THIS EUROPEAN RESOURCE KIT is designed to help policy-makers and other stakeholders to review existing lifelong guidance provision within their country or region, and to identify issues requiring attention and gaps that need to be filled, drawing from practices in other European countries. Lifelong guidance covers all activities designed to help individuals, at any point in their lives, to make educational, training and occupational choices and to manage their careers. The Resource Kit is based on the four key themes identified in the 2004 and 2008 EU Resolutions:

• Career management skills.
• Access, including accreditation of prior experiential learning (APEL).
• Co-operation and co-ordination mechanisms in guidance policy and systems development.
• Quality assurance and evidence base for policy and systems development.

The Resource Kit has been developed by members of European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network ( ELGPN). The ELGPN represents a major development in support of national lifelong guidance policy development in Europe. It currently has 29 member countries (AT, CY, CZ, DE, DK, EE, EL, ES, FI, FR, HR, HU, IE, IS, IT, LV, LT, LU, MT, NL, NO, PL, PT, RO, SE, SI, SK, TR, UK), with 2 additional countries as observers (BE, BG). The participating countries designate their representatives in the Network, and are encouraged to include both governmental and non-governmental representatives. As a Member-State-driven network, the ELGPN represents an innovative form of the Open Method of Coordination within the European Union (EU).