| Summary: | Many students change their choice of secondary school programme or fail to complete their studies which results in a great cost to society or personal costs for the student. The purpose is to examine the experiences of two groups of upper secondary school students regarding their choice of upper secondary school programme. The questions we wanted answers to were: what influenced the student’s choice of study, what support did the students receive from comprehensive school and what might have caused them to choose another programme. The study was carried out in two focus groups where one of the groups was made up of students who had chosen the “right” programme and the other made up of students who had chosen the “wrong” programme. One thing that influenced the student’s choice of upper secondary school programme was whether or not the programme provided eligibility to higher studies which they had heard from primary school and parents was a choice that would give them many possibilities in the future. It appeared that there had not been much of a guidance process for developing career management skills which could have given the students support in reflecting over their transition to upper secondary school. The students’ interests and the parents and people near the students influenced the students’ choices. The study shows that students needed a longer guidance process and a clearer understanding of its purpose. Narrow and wide guidance varied depending on a student’s comprehensive school. They would have needed a better description of the consequences such as what study demands were required for the programme and what moving or commuting would mean in practice.
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