Finnish youth career goals and pathways during initial years in the labour market

Youth are among the groups most affected by ongoing changes in the world of work, requiring them to creatively adapt to new types or work and careers. The growing uncertainty that accompanies work transitions makes it increasingly hard for youth to plan and their ability to be active agents of their lives is critical when making decisions and addressing work-related transitions and events. Goals are end states or processes people strive to achieve (e.g., finding a job) and reflect the meaning or overall intentions of the person engaging in agentic behaviour. It is our aim to understand (1) how processes of career goal construction relate to the work pathways young people in Finland construct for themselves during initial years in the labour market, and (2) to what extent such processes contribute to youth’s agency and adaptive regulation and management of their careers. Our study relies on a mixed-methods approach combining content analysis procedures with complex longitudinal modelling based on Mplus statistical program. We will reuse data from two extensive and systematic longitudinal data sets that come from the FinEdu studies and from the HELS study. The knowledge we will generate with our research will provide insights into the how and why some youth during the early years of their working life progress towards the development of lifelong sustainable careers and others don’t.