Back in late June I was lucky enough to take part in the second ECADOC summer school – thank you very much ECADOC organising committee! Now, given that I was heavily pregnant at the time and on a blog-break, I haven’t blogged about it since, but now I’m back to blogging, here are some thoughts….
So, first of all for those of you who don’t know, ECADOC is the ‘European Doctoral Programme in Career Guidance and Counselling’ which is funded by the European Commission, and is a joint venture by the European Society for Vocational Designing and Career Counseling (ESVDC) and the Network for Innovation in Career Guidance and Counselling in Europe (NICE). The project aims at “promoting the development of top-notch academics in our field all over Europe and establishing research and higher education in our field at the European level’.
The summer school itself comprised of lectures and workshops covering research methodology, and policy and practice of careers guidance and counselling. It was a fantastic opportunity to meet researchers from all over Europe (and some from further afield) and to discuss mutual areas of interest as well as expanding our skills and knowledge. You can see more details about the participants at the summer school and their research interests on the website.
Part of the purpose of the summer school was to encourage collaborative research projects between participants and between nations. Although at the moment I’m currently juggling my PhD studies next to family life and (in three months’ time) my work too, I am hoping that when the time is right some of the people I met might be interested in collaborative research with me. Wouldn’t it be interesting to consider the impact of remoteness and rurality from the standpoint of different countries? I wonder if the different education systems, and different cultures would mean that rural and remote students in different places had different experiences, or would the experience of rurality and remoteness be similar…..?
Dr Rosie Alexander 
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