The crear digital service need indicator (https://crear.fi) has been developed as part of the RETU Resilience and Future Belief project (ESF, 2018–2020) to strengthen the well-being, agency and resilience of students. It is intended as an early detection tool for specialists in guidance, teaching and student welfare and for other professionals providing information, guidance and counselling services. CREAR provides a quick and reliable overview of a person’s current situation, and the results can then be used to assess the need for support. This enables timely and targeted offers of guidance and counselling services.

This handbook presents the CREAR indicator and how it can be used in different contexts and methodologically applied for diverse purposes. In addition, there is discussion of the research and theoretical modelling underpinning the indicator. The publication also describes the objectives set for guidance and counselling nationally and internationally as well as how recent education and labour market policies affect the position and development of guidance and counselling and the equal availability of multi-channel guidance and counselling services in Finland over the next few years.