On 22nd of February the opening conference of the project "Transfer of know-how on professional counseling for young people” took place in the Hotel Unia in Lublin. The aim of the project is to improve the qualifications of professional counselors from Poland, Ukraine and Belarus through the transfer of the methods of professional counseling for young people between 4 countries: Poland, Norway, Belarus and Ukraine.

The conference was opened by Tomasz Różniak - president of the European Meeting Centre – Nowy Staw Foundation and Tomasz Piecak – the commandant of Voluntary Work Centre in Lublin. Representatives of all partners institution were present in the conference, all together around 50 persons. After the opening of the conference the project was introduced as well as the problems that should be solved due to the project, the aims of the project, results and the activities planned within the project. This was followed by the presentation of all partners and their activities.

The second part of the conference were the speeches about systems of professional counseling in each partner’s country. Mr. Fredrik Svendsen and Mrs. Bodil Onsaker Berg presented the high developed system of professional counseling in Norway which is compatible to the needs of the Norwegian labour market, that is known for its 3% unemployment rate, and which participants very often change their working place.Mrs. Alena Prakapuk presented the professional counseling in Belarus and the problems which the professional counseling should solve. This presentation was quite opposite towards the previous speech because of the totally different social-economic situation of Norway and Belarus. Next lecture was the presentation of the challenges of professional counseling in Ukraine towards the social-economic changes that are taking place in this country. Mrs. Olha Oherchuk spoke to this topic.

This presentation showed that the problems that should be solved by professional counseling are very similar in Ukraine, Belarus and Poland.The system of professional counseling in Poland was presented by Mrs. Ilona Wrótniak-Terlecka, who concentrated on the activities of the Voluntary Work Centre and its very concrete activities for the professional orientation of young people.