APPEAR Project: Joint preparation for the training in Addis Ababa

Department of Social Work coordinates next steps for the training of educational and career counselors

Following the successful kick-off of the APPEAR project “Education and Vocational Counseling Training,” the international collaboration is moving into its next phase: Representatives of the project team from Innsbruck and Ethiopia recently met in Bolzano to coordinate the final preparations for the training of educational and vocational counselors scheduled for this fall.

Key topics of the exchange included organizational and content-related issues aimed at ensuring the successful implementation of the training. Together, they discussed strategies to ensure the project’s long-term impact, tailor the training content to meet specific needs, and align the project’s goals with the framework conditions of the participating Ethiopian universities.

The APPEAR project aims to strengthen career and educational opportunities at Ethiopian universities in a sustainable manner. By training career counselors and developing and providing appropriate resources, the project aims to offer students more targeted support in the future regarding educational pathways, academic progress, and career guidance. In particular, the project aims to help first-year students make well-informed academic and career decisions.

For the department of Social Work at MCI | The Entrepreneurial School^®, the meeting in Bolzano marks an important milestone on the path to the upcoming training week in Addis Ababa. There, directors of CEEDs (Centers for Employment and Entrepreneurship Development) and representatives from the participating universities will come together to further develop skills in career and educational counseling, exchange experiences, and develop joint approaches for sustainably embedding counseling services.

This collaboration brings together perspectives from Social Work, higher education development, and counseling with issues related to employability, innovation, and entrepreneurship education. In the spirit of partnership-based capacity building, the participating organizations draw on their existing experiences and institutional resources and work together to further develop them.

Barbara Lill-Rastern:

“Effective career and educational counseling require professional expertise, institutional support, and ongoing dialogue among all stakeholders. The meeting in Bolzano demonstrated just how valuable close collaboration with our partners is for preparing the training.”

These joint preparations have laid the foundation for the next phase of the project. The MCI department of Social Work looks forward to meeting the partners again in Addis Ababa and working together on counseling structures that will empower students in the long term as they pursue their educational and career paths.