We create ECADOC 2020

Even though we won´t meet in person, we look forward to seeing you online in June. Here you can find presentations of all of the contributors to ECADOC 2020.

ECADOC 2020 will gather researchers and doctoral students from around the world, all of whom share a common interest in career guidance and counselling relevant to career guidance. This theme this year is, “Lifelong guidance in contexts of lifelong learning”, and was formulated by Dr. Ingela Bergmo-Prvulovic, who is acting as the host for ECADOC 2020, together with her team at the School of Education and Communication, Jönköping University. The other team members who are responsible for organizing ECADOC are Professor Cecilia Bjursell, Director of Encell, Sara Bref and Karolina Boberg. The team developed the program together with the scientific board of ECADOC, Professor Rie Thomsen, Dr. Anouk Jasmine Albien, Dr. Nikos Drosos and Professor Jérôme Rossier.


Our ambition is to bring together researchers who are interested in career guidance and counselling with researchers with different perspectives in the area of lifelong learning. Our goal is to explore and highlight the effects of changes and challenges that exist in lifelong learning contexts as well as their relationship to lifelong guidance. We also will explore how lifelong guidance can be positioned in relation to praxis and research. The ECADOC Summer School will focus on the role and function of career guidance in an age of uncertainty and how individual's learning processes in career development can be supported by career guidance. These issues will be discussed in relation to existing research on lifelong guidance in contexts of lifelong learning.

Welcome to the ECADOC online summer school!



Anouk Jasmine Albien

Dr. Anouk Jasmine Albien is an early post-doctoral researcher based at the Psychology Department in the work and organizational Division at the University of Bern, Switzerland and is a research fellow at Stellenbosch University. She has expertise in both quantitative and qualitative research and aims to contribute to advancing the career-life course development of children, adolescents, youth and adults in marginalised contexts to create new career-life narratives that transcend vulnerability and foster resilience. She has a keen interest in contributing to career psychology research that will understand decisions to migrate and facilitate migrant career adjustment, as well as to examine changes in the world-of-work that manifest in agile working practises and management strategies. Anouk has received several awards based on consistent academic excellence, of which the most recent are selection to the Emerging Psychologists Programme at the International Congress of Psychology (2021), the European Commission Seal of Excellence for her Marie Curie Research Proposal (2020), Academy of Management Career Division Outstanding Reviewer Award (2019), Completion of the prestigious COMET Career Programme for female academic leaders at the University of Bern (2019/20), and the Early Career Researcher’s award from the European Society for Vocational Designing and Career Counselling (ESVDC) as the first African to receive this award (2018). As a proud Alumni of the ECADOC programme, she has a keen interest in sustaining the success of the ECADOC summer school as ECADOC Programme Manager. Her future aims are to foster further initiatives to facilitate international research collaborations and skill transfer in the field of career psychology and vocational guidance globally.

Dr. Alyane Audibert has a PhD in Psychology. In 2019, she was a participant member in the 6th ECADOC Summer School. She is part of the current board of the Brazilian Association of Professional Guidance (ABOP). Since 2013, Alyane is Professor and Career Counselor at ESPM-Sul (Brazil), and also performs, as a private practice, online appointments in Career Counselling. Currently on leave from her activities at the University, she is living in Lisbon, where she works as a Senior Technician at NOVA IMS, which is part of the NOVA University of Lisbon. Her main topics of interest as a researcher and consultant are career education along the life cycle, career adaptability and career success.

Ingela Bergmo Prvulovic

Dr. Ingela Bergmo Prvulovic, has been involved in the career guidance counselling program and the Master’s program of Career guidance and Career Development, at Stockholm University the past years. At present, she is Director of the Human Resource Program at Jönköping University, and part of the research group Lifelong learning within Encell – National Centre for lifelong learning.
Bergmo Prvulovic focuses her research interest on the meaning of career and how it is influenced and affected by various changes in working life. Bergmo-Prvulovic is interested in how current transformations and trends in working life affect workplaces and career practices, different phases throughout individual's career trajectories, and what implications these transformations have for educational and vocational career guidance and counselling practices, and educational-, labour market and work place settings. In her studies, she uses multiple levels of analysis, such as the structural level, the individual level and the intermediate level, in which career guidance and counselling practice is embedded. Moreover, she is exploring the relations between education and working life, and how career guidance counselling and Human Resource practice share a common interest in individual's careers, and professional learning and development, and what implications this shared object bring to these different vocational areas. She uses the theory of social representation as the basic theory in her studies, from which she has further developed the theoretical and analytical framework career as social and professional representation, used in recently conducted and published studies. In 2015 she was awarded with the Career Guidance Award, by The Swedish Association of Guidance Counsellor’s for her thesis Social Representations of Career and Career Guidance in a changing world of working Life. She acts as a reviewer for several International scientific journals within the field such as the International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance, Nordic Journal of Work Life studies, British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, and Adult Education Discourses, of which she is also a member of the Scientific Board. Bergmo-Prvulovic is a frequently hired key-note speaker and expert at international conferences and events within the field.

