This chapter focuses on students’ access to information and personal aspiration to engage in studies as key factors for participation and success in higher education. It considers how aspirations differ among young people with different socio-economic backgrounds and explains the socio-economic gaps in the consistency of young people’s career plans with their educational plans. It then investigates the role of secondary schools in providing career guidance, higher education institution outreach initiatives, and informal advice from close friends and family, and explores implications for policy.
Higher Education in Portugal
Policies for Access and Success
Abstract
In addition to the two necessary conditions discussed in previous chapters – having sufficient prior academic achievement and having access to sufficient funding – students also need to have information about the kind of opportunities that are available to them in order to take practical steps to achieve them. Schools can and do play an important role in providing career guidance to students across OECD member countries, but young people may also seek or receive guidance from other sources. As observable factors, such as secondary education achievement and financial constraints, cannot fully explain the socio-economic gap in higher education participation between lower and higher income groups, an important role is likely played by unobservable factors. Peer effects and family influences can vary systemically with underlying socio-economic differences across populations but are difficult to capture in observable data.
International research on behavioural economics suggests that access to information can be important to understand application and enrolment behaviour: when thinking about how to approach complex decisions with numerous sets of possibilities – such as those related to participation in higher education – people tend to rely on readily available information such as advice from family members (Lavecchia, Liu and Oreopoulos, 2016[1]; Scott-Clayton, 2011[2]; Hoxby and Turner, 2015[3]; Hoxby and Turner, 2013[4]; Carrell and Sacerdote, 2017[5]). However, relying on readily available information from close family members, friends and school may not always be the most appropriate approach for young people, particularly since parents and other relatives themselves have a limited set of personal experience with different pathways through education.
This chapter starts by considering socio-economic gaps in aspirations and access to information among different population groups. It subsequently considers how these gaps are influenced and shaped by formal career advice provided via secondary schools and advice from families.
Key findings
Research evidence suggests that there are considerable differences in how young people from lower socio-economic and higher socio-economic backgrounds think about their future. Students from lower socio-economic backgrounds are less likely than students from higher socio-economic backgrounds to aspire to high-skilled jobs or to expect to complete higher education.
Data from Portugal indicate that there is a mismatch between study plans and expectations on the labour market, and the gap is larger for students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. In Portugal, one-third (33%) of students who aspire to work in high-skilled jobs do not expect to complete higher education. This misinformation gap is greater for students from lower socio-economic backgrounds than for students from higher socio-economic backgrounds.
It is positive that career counsellors – in the form of psychologists – are required to be present in all public secondary educations in Portugal, but many students lack formally scheduled time with their career advisors. Just a little over three in five (62%) 15-year-olds report having spoken to their school career advisor. Students attending socio-economically disadvantaged schools are more likely than students attending socio-economically advantaged schools to miss out on time with school career counsellors.
It is not clear that the current organisation of information flows and career advice are working in the most effective way to reach all relevant student groups. Focus group participants report that schools and psychologists struggle to absorb the most relevant and recent information on current government policy and opportunities for their students. These challenges are reportedly exacerbated by the wide remit of school psychologists and difficulties in identifying the most appropriate information.
Qualitative evidence from focus groups conducted within the scope of this project suggests that family advice and the influence of social networks are still highly relevant for many young people in Portugal, especially if they lack access to formal, high-quality career advice from their school. This is likely to contribute to consolidating rather than changing the intergenerational transmission of educational aspirations and attainment.
Higher education institutions also interact with secondary education students directly, although it seems that these outreach activities do not reach all students. While a majority of 15-year-olds report researching for career and study opportunities online, fewer students in Portugal than across the OECD member countries have attended organised tours of institutions or visited job fairs.
Policy recommendations
1. Improve the access to resources for staff involved in career guidance and vocational development for students in upper secondary education (years 10-12).
2. Develop an Educational Community Outreach Programme to organise career advice that occurs outside of secondary education, including higher education outreach activities and community mentoring initiatives.
Data from the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) show that the aspirations gaps between young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds and higher socio-economic backgrounds are greater when it comes to plans to attend higher education programmes than when thinking about dream jobs. This mismatch between educational and labour market aspirations among socio-economically disadvantaged young people is higher in Portugal than on average in OECD member countries, suggesting that more disadvantaged students lack key information about what it takes to get their dream job.
