On 22 October 2025, the Slovenian team of the GUIDE project hosted an online multiplier event titled Your Practice Matters: How to Integrate Gender in Career Guidance. The event brought together 30 professionals from diverse institutions – career centres, adult education providers, primary and secondary schools, HR departments, and organisations working in the field of gender equality.
Career guidance is a space where personal stories, societal dynamics, and opportunities for change come together. It plays a crucial role in helping individuals navigate transitions, make informed decisions, and face challenges throughout their career paths. With this in mind, the event focused on how gender-sensitive career guidance can support fairer and more meaningful choices for individuals – and, at the same time, contribute to building a more inclusive society. For the participants, who work daily with people at different stages of their career development, the event offered both inspiration and practical tools to strengthen their inclusive practice.
The event opened with a keynote by Dr Majda Hrženjak from the Peace Institute, titled Inclusive Career Guidance and the Gender Perspective. She emphasised that the prevailing gender-neutral approach in Slovenia often assumes masculinity as the norm. In contrast, the European Union promotes gender sensitivity, aiming for equality in diversity rather than uniformity. Dr Hrženjak also highlighted how persistent gender stereotypes in the world of work continue to stand in the way of achieving this vision.
Participants were also introduced to the key results of the GUIDE project – a set of tools and resources designed to support more inclusive career guidance. The Slovenian team presented how these materials can be used in practice, including the Gender-Sensitive Career Guidance Toolkit, the Co-creating Counselling Model, the online course, and the Digital tool for identifying stereotypes in career decision-making.
A special focus was placed on the Co-creating Counselling Model, which was explored in an interactive session. In small groups, participants took on the roles of counsellor, client, or observer and engaged in short counselling sessions with a gender-sensitive lens. This part of the event was particularly well received, as it offered both hands-on experience and space for peer exchange.
The event concluded with a group discussion on the importance of addressing gender in career guidance and how to engage those who may not yet recognise the value of an inclusive approach.
The strong interest and active participation confirmed that inclusive career guidance is a timely and relevant topic. As the GUIDE project comes to a close, we are proud to have developed resources that can support professionals in making their practice more inclusive. We invite you to explore them – they can be your next step toward more equitable career guidance and a fairer society.
