To find paths in a time of future challanges (FindPath) - Graduate school focused on career learning, career guidance and transitions between school, further education and work

Focusing on career learning, guidance and transitions between school, higher education and work, the proposed PhD school builds on a collaboration between the universities of Umeå (leader), Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö and involves 9 doctoral students.The PhD school is firstly an answer to an urgent need of competence supply facing academic career guidance training and professional career guidance work.

In particular there are serious recruit­ment needs of senior lecturers.

Secondly, the PhD school will add to the international research base of career learning, career guidance and transitions.

This is a field which, with some exceptions, is still under-researched, not least because the education and labour market context of young people´s career decisions undergoes constant transforma­tion, and school-to-work transitions and their institutional support are complex phenomena displaying large local variations.

Well-designed career education and guidance has shown positive learning, eco­nomic and social effects and is of particular importance to those who fall outside the main routes in education.Themes:Paths and choices in a time of great social and working life transformation, with regard to groups that risk failingA developed, research-based institutional support for the individual´s career learning and career developmentAnalysis and evaluation of policies and measures to prevent and manage problems in connection with transitions, in and after school