Expectations and aspirations have been shown to be important for students’ future careers. Studies using longitudinal data from the United Kingdom suggest that 16 year-olds who underestimate the level of education required for their desired profession are disproportionately likely to not be in employment, education or training by the age of 20 (Yates et al., 2010[6]) (Musset and Kurekova, 2018[7]).
5.2.1. Considerable educational aspirations gaps exist between students from different socio-economic backgrounds in Portugal
There are significant socio-economic gaps in young people’s aspirations in terms of education. Data from PISA 2022 show that 91% of the most socio-economically advantaged 15-year-olds in Portugal expect to complete higher education, compared to just 56% of the least advantaged young people. This socio-economic gap is larger in Portugal than across the OECD member countries on average (Figure 5.1). More detailed, earlier data from PISA 2018 suggest that this gap in aspirations is not simply due to differences in academic performance at school: just 75% high-achieving disadvantaged students in Portugal expect to complete tertiary education while 97% of high-achieving advantaged students do (OECD, 2019[8]).
When important background factors are controlled for, socio-economically advantaged students in Portugal are considerably more likely than their more disadvantaged peers to expect to complete higher education, according to previous OECD analysis (OECD, 2024[9]). The analysis finds that socio-economically advantaged students in Portugal are around seven times more likely than socio-economically disadvantaged students to expect to complete higher education, when accounting for gender, migrant status, reading performance and study orientation. By comparison, across the OECD member countries on average, socio-economically advantaged students are around five times more likely than socio-economically disadvantaged students to expect to complete higher education, using the same controls (OECD, 2024[9]).
Percentage point difference between the top and bottom quarter of the PISA index of Economic, Social, and Cultural Status (ESCS) in the proportion of students who expect to complete higher education (at least ISCED level 5), 2022
Note: For Australia, Canada, Denmark, Latvia, Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4). The sample covered is at least 75% of the population except for in Austria, Belgium, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Slovak Republic, Switzerland and the United Kingdom where at least 50% but less than 75% was covered. ESCS refers to the PISA index of economic, social and cultural status. All values are statistically significant.
Source: PISA 2022 in PISA (2024[10]), Volume V, OECD.
Qualitative evidence from project focus groups helps to explain the mindset of secondary school students. Focus group participants report that students who are enrolled in general orientations in secondary education and come from high-income families tend to actively seek to continue their studies upon completion of secondary education. By comparison, students from disadvantaged backgrounds who attend general orientations can suffer from lower aspirations due to lower self-esteem and a lack of belief in their own study skills and aptitude for higher education, which is compounded by a lack of financial resources. The vicious cycle of low income and low aspirations is also highlighted by project stakeholder survey respondents when asked to identify the most important barrier to participation among lower-income students in their own words:
"The lack of money and the perception that the lack of money prevents higher studies, limits expectations and ambitions from the beginning of secondary education."
This could mean that lower-income students who could have been very successful in higher education based on their academic performance end up not pursuing studies because they lack the aspiration and confidence to realise their potential. In practice, students from lower socio-economic backgrounds might apply to less selective courses than they could have feasibly enrolled in, given their grades. Research from Portugal finds that students whose parents have not attained higher education are more likely to apply to lower-quality programmes relative to their own grades compared with their peers with tertiary-educated parents (Silva et al., 2025[11]) (see Chapter 3 for more on the admissions system).
5.2.2. Many 15-year-olds have misaligned labour market expectations and educational attainment plans
Many young people in Portugal aspire to work in the highest skilled jobs, that is, the occupational roles of managers or professionals. Out of 15 year-olds in Portugal, 48% report wanting to work as managers or professionals, which is above the OECD member country average, at 38%, and in line with figures seen in, for instance, Australia (48%), Spain (49%), and Korea (49%) and considerably higher than other European neighbours like France (34%) or Germany (24%) (OECD, 2023[12])
Aspirations gaps between young people from lower and higher socio-economic backgrounds tend to be slightly higher in Portugal than across OECD member countries. The socio-economic gap in career aspirations between students with lower and higher socio-economic backgrounds in Portugal (23 percentage points) is slightly higher than OECD member countries on average (20 percentage points) (Figure 5.2) (OECD, 2024[9]). The socio-economic aspirations gap in Portugal is greater than in countries like Spain, Ireland and the United Kingdom, and smaller than in countries like Germany and France.
