 3 examples, an icon, assignment to a category & a color code. The technical setup of card sets was enabled, which allowed the cards to be moved accordingly. Functions to write notes were created, link content & assign the notes to the corresponding cards. 53 users from more than 24 countries in the EU & beyond tested them & 804 card sets were created. An evaluation form was created to get feedback & was used by 24 people. We created a Competence Handbook in EN & German, which is available as open source & for free on the project website. We conducted 4 workshops & engaged 94 participants. We published several articles & 39 posts with 16.652 impressions on social media. DigiCards was represented at the BeST fair with 250 exhibitors from professional & educational categories, at a workshop with 20 participants at the Euroguidance conference, at the Lifelong Learning Week in Brussels with 39 participants & presented at 2 online events by EVTA. The final online event engaged 32 people.