The poster presents some essential issues concerning immigrant students’ guidance and counselling in vocational education and training (VET). The theoretical focus of the poster is the cultural developmental task. The concept of cultural developmental task is widely understood here as the process of adjusting oneself to another culture, involving organisational interaction and relations between persons and persons and their environment (Taajamo 1999). It is argued that if the cultural developmental task is not taken into consideration in the immigrants’ educational transitions, strategic definitions of education and vocational policy remain light and poor. (see Progress towards the Lisbon objectives in education and training 2009). Therefore it is essential to pay attention to transitions from the perspective of the quality of the education (Continuity, consolidation and change 2009). New intercultural learning contexts are often implicit and hidden. To make unconscious contexts and cultural practises (more) visible we can prevent social exclusion and disadvantage caused by the inability to move easily through education. (Ecclestone 2009.) Moreover, the cultural developmental task is here studied through immigrant students’ lifelong pathways in VET. This was done by interviewing six heads of different training divisions responsible for multicultural teaching issues in a Finnish case school.

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