Percentage point difference between the top and bottom quarter of the PISA index of Economic, Social, and Cultural Status (ESCS) in the proportion of students who expect to work as a manager or professional, 2022
Note: For Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Latvia, Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4). The sample covered is at least 75% of the population except for in Austria, Chile, Czechia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovak Republic, Switzerland and the United Kingdom where at least 50% but less than 75% was covered and in Belgium where less than 50% was covered. Data of Belgium represent only the French-speaking and German-speaking Communities. All values are statistically significant.
Source: PISA 2022 in PISA (2024[10]), Volume V, OECD.
However, many of the young people with ambitious labour market expectations in Portugal are not planning on taking the necessary educational steps to reach their goals. Figure 5.3 illustrates that one-third (33%) of 15-year-olds who expect to work as a manager or professional do not expect to complete higher education in Portugal. This proportion is greater than across OECD member countries, where a slightly lower average share of 15-year-olds (28%) think they will work in the highest skilled jobs without first attending higher education programmes.
Proportion of students who expect to work as a manager or professional but do not expect to complete a higher education degree (at least ISCED 5), 2022
Note: For Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Latvia, Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4). The sample covered is at least 75% of the population except for in Austria, Chile, Czechia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovak Republic, Switzerland and the United Kingdom where at least 50% but less than 75% was covered and in Belgium where less than 50% was covered. Data of Belgium represent only the French-speaking and German-speaking Communities. All values are statistically significant.
Source: PISA 2022 in PISA (2024[10]), Volume V, OECD.
PISA 2018 found that such misaligned expectations also tend to be more prevalent among students with lower socio-economic backgrounds than among students with higher socio-economic backgrounds (OECD, 2019[13]). Previous OECD research has calculated the relative likelihood of students from low socio-economic backgrounds being misaligned in their career aspirations and their educational expectations with reference to students from high socio-economic backgrounds. The authors find that students from low socio-economic backgrounds in Portugal are nearly seven times more likely than students from high socio-economic backgrounds to be misguided, when controlling for background characteristics. Previous OECD research finds that this odds ratio in Portugal is the second highest, after Poland, across the OECD member countries where data are available (OECD, 2024[9]).
This mismatch in career and educational expectations indicates that students lack information and knowledge about requirements for their desired careers, and that students from lower socio-economic backgrounds are particularly affected.
Career advice can contribute to ensuring that students choose a post-secondary study programme that is a good fit for their skills and future plans (OECD, 2024[9]). It is important for students to enjoy their subject area of study and to feel that their experiences during their studies correspond adequately with the expectations they had before applying. Delivering high-quality career advice through secondary school is an effective way for governments and institutions to engage with the great majority of young people through universal policies.
Stakeholders participating in project focus groups generally believed the vocational and psychological support initiatives in place play an important role in promoting access to higher education for students from more disadvantaged families. They particularly experienced that these initiatives can make the greatest difference when working with students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, who may lack the informal access to information, support and encouragement that is often in place within highly educated families. They can also play an important role in promoting students' self-esteem, motivation and capabilities where parents are not able to do so.
5.3.1. Most students can access some career advice through their school in Portugal, but career advisors struggle to fulfil their mission
Delivering career guidance through schools helps ensure a wide reach for these services, but there are challenges in ensuring the quality of services. Most students in Portugal have access to career advice through the extensive network of psychologists in schools, who also engage with teachers, parents and other stakeholders throughout the guidance process (Euro guidance, 2021[14]).
In Portugal, all public schools are required to have guidance services, and the Directorate-General for Education (Direção-Geral da Educação, DGE) is responsible for designing guidelines and instruments to support the activity of psychologists, promoting continuous training actions, and increasing networking and peer learning (DGE, 2023[15]). While career advice is mandatory before entering upper secondary education (in ninth grade), it is also available, but not mandatory, in 12th grade. Correspondingly, Figure 5.4 indicates that a majority (62%) of 15-year-olds in Portugal have spoken with a career advisor at their school, which is above the OECD average (49%).
