Connect!

Project lead 
Prof. Dr. Peter Weber 

Project participants 
Prof. Dr. Bettina Siecke 

Project staff 
Dr. Stefan Matthias Zick-Varul 

Third-party funding provider  
European Union Erasmus+ Programme

Project duration
September 2019 – August 2022 

Coordinating institution
HdBA

Project partners

• University of Padua, Italy 
• Danube University Krems, Austria
• Saxion University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands
• ISON Psychometrica, Greece
• Belgrade Open School, Serbia 
• Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania

Challenges such as demographic change, individualisation and digitalisation have further increased the pace of change in the labour market. On the one hand, companies have the challenge of having to cover new needs, skills and qualifications from a workforce that is no longer growing. Their task is to identify potential in their employees, motivate them and organise life-long learning. On the other hand,employees feel confronted with the need to adapt their skills to new requirements more and more in order to keep their job – and at the same time, they also want to develop their potential and be recognised for doing so through some kind of professional move.

In this situation there is, according to the project motto CONNECT!, an increased need for the individualised career counselling of employees who do not receive sufficient cover, neither through (Human Resource Development, HRD) nor through (Career Guidance and Counselling, CGC) . This is especially important for small and medium-sized companies as well as previously disadvantaged groups. Through the development of specific, transferable information and education for students and those at work CONNECT! supports the development of innovative practices in career counselling.

Here we collect needs and innovative practices from the perspective of Human Resource managers, Human Resource developers and counsellors. We develop curricula for students and universities as well as for further training for counsellors and more senior staff in HRD and CGC, building on research and our own investigations. Based on the latest findings from academic observations and practical experience, new approaches and innovative strategies in career counselling in companies and how to implement them within the framework of organisational change are communicated in courses. Both curricula are piloted and evaluated in the participating countries.

The curricula as well as comprehensive, systematically drawn up material to go deeper into detail have been made available in a web portal . Here you can also find the results of literary evaluations and surveys by way of national reports and transnational syntheses. A learning platform, which supports the implementation of curricula in university and further training in practice, has also been made available through the portal.

• IO 1: Evaluation of research
• IO 2: Empirical survey among CGC and HRD practitioners to develop guidelines for practice
• IO 3: Curriculum for students
• IO 4: Curriculum for practitioners
• IO 5: Media Centre / Material for theory and practice
• IO 6: Web portal and learning platform
• IO 7: Test run