Legal framework for practicing guidance counselling in Romania

The guidance professionals can practice in the field of education, public employment and in the private sector.

Guidance counsellors in education must have the academic background in humanities (for the alumni generations from 1977 to 1990 with a degree in philosophy) or in social science (sociology, psychology, social work, special psycho-pedagogy for the graduates after 1990). Apart from the bachelor degree, the practitioners can choose to take the 2-years master’s courses in school counselling or related specializations. The public universities offering such post-degree diplomas are those in Bucharest, Cluj, and Iaşi. Once on the job, the school counsellors make available information about the schooling opportunities, local labour market, techniques to approach it, counsel parents, and consult with teachers about the modern and appropriate methodology or class environment, etc. They have to learn while doing how to attract local funding and to determine relevant actors involvement for initiatives and projects on topics that are important for the given school community.

The vocational counsellors in the Public Employment Services have different background and are not restricted to psychology or equivalent degree. They operate in a network of centres designed through a World Bank Project in the year 2000 to provide career information and counselling services to students, youth, professionally active and prospectively unemployed population. Mandatory in-house training is undertaken while on the job, with a view to enable the employment advisers in the use of standardised documentation and tools. The main purposes are: to help cut unemployment through active measures (information about job creation, training and retraining courses, starting a business) and direct people to the labour market, as well as to provide employers with qualified workforce.

In the private sector, the big-scale operations companies (foreign or local) and the newly emerged ones in competition for a place on the market turn more and more to HR experts (free-lance consultants or legal entities irrespective of their backgrounds) for staff recruitment and viable policies of continuing professional development. Usually, people working in HRD have accumulated a large and targeted experience through study and training abroad; they are young and ambitious and have learned to apply in the local context the international formulas accredited for success. In case they are independent they offer services to both people in search for job upgrading and companies looking for the right personnel to hire.

The training offers for the guidance counsellors in Romania:

• Master courses in school counselling at the University of Bucharest – Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences http://www.unibuc.ro/ro/master_pscs_ro
• Master courses in school counselling at the University Babeş-Bolyai in Cluj – modules in Romanian and Hungarian http://www.ubbcluj.ro/index-ro.htm
• Master courses in staff evaluation, training and counselling at the University A.I. Cuza in Iaşi http://www.uaic.ro/default.php?t=site&pgid=648&lang=RO
• Master course in educational and vocational guidance at the private university Titu Maiorescu in Bucharest – Faculty of Psychology http://217.10.195.242/2005A/psi_studii_postuniv.html
• The Romanian Society for Experiential Psycho-therapy http://users.pcnet.ro/sper/
• The Foundation Centre Education 2000+, short-term training in school guidance and counselling http://www.cedu.ro/newsro001.php?id=41

March 2006