Objective:
The initiative aims to increase public awareness and accessibility of career guidance services by offering free workshops and individual consultations. It seeks to raise awareness about different existing services in career guidance for adults by providing a short snippet of the guidance process (workshop and short individual interview). The event also helps members of the association to promote their services (which is especially relevant for free-lance members who promote their services) or other free providers of career guidance (inform the public about the existing services of the labour office). The strategic objective was to contribute to a better participation on lifelong guidance.
Target group:
Wider public (jobseekers, career changers, students, employees dissatisfied with their current role)
Members of the association (career guidance counsellors as facilitators of the events)
Indirectly: policy-makers and employers, through visibility of the association’s outreach activities
Duration and frequency:
The activity is organised as a series of public events, typically once a year during the national Career Week or Lifelong Guidance Week. Each event lasts around 1.5 to 3 hours, including a group workshop and optional individual consultations provided for free (usually 1h workshop and then 20-30 minutes of individual consultations – the length depends on the number of practitioners that are present and number of participants. In the 2022/2023 series, 10 events were organised in different Slovak cities, engaging 14 counsellors and 82 participants.
Description:
“Coffee with a Career Guidance Counsellor” is an informal yet structured public event held in cafés or community spaces, designed to make career counselling approachable. Each session combines an interactive experiential workshop with the possibility of short individual consultations. Counsellors use career tools such as interest inventories, strength mapping, and value clarification exercises. Example topics include:
- Identifying strengths and transferable skills
- Exploring career options and labour market opportunities
- Preparing for career change or job search
- Choosing further education or training pathways
Despite the short duration of the session (workshop and short interview), many participants gave positive feedback expressing greater clarity about their strengths, increased confidence, and concrete next steps for their career development. Participants also signal improved understanding of career counselling, but few decide to go for a follow-up session (given the lack of public funding for guidance for working adults).
Implementation steps:
- Needs analysis and planning: Assess regional demand, select cities and venues, and identify available counsellors (association members). This is usually done through contacting directly all association members or select a specific regional “leader” – member of the association, who is willing to organise the event in their region.
- Partnership and promotion: Secure media partners, coordinate communication through social media, press releases, and local networks. The social media campaign can be strengthened with short, TikTok-style videos in which consultants briefly present a service and clarify an important concept (in a way that is understandable).The event was usually promoted through partners, such as job-seeking portals, sometimes also local media (newspapers), radio, public employment offices. The dissemination was facilitated by the integration into a wider movement of “National careers week” that provided synergistic effects. The association assured the promotion on national level (including paid promotion on social networks) and common visual identity (posters that were showed in the venues).
- Logistics: Book venues (cafés, co-working spaces, universities), arrange registration system (possible with a limited number of participants, if the organizing practitioners decide to provide individual sessions), prepare materials (workshop exercises, handouts, feedback forms). The venue was usually identified and booked by the local career counsellors (the reservation fees were covered by the Association. The association provided an introductory presentation (explaining career guidance, the association, the goal of the event). The association also provided a registration form for local events.
- Delivery: Facilitate interactive workshops (usually 1 hour), followed by optional individual consultations (15–30 minutes each). The content of the local event (apart from the introductory presentation) was created by the local counsellors. The event can be also carried online, as a workshop with a possibility of further contact with the counsellor (if it is possible). It is important to have handouts and extra info where the person can move on, continue the journey they have started.
- Feedback and evaluation: Collect participant feedback, document attendance, and compile qualitative testimonials – the evaluation questionnaire was sent centrally by the association to the registered participants.It is also possible to put it somewhere in a form of a QR code (on the leaflet, in the presentation, on the table.
- Follow-up: Share outcomes with the association, media partners, and counsellors; explore opportunities for individual follow-up counselling. The synthesis of the event (number of participants, towns where events were held, collected feedback and testimonials…) was published on the website of the association and sometimes also on the websites of media partners.
Necessary conditions:
- Material resources: Café or co-working space with seating for 15–25 people, introductory presentation, data-projector, printed workshop materials, and basic stationery (depending on the nature of the workshop). In case short individual consultations are proposed, make sure tables are available.
- Budget: Mainly for venue rental (when not offered free), promotional materials, and small reimbursements for counsellors’ travel / stationery; overall low-cost due to volunteer contributions.
- Staff: 1–2 career counsellors per event with skills in facilitation, individual counselling (in Bratislava, 4-5 counsellors were often present due to more intense concentration of members). Organisers require skills in project coordination, event promotion, and stakeholder communication – good partnership with medias (e.g. career-focused sections of websites, job-seeking portals) can be useful,
- Time investment: Approx. 5–10 hours per event (including preparation, delivery, promotion, and evaluation).
- Main success factors and risks: The most time-consuming work was promotion of the events. In some regions, organising counsellors were sometimes disappointed due to a low number of participants. It is therefore helpful if local counsellors are able to promote the event, or engage a local partner who has access to potential clients – in some cases there was a collaboration with a local club of coaches, local career centre for youth. It is also effective to organise the event in places where different workshops are held and that have outreach and promotion potential, lot of followers on social networks etc. (community coffees, co-workings…). Follow-up opportunities were also important – while the event itself offered a “taster” of counselling, it was important to ensure pathways for participants to continue with individual guidance if desired (which provided an incentive for private counsellors) – in practice, however, very few contacts materialised in a contractual paid service.
Photos, videos, further resources:
2017 (first year): https://rozvojkariery.sk/tyzden-celozivotneho-poradenstva-prinasa-bezplatne-karierove-poradenstvo-pridte-na-kavu-s-karierovym-poradcom/
Report from the series of events in 2018 – 10 towns, 14 career counsellors and 82 participants: https://rozvojkariery.sk/v-10-mestach-sa-stretlo-so-14-karierovymi-poradcami-a-poradkynami-82-ludi-z-celeho-slovenska/
Contact person:
Michaela Valicová, event coordinator at ZKPRK (Slovakia) michaela.valicova@gmail.com