Guidance in communities – a way forward?

Abstract

Qualitative research in career guidance has largely focused on how participants in guidance change due to their participation in different guidance or counselling interventions or activities. This article, conversely, describes how young people and adults seek to change and modify the guidance, and consequently how this changes the possibilities for participating in guidance for themselves and for others. This article presents data from a qualitative and explorative study of guidance in communities. One case study about career guidance in a factory setting is presented. The interplay between the participants’ (non-) participating and the career guidance practitioners response is analysed. The article describes how new opportunities for guidance emerge through changing the practice. The study suggests that participants try to change the delivery of guidance from individual interventions to more collective forms/modes of delivery.