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Guiding at-risk youth through learning to work
Lessons from across Europe

8. Recommendations

These points are structured around generic recommendations from the study and
the four key priority areas set out by the 2008 Council Resolution on better
integrating lifelong guidance into lifelong learning strategies (Resolution of the
Council ..., 2008) to help support the lifelong career transitions of European
citizens.

8.1. General recommendations from the study

Guidance should not be seen as one of many approaches to supporting
transition: it should be seen as an integral part of any approach to tackling this
problem and be embedded in preventive, corrective and transitional
management. Therefore, it is important that guidance moves from an implicit to
an explicit policy response.
Guidance should also be seen as a continuum: it is not about supporting a
young person at a specific point in their life only, but is something that extends
over time and out into the community and the workplace. This stems from the
complex nature of the world of work today, in which career preparation is no
longer limited to a career for life but is characterised by shorter-term career
cycles. Individuals, therefore, need to be equipped with transferable skills and the
ability to manage their own career path.
Underpinning the delivery of guidance services, young people need to be
empowered through a relationship which sees them as resourceful individuals
with a lot of untapped potential, rather than as trouble-makers or underachievers.
Practitioners have an important role to play in promoting high expectations, as
educational and career aspirations developed during teenage-years can have
lifelong significance, influencing future occupational and socioeconomic
outcomes. It is important to recruit and support the continuing development of
talented and committed individuals for such roles.
In the context of early school leaving, the job of guidance counsellors,
teachers and others is to influence individual behaviour positively by helping to
raise young people’s aspirations, support them with their education and career
efforts and identify problems before they escalate too far. To influence their lives
more broadly they need time, flexibility and training – both initial training as well

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