Welcome to the Guidance room

About The Guidance Room

The Guidance Room is a professional learning resource developed in Norway to support career guidance practitioners in their continuous competence development. The resource consists of eight constructed cases, each introduced through a short film and followed by selected moments from a guidance session.
 
Its purpose is to strengthen practitioners’ ability to reflect on real-life guidance situations and to explore how different competence areas—defined in the Norwegian National Quality Framework for Career Guidance—are applied in practice. This international edition includes background information about the Norwegian guidance system, English subtitles for all films, and reflection questions adapted for use across countries. 

The translation is founded by Euroguidance.

Structure of the Resource

The Guidance Room consists of two thematic editions:

1. The School Edition – cases featuring students in lower and upper secondary education.
2. The Adult Edition – cases featuring adults in diverse life situations.

 
Each case includes two short film episodes:

• Episode One introduces the guidance seeker and their situation.
• Episode Two shows selected moments from a guidance session, illustrating professional considerations and dilemmas.

A Norwegian Resource - Adapted for a Global Audience  

The Guidance Room was originally developed as a professional learning resource for career guidance practitioners in Norway. Eight constructed cases were developed, each featuring a career seeker introduced through a short film. These cases include selected moments from their career guidance sessions. The purpose was to foster reflection on real-life counseling situations and support engagement with Norway’s national competence standards for career guidance. 

In this version of The Guidance Room, we’ve included additional information about the organization and structure of career guidance in Norway. The films are subtitled in English, and the accompanying reflection questions have been adapted to ensure relevance for career guidance practitioners beyond the Norwegian context. 

Competence Standards for Career Guidance

The Guidance Room is grounded in the Norwegian Competence Standards for Career Guidance, which describe the knowledge, skills, and professional judgement required to deliver high-quality services across sectors and contexts.
 
The standards include seven competence areas:
1.          Guidance
2.          Ethics
3.          Career-related theories and methods
4.          Career learning
5.          Education and work
6.          Target groups and context
7.          Development, networking and system-level work
 
Practitioners may use the self-assessment tool «My Competence» to assess their strengths and areas for development in relation to the seven areas. 

How the Cases Were Developed

All the career guidance practitioners featured in The Guidance Room are professionals working in public career centers, schools, the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (Nav), or in higher education institutions. The individuals seeking guidance in the films are portrayed by professional actors, based on scripted scenarios. 

The career guidance seekers stories and the guidance moments are fictional, but the scripts were developed collaboratively by the Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-dir) and the participating guidance professionals. These scripts draw on real experiences from the field. The guidance sessions are not intended to represent a definitive model of best practice. Rather, they serve as examples of how practitioners apply their competencies in diverse situations - and are designed to spark reflection around the Norwegian national competence standards. 

The career counselors featured in The Guidance Room are Lisa Quagliata, Jeanette Ringvoll Wærsted, Vivienne Lumayag, Synne Strøm Astad, Robin Vikaune Ciovina,  May-Jorunn Barlien, Adine Dørum, Aina Engan Døhl, Elise Fosby Jaavall, and Kiya Ahmed.