7.

(1) Members should gradually extend their systems of vocational guidance, including continuing employment information, with a view to ensuring that comprehensive information and the broadest possible guidance are available to all children, young persons and adults, including appropriate programmes for all handicapped and disabled persons.

(2) Such information and guidance should cover the choice of an occupation, vocational training and related educational opportunities, the employment situation and employment prospects, promotion prospects, conditions of work, safety and hygiene at work, and other aspects of working life in the various sectors of economic, social and cultural activity and at all levels of responsibility.

(3) The information and guidance should be supplemented by information on general aspects of collective agreements and of the rights and obligations of all concerned under labour law; this information should be provided in accordance with national law and practice, taking into account the respective functions and tasks of the workers' and employers' organisations concerned.

8.

(1) The main objectives of vocational guidance programmes should be to -

(a) provide children and young persons not yet in the labour force with the basis for choosing a line of education or vocational training in the light of their aptitudes, abilities and interests and of employment opportunities;

(b) assist persons in programmes of education and vocational training to derive the maximum benefit from them and to prepare themselves either for supplementary education or vocational training or for entry into an occupation and for continuing education and training as and when required during their working lives;

(c) assist persons who are entering the labour force, who seek to change their work activities, or who are unemployed, to choose an occupation and to plan related education and vocational training;

(d) inform employed persons of opportunities for improving their occupational development potential, their level of performance, their earnings and their position, of the educational and vocational training requirements and of the facilities available for this purpose;

(e) promote general awareness of the contribution which are and can be made by the various sectors of the economy and branches of economic activity, including those which have traditionally enjoyed little prestige, to general development and to expanding employment;

(f) assist co-operating institutions to provide information and feedback on the effectiveness of particular programmes as an integral part of vocational guidance.

(2) Members should ensure that such programmes are compatible with the right to freedom of choice in selecting an occupation and to fair promotion opportunities as well as the right to education.

9. In extending the scope of their systems of vocational guidance, Members should pay special attention to -

(a) helping children and young persons at school to gain an appreciation of the value and importance of work and an understanding of the world of work as well as to familiarise themselves with the conditions of work in as broad a range of occupations as possible - taking account of the employment and career opportunities that may be open to them - and with requirements for taking advantage of these opportunities;

(b) giving children and young persons who have never been to school, or who left school early, information on as broad a range of occupations as possible and on employment opportunities in these occupations, as well as guidance on how they may gain access to them;

(c) giving adults in employment, including self-employment, information on trends and objectives in development which concern them and in particular on the implications of social, technical and economic change for their field of work;

(d) giving unemployed and under-employed persons all the necessary information and guidance on possibilities of finding employment or improving their employment situation and on means available for achieving this purpose;

(e) giving persons who meet special problems in relation to education, vocational training or employment, assistance in overcoming them within over-all measures aiming at social progress.

10.

(1) Both group vocational guidance programmes - namely the dissemination of factual material and counselling for groups of persons who have similar vocational needs - and individual counselling should be made available.

(2) Individual counselling should be available, in particular, to young persons and adults requiring specialised assistance in identifying their occupational aptitudes, abilities and interests, in assessing the educational, vocational training and employment opportunities which are likely to be available to them, and in choosing a line of education, vocational training or employment.

(3) Individual counselling - and, as appropriate, group vocational guidance activities - should take into account the individual's specific need of information and support, with particular attention to the physically and mentally handicapped and disabled as well as to socially and educationally disadvantaged persons. They may include exercises in seeking and evaluating information and in decision making, as well as exposure to expanded career choices and goals, in order to develop the capacity to make an informed choice. They should always take into account the individual's right to make his own choice on the basis of comprehensive relevant information.

(4) Individual counselling should, whenever required, be supplemented by advice for remedial action and such other help as may be useful for the purposes of vocational adjustment.

11. Members whose vocational guidance programmes are in the early stages of development should, in the first instance, aim at -

(a) drawing the attention of young persons to the importance of choosing general and vocational education taking full account of existing employment prospects and of trends in economic and social development, as well as of their personal aptitudes and interests;

(b) assisting those groups of the population which require help in overcoming traditional restrictions on their free choice of education, vocational training or occupation;

(c) meeting the needs of those with special potential in fields of work which are of major importance.

12. Members should make full use, in their vocational guidance programmes, of all available facilities and media through which the various groups of the population concerned can be reached most effectively.

13.

(1) Wherever practicable, appropriate tests of capacity and aptitude - including both physiological and psychological characteristics - and other methods of examination should be made available for use in vocational guidance as appropriate to the needs of individual cases.

(2) Such tests and other methods of examination should be used only in agreement with the person seeking guidance and in conjunction with other methods of exploring personal characteristics; they should be carried out only by specialists.

(3) The results obtained in the application of such tests and other methods of examination should not be communicated to a third person without the express agreement of the person examined.

14.

(1) Where tests and other methods of examination are employed in vocational guidance, they should be standardised for the age groups, populations and cultures concerned and should be validated for the particular purposes for which they are intended.

(2) There should be a continuing programme for the development and restandardisation, at regular intervals, of such tests and other methods of examination in order to take account of changing conditions and life styles.