Reality makes a difference: rethinking career learning in Danish schools
Author: Euroguidance Denmark
A new Danish peer-reviewed research report entitled “Reality makes a difference”, emphasises the notion that the engagement and motivation of pupils is enhanced when career education and guidance (CEG) transfers from the classroom into workplaces, professions and everyday working life: In other words, when career guidance moves into reality.
The report presents the findings of SamVej. SamVej was a two-year research and development project led by researchers from Aarhus University (The Danish School of Education, DPU) and VIA University College, involving approximately 55 teachers, guidance counsellors and school leaders from six Danish municipalities and 12 schools. Around 800 pupils in grades seven through eight took part in the career learning activities developed and tested during the project period.
Predetermining the choices of tomorrow
The study showed that career guidance should not merely be limited to guiding pupils in choosing their next educational path. Rather, the counselling ought to support career learning. Career learning is the perpetual process in which the pupils gain experience of education, professions and the labour market. In doing so, the activities strengthen the pupil’s understanding of themselves. The Danish research cited in the report suggests that this learning modality enriches the perspectives of pupils on their lives and forms the basis for subsequent choices in life. Research shows that this is especially evident in pupils from homes with lower levels of education and income1.
A hook into the future
Pupils who visit workplaces, meet professionals and experience real-world tasks show a heightened sense of understanding, according to the report. The report takes a point of departure in the ideas of the German professor of pedagogy, Wolfgang Klafki, on the theory of categorical Bildung. The report argues that realisation occurs when knowledge about certain education programmes or professions meet with the actual experience of how reality is in a certain business or organisation. Meaning arises when students can clearly comprehend a specific job role – an insight which the SamVej-study has shown is of immense value to pupils. When the pupil is an active participant, the pupils as the authors put it: set a hook into the future.
The power of cross professional collaboration
The report identifies deliberate cross professional collaboration as critical for successful career learning. Through the collaboration in planning, executing and evaluating activities, guidance as a whole gains coherence and meaning. The transformation from parallel practice towards integrated cooperation does not, however, happen by chance. It requires a joint vocabulary, a common working culture, and structural support from the leadership of schools.
Career learning as active citizenship
The research report connects career learning to the essence of the Danish school system: namely, to prepare pupils for future participation, co-responsibility, and democracy. To achieve this the value of different professions, responsibilities, and qualifications in society must be taught. In that manner, the findings of the SamVej Project echo the core principles of the Euroguidance network: That both educational and career learning are lifelong in their perspective with an immense emphasis on the importance of guidance practitioners.
The research report is available in Danish at The Danish School of Education, DPU, Aarhus University. “Virkeligheden gør en forskel. Fag, dannelse og karrierelæring” (Thomsen, Skovhus, Mariager-Anderson & Dimsits, 2025). https://pure.au.dk/portal/files/439169571/Virkeligheden_g_r_en_forskel_-_E-bog.pdf
Photograph by: Anna Geeet Schneller
