Strength

Project lead                       
Prof. Dr. Peter Weber 

Project participants             
Prof. Dr. Gundula Gwenn Hiller

Project staff
Dr. Stefan Matthias Zick-Varul 

Third-party funding providers                    
European Union Erasmus+ Programme

Project duration                               
September 2019 – August 2022

Coordinating institution 
Municipal Centre of Resources and Educational Assistance Bucharest, Romania

Project partners

• ISON Psychometrica, Greece
• Studio risorse S.r.l., Italy
• Häme University of Applied Sciences, Finland
• Foundation of the Network for Innovation in Career Guidance and Counselling in Europe, The Netherlands
• The União das Freguesias de Gondomar (S. Cosme), Portugal
• Institutul de Stiinte Ale Educatiei, Moldova

The project STRENGTh is designed to help career advisors gain transversal and social skills , to improve their effectiveness and also primarily their own employability and that of their clients.
The STRENGTH-project focuses on increasing counsellors' social and emotional skills. The aim of the project is the development of an innovative training programme to improve the social-emotional skills in the field of career counselling that is based on established research, the main users of which are career advisors.
The aim of the project is to propose specific solutions to be able to train a new generation of socially sensitive career counsellors who are capable of developing and putting into practice interpersonal and social intelligence so as to successfully build up professional relationships and to find their way around different social environments. 

The STRENGTh-project will focus on increasing the social and emotional skills of career advisors. The STRENGTh-project intends to support social inclusion, create opportunities for the first professional training as well as the training of trainers and counsellors, and also to establish open and innovative practices in a digital age.

Due to the serious economic crises in terms of increasing unemployment European labour markets are expected to change on a large scale. This is why life-long counselling and support will be necessary. It is essential that every individual is capable of designing and managing their own career for the duration of their life. For this reason, quality management and effective career counselling and orientation are seen as imperative, and that the training of career counsellors in this field is effective.
Professional interaction between a career counsellor and their client is a very personal yet important aspect in the counselling process. It is mainly based on understanding the client, their moods and thoughts, and this requires good communication skills, sensitivity towards feelings/emotions, motivation, as well as the management of interactions with other people and the development of healthy personal relationships. This is why it is absolutely essential that career counsellors possess very good social, emotional and interpersonal skills.

The project will develop innovative methods and tools to enable career counsellors to work more effectively and to improve their competencies.