The New Challenge for Higher Education Institutions of Latvia: Directing Students' Professional Career Development

Intensified competition between higher education institutions in terms of increasing enrolment rates and retaining students makes education managers reconsider their strategy aimed at identifying the elements and indicators of competitive advantage. In that regard, greater emphasis should be placed on providing university graduates with the necessary tools to successfully launch and manage their professional career. The aim of this paper is to initiate a discussion about the role of career guidance and counselling services in the higher education institutions of Latvia. The paper also reports the results of students' essays content analysis giving their opinion on the actions to be taken by education managers to prepare students to be ready to perform in a multicultural environment and develop their professional career both in the local and international labor market. In the paper, it is argued that career development opportunities can be considered from different perspectives; modern universities provide various professional development opportunities for improving a wide range of transferable skills including career development skills, the latter being essential to a successful job search both in the local and international labor market. The paper is based on 1) the analysis of theoretical sources and official EU documents on the main issues of higher education in relation to students' professional career management; 2) students' essays content analysis (interpretation method).