Study and career counsellors: the hub of Swedish adult education

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores how the Swedish policy of municipal adult education (MAE) is interpreted, translated, and enacted in study and career counselling. The data consists of semi-structured interviews with adult education leaders and study and career counsellors. Swedish MAE is characterised by extensive marketisation, with many different providers, which makes the education system complex. The findings show that a study and career counsellor is characterised as a key person for both the students and the organisation, with a role as a marketer and ‘map reader’ for applicants, in addition to responsibilities in admissions, the validation and mapping of students’ knowledge, and quality work. The counsellor becomes a hub in a system that applicants and students find difficult to navigate and fulfils a vital function in the marketing of adult education and quality work. Thus, this complex system requires more resources for counselling to function to the benefit of the individual student. However, there is no clear regulation for how counselling should be organised, which means that counselling is organised in different ways in different municipalities with different providers. This in turn means that the availability of adequate counselling may depend on the municipality in which you live.