One-Stop Guidance Centers: Studied and Interpreted

Mirja Määttä & Anne-Mari Souto (eds)

Abstract

The book’s research articles and discourses describe the multidisciplinary activities of the One-Stop Guidance Centers, which evolved into a signi­cant part of the service system of young adults during the 2010s. e One-Stop Guidance Centers seek to integrate services so that they are available under one roof, and they utilise the services of NGOs and companies in addition to public services. e One-Stop Guidance Centers are located all over Finland and provide services, mainly face-to-face, but also virtually, to people under the age of 30. e aim of bringing the services together under one roof is to make them more easily accessible and seamless for young people.

The feedback provided by young people on the One-Stop Guidance Centers is consistently positive which proves that the Centers have oered the information and guidance in ways that support young people’s agency during their life course. e book examines the extent and ways in which the guidance succeeds in being youth-oriented, as the activities are set against a background of the normative expectations of society regarding education and labour market citizenship. e professionals are more or less tied to these normative expectations.

Public concerns about NEET youth and those individuals who fall through the gaps in services justify the need for the One-Stop Guidance Centers and the integration of services, but they also place considerable pressure on the One-Stop Guidance Centers to achieve results both in the municipalities and nationally. e assessments of the impact of the guidance should measure the bene­ts of the guidance both as expected results, which are determined in institutions, and as the strengthening of agency, which is of signi­cance to the individual.

The relevance of the service could be improved with goals for its uniform quality, systematisation and evaluation, but they could also make it harder for the One-Stop Guidance Centers to oer young people proactive, comprehensive and ‑exible services. A service that identi­es structural and collective frameworks is better at meeting the needs of young people than a service that focuses purely on the development of an individual’s abilities, skills and personality. At the One-Stop Guidance Centers it is important to strengthen the guidance that gives space for discussion and takes young people’s peer relations into account. It is also important to strengthen the social function of the One-Stop Guidance Centers, which is to produce information on the needs of young people and the bottlenecks in services and to provide opposing forces for the structures that push out young people.

Keywords: young people, direction (instruction and guidance), multi-professionalism, public services