Jenny Bimrose

Professor Jenny Bimrose, Emeritus. With over forty years' experience in higher education, researching, managing and teaching at post-graduate level, Jenny Bimrose has extensive experience of research management and consultancy, both in the UK and Europe. She is a Legacy Fellow of the Career Development Institute and was awarded the UK Development Award, 2020. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, has been: a member of various government convened reviews and is currently a member of the Boards of both the Journal for Vocational Behavior and the International Journal of Vocational & Educational Guidance. One of her ongoing research strands relates to the role of careers guidance in the career biographies of young people and adults making transitions into and through the labour market across Europe. She also took to the lead on an international comparative study of the career trajectories of older women across nine countries, including China, Argentina and Canada (2009-2015). Publications include: five co-authored books, 55 chapters in books; 37 articles in academic journals; 52 research reports and articles in professional journals. She has delivered 63 invited keynote addresses.

Cecilia Bjursell

Professor Cecilia Bjursell is the Director of Encell, the Swedish National Centre for Lifelong Learning at the School of Education and Communication at Jönköping University. Her research interests are organization, learning, metaphors, organizational ethnography and narrative perspectives in various empirical contexts. Her earlier studies focused on post-merger integration processes and women’s enterprise in family businesses. Current research projects involve stories and older-adult learning, intergenerational learning, knowledge management in technology companies, quality work in adult education, and collaboration as part of an academic portfolio. Bjursell has received several awards for her research.

Nikos Drosos ECADOC 2020

Dr. Nikos Drosos is a researcher in the Laboratory of Career Guidance and Counseling, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He is an instructor in the Master’s programs “Career Counselling & Guidance” of the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens; “Career Guidance & Counselling” of the European University Cyprus; and “Special Education” of the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens. He has been working for several years in the field of counselling and career guidance, having undertaken the supervision, development, implementation and assessment of many career counselling projects. He is currently in charge of 4 European projects regarding work re-integration of socially vulnerable groups. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Panhellenic Association for Psychosocial Rehabilitation & Work Integration (PEPSAEE) and of the Hellenic Association for Supported Employment (ELETYPE). He has received numerous awards for his social activity, and for academic excellence. He is the co-creator (with Prof. Dr. Sidiropoulou-Dimakakou) of the “ARIADNE” career interests’ questionnaire that has facilitated the career choices of more than 13,000 students in Greece and Cyprus. He is a founding member of the NICE (Network for Innovation in Career Guidance and Counselling) Foundation, and a member of the Scientific Committee of the European Doctoral Programme in Career Guidance and Counselling (ECADOC).

Annika Engström

Dr. Annika Engström, teaches courses in communication, leadership and organizational development. In 2014, Annika defended her thesis "Learning Interaction for effectiveness - A study of work groups in a medium-sized industry”. Her research interests include interaction in importance for task management and learning in groups and organizations. Her interests focus on leading and organizing the interpersonal communication and meetings in order to master as well as develop various tasks and assignments. Previous research, "InPot", has focused on leaders' utilization of innovation power in the day-to-day management of lean-inspired industrial companies. Today, Annika is managing the research project "Innovate", where she, together with four other researchers and six manufacturing companies, investigates organizational ambidexterity. This means managing the balance between effective management of what is already planned, while at the same time also managing the organization to be innovative and development-oriented. She also participates in a research project "The Whispering Game" which focus communication and management of information customization settings. The research is carried out in close collaboration with companies and organisations in both the private and public sector, where the exchange of knowledge between researchers and practitioners is central.

