PERSONAL, VOCATIONAL AND OCCUPATIONAL GUIDANCE IN SECOND CHANCE SCHOOLS

Second Chance Schools (E2O, its Spanish acronym) train early school leavers with the aim to foster their return to the formal education system or to ease their entry into the labor market. The aim of our study is to analyze guidance models and processes of these transition pedagogical devices. We apply a mixed methodology, using qualitative and quantitative methods. We conducted semistructured interviews to headteachers in 24 E2O, 10 professionals in companies hiring former E2O students and 9 teachers in schools to which former E2O students returned. Furthermore, we surveyed the opinion of 351 students who had completed their pathways in the E2O and we analyzed the performance of Second Chance Schools. Our results show that guidance in E2O is a holistic process. This process evolves into a personalized pathway all throughout the E2O, allowing each student to take decisions and flexible enough to change direction along time. Therefore, E2O make it possible to plan and develop a career and life project around which all practices are articulated, including work experience in companies; where everything facilitates exploration, self-knowledge and personal restructuring. Properly planned guidance measures in E2O contribute to avoid social and educational exclusion. Guidance is of crucial relevance in educational practice working with young people with erratic prior trajectories.