Since the early 2000s, the European Union (EU) has placed policies to ensure educational transitions high on its agenda (Barnes et al. 2020; Sultana 2012). As consequence, public guidance policies have formed a field through which “individuals are encouraged, supported and guided to think about their own lives” (Hooley, Sultana & Thomsen 2019, 12). 

EU has focused especially on improving, assessing, and measuring the efficiency of guidance systems involved in educational transitions (Barnes et al. 2020; Sultana 2012). A range of practices is associated with these aims, such as the provision of labour market information, one-to-one counselling, career education, learning in the workplace and others (Hooley, Sultana & Thomsen 2019). Despite the interest in inputs (resources, investments), outputs (measurable actions done) and outcomes (changes in people's behaviour and in social structures), the issues on individual, systemic and societal impacts – long-term positive macro-level developments – of these activities (see Figure 1.) have been ignored and understudied. 

Figure 1. The model of impact chain

Input → Output → Outcome → Impact 

Theoretically, our comprehension of impact is built on input, output and outcome (see Bertelsmann Stiftung, N.D.). The end of the chain, ‘impact’, means the positive of macro-level development, that is, social benefit. Benefits may be related to individuals, organisations, or to wider society (Watts 2016), typically in the medium or long term. Next, to materialise macro-level development, changes in people's behaviour and in social structures must occur. These changes are called outcomes. They are supposed to cause anticipated social benefits, as a rule, in the medium term. The second part of the impact chain covers measurable actions done, i.e., outputs. Where impacts require several actual changes in the behaviour of people and/or social structures, outputs are achieved through well-thought-out and targeted measures. The first part of the chain looks at the resources required by the measures i.e., inputs. The stakes should be understood broadly: they may include work, money, material, time, contracts, knowledge, among others (Bertelsmann Stiftung, N.D.). 

Drawing from Robertson (2021) and T. Watts (2016), the conceivable impacts for public guidance policies could be divided into three categories: First, matching individuals to education and work that suits them. It helps individuals to make choices, to build their skills and to strategize their participation in learning and the labour market. Second, to improve the functioning of the education and training systems, enhance the accessibility of education, and to promote skills development and lifelong learning. Third, to promote economic and social benefits, such as social inclusion and equality of opportunity in the society. Evidently, the aims given for public guidance policies are numerous, multifaceted and, in many cases, ambiguous. Therefore, calls for more rigorous impact evaluation have been accompanied by the quest not just to find out what works but why (White 2009). 

In our presentation, we scrutinise guidance (with special focus on educational transitions) from an impact perspective. We construct the impact of public guidance policy by looking at objectives, means and evaluation as chains of impact (see Bertelsmann Stiftung, N.D.) by analysing how experts in guidance services talk about the goals set for services, the means of achieving them and the evaluation. We ask: How is the impact of public guidance policies built in the expert speech at the individual, the service system and society levels?  And how is impact built from different expert positions? 

In Finland, guidance services are provided mainly in two public systems: The Ministry of Education and Culture is responsible for the organisation and funding of guidance at comprehensive, upper secondary and higher education institutions, and The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment for establishing political guidelines and strategic goals for the labour market policy (Toni & Vuorinen 2020). Educational establishments bear the main responsibility for guidance of pupils and students, whereas the Employment and Economic Development Offices are primarily intended for those outside education and training. The youth sector is involved in offering information, guidance, and counselling to young people, most commonly through Outreach Youth Work and One-Stop Guidance Centers. (Euroguidance 2022.) Elementally, guidance is publicly funded service, integrated into the Finnish education system and the ‘Nordic model’ where welfare is organised to ensure maximum participation in work and equal access to employment (Bakke 2020). The data of the research compiles thematic interviews conducted with career guidance and counselling professionals (N = 15). The interviewed professionals work as guidance counsellors or administrative staff in the lower secondary education (comprehensive school), upper secondary education (general education and vocational education and training) or in the employment, youth or social services. Administrative staff deals with developing, planning of guidance services and overseeing them in the municipality and in their educational institution. Following the principles of the key informant technique (see Tremblay 1982), the interviewees were selected according to their institutional position, due both to their role within the structure of municipal guidance and counselling, and to their direct access to the information on educational transitions. The informants all worked at the same mid-size municipality with 50 000 inhabitants, located in southern Finland with a close distant to the other largest municipalities. The interviews covered themes related to the administration and co-operation of guidance, as well as the aims, premises and models of guidance at the practical level, and the future of career guidance. At the first phase of the analysis, we pinpointed impact speech on the individual, the system and society levels. In the second phase, the impacts of guidance policies were constructed through the aims set, the means chosen, and the evaluation of aims reached.

In our presentation, we highlight the ways in which the counselees are connected to the quest for impacts of guidance policy. At the individual level, the impact comes from attachment to society through education or employment. At the system level, the impact is built on effective labour market policies, for instance. At the societal level the focus is on education, reduction of unemployment, prevention of exclusion and lifelong learning. Guidance experts also identified a contradiction between the performative pressures imposed by society and the actual opportunities of the individual. The speech on impact of public guidance policies constructs a fragmented and unstructured picture of the intended impacts.

Bakke, I.B. 2020. The ‘idea of career’ and ‘a welfare state of mind’: On the Nordic model for welfare and career. In Career and Career Guidance in the Nordic Countries. E.H. Haug, T. Hooley, J. Kettunen & R. Thomsen (Eds.) Brill Sense. Barnes, S-A., Bimrose, J., Brown, A., Kettunen, J. & Vuorinen, R. 2020. Lifelong guidance policy and practice in the EU: Trends, challenges, and opportunities. European Commission. Bertelsmann Stiftung. N.D. Corporate Citizenship planen und messen mit der iooi-Methode: Ein Leitfaden für das gesellschaftliche Engagement von Unternehmen. Bertelsmann Stiftung. Euroguidance. 2022. Guidance System in Finland. https://www.euroguidance.eu/guidance-system-in-finland. Hooley, T., Sultana, R.G. & Thomsen, R. 2019. The Neoliberal Challenge to Career Guidance: Mobilising Research, Policy, and Practise Around Social Justice. In T. Hooley, R.G. Sultana & R. Thomsen (Eds.) Career Guidance for Social Justice: Contesting Neoliberalism. Routledge. Robertson, P.J. 2021. The Aims of Career Development Policy: Towards a Comprehensive Framework. In P.J. Robertson, T. Hooley, & P. McCash (Eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Career Development. Oxford University Press. Sultana, R. G. 2012. Learning career management skills in Europe: A critical review. Journal of Education and Work 25 (2), 225–248. Toni, A. & Vuorinen, R. 2022. Lifelong guidance in Finland. Key policies and practices. In Haug, E.H., Hooley, T., Kettunen, J. & Thomsen, R. (eds.). Career and Career Guidance in the Nordic Countries. Brill. Sense, 127–143.   Tremblay, M.-A. 1982. The Key Informant Technique: A Nonethnographic Application. In Burgess, R. (Ed.), Field Research: A Sourcebook and Field Manual. Routledge, 151–161. Watts, T. 2016. The Economic and Social Benefits of Career Guidance. In T. Hooley & L. Barham (eds.) Career Development Policy & Practice: The Tony Watts Reader. National Institute for Career Education and Counselling, 55–65. White, H. 2009. Theory-based impact evaluation: Principles and practice. Journal of Development Effectiveness 1 (3), 271–284.