Page 20 - Guiding-at-risk-youth-through-learning-to-work-Lessons-from-across-Europe

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

Three types of initiatives have been examined:
(a) preventive guidance measures that support school completion. The
measures under this theme include practices that aim to identify potential
early school leavers and target them with programmes that offer them
guidance, counselling and other support to help them to overcome problems
and avoid early school leaving;
(b) reintegration measures that offer disengaged young people an opportunity to
return to education or training, or facilitate access to the labour market. The
examples chosen incorporate strong guidance and counselling elements;
(c) measures to facilitate education to work transitions through working life
familiarisation and career management skills. This theme considers
initiatives that allow young people to become acquainted with the world of
work, as well as programmes that help them to analyse their on-the-job
learning experiences in the context of professional and personal
competences and career management skills.

The aim has been to provide illustrations of both established and new,
innovative practices, not to collate an all-inclusive inventory of measures
implemented in the study countries. The common thread running through all
examples is the strong presence of guidance, which in this study is understood
as a broad framework of support. The study is built around the definition of
guidance adopted by the Council of the European Union, which refers to services
designed to assist individuals of any age to make occupational, training and
educational choices and to manage their careers ( ). Guidance covers ‘a range of
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individual and collective activities relating to information-giving, counselling,
competence assessment, support, and the teaching of decision-making and
career management skills’ (Resolution of the Council ..., 2004). These services
can be available on an individual or group basis, and might be delivered face-to-
face or from a distance, for example helpline and web-based services (Cedefop,
Sultana, 2004).
However, the concept of guidance in this study also covers informal
guidance (guidance provided by family members, peers, friends, etc.) and non-
formal guidance (guidance provided on a non-formal basis by teachers, tutors,
mentors and other professionals working with young people).

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( ) Guidance is ‘a continuous process that enables citizens at any age and at any point in their
lives to identify their capacities, competences and interests, to make educational, training and
occupational decisions and to manage their individual life paths in learning, work and other
settings in which those capacities and competences are learned and/or used’.

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