Briefing note Building a career development ecosystem around universities.

Under the COST Action CA23112, title "Critical Perspectives on Career Guidance," a short-term scientific mission (STSM) to the University of Barcelona (UB), Faculty of Education, Department of Research Method and Assessment in Education was granted. The mission has different aspirations; i) first, sharing the system and policy development academic knowledge about lifelong guidance (LLG; CoE, 2004) European policy among the UB academic staff, and ii) secondly, comparing and understanding the role of UB in the daily life of the city of Barcelona and linking it with the similar activities of the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in Budapest. Both cities are university towns; Budapest is home to 15 universities, and Barcelona has 23. Barcelona and Catalonia alone represent greater university potential than Budapest. • Barcelona: University of Barcelona (UB), Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), Polytechnic University of Catalonia BarcelonaTech (UPC). Semi-private: Catalan Open University (UOC). Private: Ramon Llull University (URL), International University of Catalonia (UIC Barcelona), Abat Oliba CEU University (UAO CEU), among many others • Budapest: Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Semmelweis University of Medical and Health Sciences The new Spanish Employment Law of 2023 (Ley 3/2023, de 28 de febrero, de Empleo) and regional, Catalan dual vocational training transformations (Decret 137/2023), the new Spanish Higher Education Act (2023 LOSU), and ongoing changes in the VET system (Ley Orgánica 3/2022, de 31 de marzo) have all increased the importance of career guidance. During the week-long scientific mission, two researchers worked in tandem, basically within the framework of the University of Barcelona (UB), examining the university's adaptation to the changing expectations. We conducted several interviews (see appendix) that covered some of the lecturers of the Faculty of Education, the university career counselling office, the Catalan Public Employment Service (SOC), the pilot in second chance adult education schools, and conversations with BA and MA students of the UB in social pedagogy and psycho-pedagogy. Of course, this Briefing Note cannot provide answers to many detailed questions. Still, it serves as a good starting point for the further development of career guidance work at the UB, which is carried out with its own students and is part of the academic training offer at different degree programmes.