Claudia Gillberg

Dr. Claudia Gillberg has recently been awarded a fellowship with the Carnegie Institute of Education, University of Leeds Beckett, United Kingdom. She is currently involved in several research projects about transitioning phases in life for disabled and chronically ill young adults and a number of other collaborative projects on disabled people’s agency and participation in society. Moreover, she is newly appointed Head of Lifelong Learning and Active Citizenship at the Centre for Welfare Reform, UK, and a research associate at the Centre for Lifelong Learning (ENCELL) at Jonkoping University, Sweden.

Joel Hedegaard

Dr. Joel Hedegaard is a part of Encell, the Swedish National Centre for Lifelong Learning at the School of Education and Communication at Jönköping University. He defended his doctoral thesis "The Production and Maintenance of Inequalities in Health Care - A communicative perspective" in 2014. His dissertation focused on communication with, as well as about, patients,  and highlighted gender and ethnicity. His research involves social justice, gender and older adults learning processes. 

Fredrik Hertzberg

Dr. Fredrik Hertzberg is assistant professor and senior lecturer at the Department of Education, Stockholm University. His research focuses on the transition from school to work for migrant youth. He has studied this area of research from a number of different perspectives – strategies for inclusion amongst youth, the attitudes and practices of professionals dealing with school-to-work transitions (notably career guidance counselors) and policy development

Christer Langström

Dr. Christer Langström has been associated with the study and vocational counseling program at Stockholm University since 2001. Prior to that, he worked as a practitioner for ten years as a career guidance counselor. In 2017 he defended his doctorate: Learning in Professional Counseling, Conditions for adult job seekers career processes. His research interest is primarily focused on relational and dialogic learning in interpersonal communication. This research focus is also reflected in teaching areas that focus on leadership, learning, group processes, career guidance and counseling, coaching, mentoring and process supervision.

Jérôme Rossier ECADOC 2020

Dr. Jérôme Rossier is full professor of vocational and career counseling psychology at the Institute of Psychology of the University of Lausanne. He is the editor of the International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance and member of several editorial boards of scientific journals such as the Journal of Vocational Behavior or the Journal of Research in Personality. His teaching areas and research interests include counseling, personality, psychological assessment, and cross-cultural psychology. He published a great number of articles and book chapters and recently co-edited the Handbook of life design: From practice to theory and from theory to practice. He participats actively in many international research projects, such as personality across culture research or the international career adaptability project.

Kjell Rubenson

Professor Kjell Rubenson is Emeritus at University of British Columbia. Before coming to UBC he held the first chair in adult education in Sweden. His research has focused on developments in lifelong learning, participation in adult education and comparative adult education. Recently he has been working on the Global Report on Adult learning and Education (GRALE). Lifelong learning which came into focus in the 1970s, has been interpreted in different ways with far reaching consequences for the role of career guidance and counselling. In his talkKjell Rubenson will first focus on the understanding of lifelong learning and then look at the unequal participation patterns in lifelong learning and the challenges this creates for counsellors.

Rie Thomsen

Professor Rie Thomsen is the scientific coordinator of the Guidance Research Unit at the Danish School of Education (DPU) at Aarhus University in Copenhagen. She is professor II in career guidance at USN in Norway and visiting professor at ULS in Poland. She takes part in peer review processes for international journals in the field of career guidance and in the professional development of high ranked journals as a member of the international advisory board for The British Journal of guidance and Counseling, the Journal of Counsellogy and she has co-founded the Nordic Journal for Transitions, Careers and Guidance. She has experience diverse methods of disseminating research results; through more than 100 invited lectures and workshops and in more creative ways through short animated movies. She is currently a member of 4 international networks and scientific coordinator of the European Doctoral programme in career guidance and counseling (ECADOC). She is also the co-founder and coordinator of The Danish national network for research in guidance and the Nordic Network for research in Transition, Careers and Guidance NoRNet as well as the Norwegian research Network KarriereForsk. In 2013 she was awarded the Danish national Guidance award for her research and communication and in 2016 she was appointed NICEC international fellow.

Sanna Toiviainen ECADOC 2020

Dr. Sanna Toiviainen, is currently working as a research coordinator and a postdoctoral researcher in AGORA – for the Equality and Social Justice in Education -Research Centre at the Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki. Her research has focused on young people's life transitions, social exclusion and questions of agency in the context of guidance and counselling. Her research interests include youth transitions, youth agency, politics of knowledge production in career guidance and issues of social justice in career guidance. Theoretically and methodologically she engages with feminist and post-structural theories, narrative theory and ethnography.

2020-05-06