Finding the finishing line – Career support for experimentation: Transitions and the role of lifelong learning

Abstract

Mid-life career transitions and individual approaches to learning related to them have been in the centre of two biographical European research projects. This chapter discusses how situations surrounding structural support for career management in Denmark, France, Italy and Spain. The ways in which individuals draw on these resources or navigate their careers without structural support is illustrated by means of life and career stories of three adults. Their narrations illustrate how individual dispositions related to self-efficacy, agency, motivation, and self-construction shape individuals responses at career cross-roads. These stories illustrate that preparation for career adaptability and the development of career management skills is essential for adults to successfully navigate such decisions. In addition, having access to career counselling and guidance might prevent a number of misleading decisions over a life course and seems to require more attention among policy makers.