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In the contemporary world, many people find themselves confused and challenged by unpredictability of life paths, labour market instability and necessary revisions to vocational careers. They may be helped by professional support institutions. For some people, seeking professional help when facing a predicament is evidence of resourcefulness. Others, however, perceive a request for help as expressive of vulnerability and a lack of self-reliance in coping with life problems. In this article, we examine 15 interviews with low-skilled and low-educated people in Poland about their experiences with educational and vocational counselling as well as the relevance they attribute to past meetings with counsellors. Concluding, we formulate recommendations for Polish educational and vocational counselling.

The research investigation into the career trajectories of low-skilled, mid-career individuals in Europe, on which this symposium focused, has emphasised the importance of career support. Participants sometimes had not even completed their initial school qualifications. Often, though not always, they had significant skill deficits. The majority of participants typically had not had any consistent access to high-quality support services at critical turning points in their career trajectories. In some cases, the inappropriate and/or poor quality of the career support had become part of the problem. Findings indicate that career support services for these individuals must be based on context-sensitive frameworks for practice, which integrate knowledge and understanding of the broad social and economic factors that impact their career trajectories.