From Career Decision-Making Towards Career Cruising – the Case of Hungary: the “U” Model

Abstract

This paper describes the changing role, practice and institutional setting of career guidance and counselling in Hungary from the 1950s to the present time. The article defines the relation between the institutional settings (polity), changes in the content of guidance policies implemented in those decades (policy), and decision-making processes (politics). It is argued that the lack of institutional resilience and the vagueness of the career guidance theoretical models created a relatively unstable guidance system in Hungary. Our description concerns both the theoretical development of guidance and counselling and legislative and institutional changes. It addresses the changing role of career guidance and counselling, including access to guidance service, and the changing perception of the two manifested by citizens, companies and politicians.