The wide coverage of career guidance in schools is similarly reflected in 2018 PISA figures for Portugal, which suggest that 94% of students go to schools where at least one specific guidance counsellor is employed at school or regularly visit the school. There are small differences between socio-economically disadvantaged and advantaged schools in this regard: 85% of students in disadvantaged schools and 98% in advantaged schools have access to at least one counsellor (Table II.B1.6.9 in PISA (2019[13])).
Proportion of students who report that they have spoken to a career advisor at their school or outside of their school, 2022
Note: For Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Latvia, Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4). The sample covered is at least 75% of the population except for in Belgium, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Iceland, Israel, Switzerland and the United Kingdom where at least 50% but less than 75% was covered.
Source: PISA 2022 in PISA (2024[10]), Volume V, OECD.
However, the secondary education attended can have an important influence on students’ knowledge of career options where schools are the unit that organises formal career guidance. Even though central guidelines exist to ensure minimum requirements across schools, the implementation at the school level is dependent on school resources and priorities, not least between schools with different demographics or across public and private establishments.
While career guidance services exist, career guidance is rarely formally scheduled into students’ time in school in Portugal compared with other OECD jurisdictions: in PISA 2018, there are socio-economic differences in the proportion of students who have formally scheduled time with career advisors. Just 18% of students in the most disadvantaged schools have formally scheduled advice, compared with 39% in the most advantaged schools (Figure 5.5).
Percentage of students in socio-economically advantaged and disadvantaged schools where career guidance is formally scheduled into the students’ time, 2018
Note: Advantaged and disadvantaged schools refer to their classification according to the PISA index of economic, social and cultural status. For the Netherlands, Portugal and the United States, data did not meet the PISA technical standards but were accepted as largely comparable (see Annexes A2 and A4). The sample is restricted to schools where career guidance is provided, with the modal ISCED level for 15-year-old students (see Annex A3 and C1)
Source: PISA (2019[13]), Table II.B1.6.10, Volume II, OECD.
School psychologists have the primary responsibility for providing career advice in Portugal, although they face the challenges of having a wide remit and dealing with reported staff shortages. Career advisors aim to improve educational success, reduce early school leaving rates, and improve the adjustment between young people's skills, aspirations and the needs of the labour market (DGE, 2023[15]). Staff are tasked with helping students understand their opportunities, for instance by providing information on the offer of education and training at the national and local level; organising study visits and mobility experiences; encouraging volunteering, internships and job shadowing. Alongside this, they also support students in the process of developing their identity; foster autonomy in search of information; support the acquisition of career management skills; support information and awareness among parents and the community on career decisions (Euro guidance, 2021[14]).
Beyond running the required career guidance programmes, many schools also run additional initiatives, including information sessions for families, students and head teachers; career intervention programmes in partnership with local universities; open days to provide information and support with applications; open days at universities; opportunities fairs; and sessions with alumni.
Career advisors play a role in supporting students’ autonomous search for information
Supporting students’ autonomy in finding the information they need can be a valuable approach. As Figure 5.6 illustrates, the majority of students in Portugal, as well as in other OECD countries, report searching for information about education and career opportunities online. Consultations held in Portugal within the scope of this project suggest that online resources, including government-provided database “Infocursos” as well as third-party information providers, such as “Brighter Future”, provide students with relevant information.
It could be valuable to further build on these resources to improve students’ access to information on the most frequently used existing platforms. For example, further information could be provided on career options and alternatives for further study associated with different pathways by further consolidating information from different existing sources. The user experience could also be enhanced to improve the access to useful programme statistics. For example, information could be offered through personalised tools, potentially drawing on “MyProjectSup” (Box 5.1).
Proportion of students who report that they have researched the Internet and for information about ISCED 3-7 programmes or for information about careers, 2022
Note: For Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Latvia, Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4). The sample covered is at least 75% of the population except for in Belgium, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Iceland, Israel, Switzerland and the United Kingdom where at least 50% but less than 75% was covered.
Source: PISA 2022 in PISA (2024[10]), Volume V, OECD.
