This thesis centers around the guidance of youngsters aged 15-17, taking place in the Ungdommens Uddannelsesvejledningscentre (Youth Guidance Centers). The introduction of the law ”Lov om vejledning om uddannelses og erhverv samt pligt til uddannelse, beskæftigelse mv.” ("Law regarding Guidance for Education and Employment and the Duty to Educate and Employ etc.”) in 2010 gave way for new conditions for social work carried out by UU–guidance counsellors.
The focus of this thesis is the significance of these new rules to the UU– guidance counsellors. What are the opinions and expectations the legislative system has regarding these young people - and have things changed? How do the counsellors see the youngsters – and do their opinions resemble that of the legislators or not?
How has this development, which has led to demands for specific methods and procedures, affected the UU-counsellors? Are they affected in such a way that a brand new form of social work has emerged as a result?
Subsequently my thesis statement is this: What significance does the ”Lov om vejledning om uddannelses og erhverv samt pligt til uddannelse, beskæftigelse mv.” have on the UU-counsellors’ room to manoeuvre in their social work with disadvantaged 15-17 year olds?
The problem is illustrated by Luhmann's Concept of Observation. Using focus group interviews with UU-counsellors, through semantic analysis of Ungdommens Uddannelsesvejledning Randers formal objectives, statements from legislators and analysis of texts the system’s observations of the youngsters is observed. The observations of the systems are observed via the difference between self-accountability ⌉ freedom from self-accountability and this opens up for new knowledge of the expectations and opinions related to the youngsters and the purpose of guidance as a whole.
The analysis in this thesis shows that within the legislative system a semantic of the youngsters as self-accountable parties that can be motivated by financial incentives has come about. This semantics is reflected both in the law ”Lov om vejledning om uddannelses og erhverv samt pligt til uddannelse, beskæftigelse mv.” as well as in the statements made by the legislators at the time of the passing of the law.
At the same time, the analysis shows that the semantic of the accountable young people has emerged over the last 10-15 years, as this particular understanding was not seen at all in the empirical data on the Guidance Law dating pre 2010.
On the other hand there is nothing that shows a similar observation from the counsellors’ point of view. The counsellors’ semantic of the young people is filled with notions, that place the responsibility on themselves. The young people are held entirely non-accountable.
But that does not mean that the law has no impact.
It contains a number of procedural requirements as well as a requirement for education plans and obligatory education.
”Lov om vejledning om uddannelses og erhverv samt pligt til uddannelse, beskæftigelse mv.” has led to new tasks for the UU-counsellors in the form of follow-ups, educational readiness assessment and preparation of education plans. But the law has not meant that the observation of the youngsters and their self-accountability, that lay behind the introduction of the law, is automatically a part of the interviewed UU-counsellors’ communication.
The UU-counsellors consider the statutory framework of the law as being broad enough, in the sense that there is room for them to perform the social work they consider appropriate. They say they are revising the education plans if the young people drop out of their courses. They do not consider the plans as binding for the young people. The counsellors maintain keeping the youngsters non-accountable.