In Denmark, 20% of each youth cohort has not completed an upper secondary or VET qualification seven years after completing lower secondary education (Ekspertgruppen, 2017). These young adults are often referred to as a vulnerable group of students. This group is central in an ongoing research project “Staying on track. New perspectives and sustainable solutions to dropout among young adults” focusing on dropout among Danish 18-25-year-old students in vocational education and training (VET) and general adult education. The aim of this paper is to explore the role of career guidance in relation to developing and supporting young adults’ decision-making competences in order to strengthen the students’ educational persistence as well as to prevent dropout. While the aim can be seen as grounded in a political and societal interest in making the individual an active citizen (CEC, 2000, p.7), it can also be seen as a significant measure to empower young adults. The project’s theoretical framework combines existing knowledge about dropout and factors effecting dropout with decision-making theory and motivation theory (Hunt et al., 1989, Højdahl & Poulsen, 2009 & Mariager-Anderson et al. 2015). Data for this analysis consists of two rounds of data collection, surveys and interviews conducted with 60 students from 12 different colleges during the autumn of 2017 and the autumn of 2018. Based on a preliminary analysis of the data, we find that the students’ thoughts and actions concern matters both inside and outside the school. Furthermore, seemingly trivial matters in the students’ lives are shown to have a potentially decisive influence on the students’ thoughts about staying in or dropping out of a programme. These findings confirm the importance of focusing on students’ decision-making processes in research on dropout.