Career advisors could benefit from access to improved tools for career guidance
The project focus group participants report that schools and psychologists struggle to absorb the most relevant and recent information on current government policy because of the wide remit relative to the resources available. Project focus group participants explain that the relevant information rarely comes directly from the relevant authorities, and that official information on the websites can be unclear. For instance, participants report the perception that the website of the Directorate-General of Higher Education (Direção-Geral do Ensino Superior, DGES) provides a good overview of the government policy in place, but that it is difficult to navigate.
Moreover, a research report finds that there is a lack of clarity, structure and searchability on higher education institutions’ websites (Mateus, 2023[16]). Project focus group participants also report that higher education institutions instead tend to send out relevant information by email to all, or a set of, schools, and that psychologists often lack the capacity to review, absorb, and present this information to students in a holistic way at the right time.
It would therefore be useful improve the access to resources for staff involved in career guidance and vocational development for secondary education students in upper secondary education (years 10-12). This could involve consolidating the available information, limiting ad hoc communication by email, and sharing it in a clear form in one resource targeted specifically to career guidance teams. Resources could be provided through a national career guidance hub and could consolidate existing information. It would be useful to integrate information on pathways and support from DGES and institutions with information on programmes and opportunities for further study from the website “Infocursos” and the application guide, as well as tools and templates for career guidance activities. For example, while Infocursos in Portugal currently includes a substantial body of relevant information, it has not yet prioritised user experience and is not integrated with other information and tools.
Inspiration for a more user-friendly and integrated platform could draw on the information portal and admissions system “Parcoursup” in France, which provides information and guidance to teaching teams and secondary education students, integrating “MyProjectSup” that offers personalised suggestions for post-secondary school opportunities based on students’ grade profiles and aspirations (Government of France[17]; Hakimov, Schmacker and Terrier, 2023[18]; Parcoursup[19]). Such a career guidance hub could be developed and managed by the government in collaboration with a third party in the non-profit sector, perhaps building on an existing platform such as “Brighter Future”, managed by the José Neves Foundation (José Neves Foundation[20]) (Box 5.1).
In the medium term, DGE and the Directorate-General for School Establishments (Direção-Geral dos Estabelecimentos Escolares, DGEstE) could work with schools on encouraging collaboration and the sharing of good practice across schools, setting standards for a minimum set of activities and inspiration for development, drawing inspiration from the development of the Quality Agenda in schools in the Netherlands. The Dutch Quality Agenda for Secondary Education Career Guidance was devised through broad stakeholder collaboration, to help autonomous schools develop and improve comprehensive approaches to career guidance delivery. It lists minimum standards for a good model of career guidance, and includes sections on policy, activities, guidance and quality assurance (VO-Raad, 2021[21]). When tools and practices are optimised, it might be useful to review whether the human resources allocated to career guidance for students in the final years of secondary education are adequate and fit for purpose (Box 5.1).
France is implementing MyProjectSup, a national tool targeted to secondary education students and their teachers and offering personalised information and guidance. The tool was launched in 2023 and is integrated into the French applications and admissions platform Parcoursup. At the time of writing, the tool is still under development. It is an evidence-based intervention in that it is inspired by an impact evaluation by Hakimov, Schmacker and Terrier (2023[18]). The evaluation focuses on students’ over- and under-confidence in terms of their grades relative to the grades required for the programmes they plan to apply to. The authors finds that academically strong students who were under-confident were more aware of their talent following the information treatment, which in turn means that they apply to better-matched higher education programmes. The authors find that the effects from the experiment are greater for women and for students with lower socio-economic backgrounds (Hakimov, Schmacker and Terrier, 2023[18]).
The Dutch Quality Agenda for Secondary Education Career Guidance has been devised through broad stakeholder collaboration, to help autonomous schools develop and improve comprehensive approaches to career guidance delivery. The Quality Agenda sets out a list of the minimum standards that form the basis for a good model of career guidance, including sections on policy, activities, guidance, and quality assurance (VO-Raad, 2021[21]). Research from the Netherlands shows that students who meet with a secondary school counsellor to discuss higher education programme choices tend to be happier with their choice after graduating from their programme. The authors found the greatest impact of career counselling was on men and students from low socio-economic backgrounds (Borghans, Golsteyn and Stenberg, 2015[22]).
