Career guidance is changing fast. Employment counsellors and vocational guidance practitioners are increasingly expected to support people through new virtual environments and AI-powered tools – often with little training or support to do so confidently.

Virtual Job is a new European consortium bringing together six organisations from Sweden, Austria, Ireland, Lithuania, Ukraine and Spain to help guidance practitioners build exactly these skills. Together, the team is creating a shared space to learn, exchange practice and grow confidence in using digital tools for career support.

At the heart of the programme is a Community of Practice: a network of employment counsellors and vocational guidance professionals from across Europe who will learn from each other, share real challenges, and test new approaches together. If you support jobseekers, graduates or career changers, this community is for you.

From September, we’re launching a series of online Masterclasses open to community members across Europe. Delivered in English and lasting around 90 minutes, each session tackles a practical theme:

• Using AI in career guidance practice
• Supporting clients in virtual environments
• Digital methods, tools and navigation
• Ethics, safety and critical use of AI
• How digital change is reshaping the counsellor’s role

Alongside the Masterclasses, national learning groups will meet locally in each partner country from 2027, working in local languages and in whatever format suits practitioners best – in person, online, or a mix of both. A growing library of ready-to-use learning activities will also be shared, so practitioners can bring what they learn straight back into their own teams.

Rinova is leading the design of this learning programme. Based at the Polo de Contenidos Digitales in Málaga, a digital innovation hub, our team is shaping the Masterclass themes and the Community of Practice. We’re building on recent experience running successful cooperation initiatives such as MAAS and DISCO, which brought together job brokers and guidance professionals from across Europe.

If you’re an employment counsellor, careers advisor or vocational guidance practitioner, we’d love you to join us. Membership of the Community of Practice is free and open to practitioners across Europe.

Get involved

• Follow the hashtag #VirtualJobEU on social media for updates and resources
• Visit virtual-job.eu to find out more
• Want to join the Community of Practice or find out more? Contact Michele at micheledv@rinova.es

This is a collaborative effort by six partners from six EU countries:

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Swedish Council for Higher Education (UHR). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. The Virtual Job project will be implemented from November 2025 to October 2027. (Funding ref. 2025-1-SE01-KA220-VET-000354613)