5.3.2. Qualitative evidence suggests that socio-economic background influences student decisions through informal advice
The gaps in career advice in schools in Portugal mean that there is still a substantial role for informal and personal advice from young people’s social networks, and such informal advice can vary considerably depending on the personal experience of those providing the advice. As Figure 4.3 shows, not having family support is perceived by project stakeholder survey respondents to be the fourth most important barrier for lower-income students, after the three top financial barriers listed.
When students rely on family and personal networks for advice and support, this increases the influence – and associated risks – of significant differences in the support and information young people receive depending on their family background. Students whose family members have not attained higher education tend to be at greater risk of facing low emotional support and practical advice drawn from personal experience from their closest social circle, and recent research finds that social influence is particularly strong between peers from similar socio-economic backgrounds (Hovestadt and Lorenz, 2025[23]). In interviews with stakeholders from the higher education sector conducted for this project, participants repeatedly expressed worries about the lack of academic and emotional support from students who were the first in their family to enrol. One project stakeholder survey respondent highlights this issue:
"No matter how much information there is, if a student from a disadvantaged socio-economic environment does not interact with people who have attended higher education, they may doubt that they belong to this environment."
Qualitative evidence from focus groups collected for this project suggests that family can also exert influence on students in vocational programmes, where young people are requested to work as soon as possible after leaving secondary education, with families perceiving that career paths taken by relatives are more stable and secure than enrolling in higher education. Project focus group participants highlight that these family pressures are important both in terms of choosing study orientation in secondary education and when making decisions related to higher education participation.
Furthermore, project focus group evidence highlights a pervasive discourse that undervalues higher education among many lower-income families, but also among stakeholders who have engaged with the project. For instance, one stakeholder survey respondent states: “Many students devalue school and higher education and prefer to work because they do not see a higher education course as a way of obtaining better pay." Another stakeholder responding to the project stakeholder survey notes that:
“They [students] believe that higher education does not pay off [...]. They believe that personal and financial investment does not have a salary return. This is what they say when they clarify the reason that prevents them from attending higher education.”
This is somewhat surprising since OECD evidence indicates that higher education qualifications do tend to pay off in Portugal, compared to not having studied. 25-34 year-olds with tertiary education earn 58% more on average than their peers with only upper secondary education, compared with 39% more across OECD member countries. There is evidence to suggest that this return to education rises over time – with 45–54 year-olds with a tertiary qualification earning 91% more than those with secondary education attainment – although changing labour market conditions and skills demand may influence the returns achieved by younger generations as they progress in their careers (OECD, 2024[24]). There will also be significant differences in labour market returns across different higher education programmes. It is possible that these perceptions, to some extent, are shaped by international comparisons which show that Portuguese wages tend to be lower than in neighbouring European countries.
Qualitative evidence from focus groups also suggests that some families are reluctant to give up the income that would come from a young person starting work immediately after secondary education – and which would be foregone if the young person pursues higher education. Respondents to the project stakeholder survey even suggest that some lower-income students start working during secondary education, which infringes on their capability to undertake extra hours of schoolwork to prepare for national exams, as well as taking hours away from curricular schoolwork.
Lower-income students who do aspire to attend higher education can be strongly motivated to improve their socio-economic status. Project focus group participants agree that personal ambition may explain why some students succeed in pursuing their studies despite significant challenges but emphasise the amount of resilience required to achieve this. For instance, a stakeholder survey respondent highlights that "it takes a huge motivational effort to break this barrier and understand that higher education can also be for them and that it is possible to be successful”. In these cases, there is a perception and confidence that this will lead to life improvements, both for themselves and their families.
5.3.3. Higher education institutions also play a key role in the dissemination of information about opportunities
While secondary school career guidance teams play an important role, the higher education sector also engages directly with prospective students, including through the information that institutions provide online. The higher education sector also engages directly with prospective students on a more personal basis, through engagement in careers fairs, school visits, open days and week-long residentials aimed at secondary education students. It emerged through project stakeholder interviews that many higher education institutions in Portugal take part in several such outreach activities throughout the year, targeting all or a selection of schools. It also emerged that these outreach activities occur at the initiative of secondary schools or higher education institutions, without central organisation. While it is promising that some career fairs and school visits seem to benefit from a third-party non-profit organiser, it is not clear that these activities are supported through national policy. Other activities, including the distribution of written information by email to schools, and certain school visits, seem to occur on an ad hoc basis and mainly target students from groups where institutions have traditionally recruited students. According to PISA 2022, fewer students in Portugal than across OECD member countries in general have taken part in organised tours or visited job fairs, suggesting more could be done to expand coverage (Figure 5.7).
Proportion of students who reported that they have attended an organised tour in an ISCED 3-7 institution or visited a job fair, 2022
Note: For Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Latvia, Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met (see Reader’s Guide, Annexes A2 and A4). The sample covered is at least 75% of the population except for in Belgium, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Iceland, Israel, Switzerland and the United Kingdom where at least 50% but less than 75% was covered.
Source: PISA 2022 in PISA (2024[10]), Volume V, OECD.
Outreach activities that specifically target student groups who already tend to transition to higher education risk missing out on their full potential of widening access to higher education, since they may exclude schools with the least-informed students. There would therefore be value in building on existing higher education outreach programmes by providing some resource that ensures its strategic organisation to ensure relevant coverage and quality. It might be appropriate to encourage a third-party, non-profit specialised organisation to provide this service by developing an Educational Community Outreach Programme to organise career advice that occurs outside of secondary education, including higher education outreach activities and community mentoring initiatives.
With this purpose in mind, DGE and DGES could collaborate with higher education institutions and third-party, non-profit organisations to fund the training of designated mentors, integrating student and community volunteers for in-person and online mentoring for secondary education students. This could build on and develop existing higher education institution outreach programmes, while widening school coverage. These activities could draw on mentoring programmes in Germany, including, for example, Talent scouting North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), with trained mentors from higher education institutions and “Rock Your Life!”, building on peer-mentoring elements (Erdmann et al., 2022[25]; Resnjanskij et al., 2024[26]; OECD, 2024[27]). Another example involving the wider community as volunteers for counselling activities is the ArbeiterKind programme in Berlin, Germany (ArbeiterKind.de[28]; Tupan-Wenno et al., 2016[29]) (Box 5.2).
Mentors trained and sent by higher education institutions have also been shown to be effective in promoting access to higher education in Germany. The programme Talent scouting North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), in Germany, is an advisory service that provides one-to-one personally tailored career and educational counselling and career activities to secondary education students. Counsellors (“talent scouts”) are trained and sent to secondary schools from nearby universities. Participation is voluntary and open to interested students in relevant academic tracks. The programme aims to help students develop key psychosocial skills, support the post-secondary educational process, and to encourage students to enrol in university. Counselling interactions remain available to students even after they have started post-secondary study (Erdmann et al., 2022[25]).
Another programme in Germany relied on peer mentors rather than professional mentors. “Rock Your Life!” is a German mentoring programme that connects university students with school students in the last two years of lower secondary education. The mentors and mentees are expected to meet every two weeks during a period of one to two years (OECD, 2024[27]). Mentors are expected to support students in dealing with stressful situations and offer them guidance regarding their future careers. Researchers designed a randomised controlled trial between 2015 and 2018 and find that three years after the programme, mentored students had improved mathematics performance and developed clearer career plans, which supports well-matched educational and career pathways. The most substantial improvements were among the most disadvantaged students, many of whom came from migrant families. Since its launch in Germany, the Rock Your Life! programme has expanded to countries including the Netherlands and Switzerland (Resnjanskij et al., 2024[26]).
“ArbeiterKind.de” in Berlin, in Germany, goes beyond providing mentoring support at the level of the institution. A grassroots initiative founded by Katja Urbatsch in 2009, “ArbeiterKind.de” started as a website and has now grown into Germany’s largest community for first-generation higher education students. Across Germany, 80 local groups are run by 6,000 centrally supported volunteers. It aims to inform students about educational opportunities and provides one-to-one and group-based learning and counselling activities to students whose parents do not have tertiary attainment, focusing on fostering positive associations in relation to higher education. It continues to offer supports to students throughout their programmes to help them successfully complete their studies and start their career. In order to continuously improve, ArbeiterKind.de runs an internal monitoring system and regularly assesses local volunteer activities and support measures (ArbeiterKind.de[28]; Tupan-Wenno et al., 2016[29]).
Key finding:
It is positive that career counsellors – in the form of psychologists – are required to be present in all public secondary schools in Portugal and that higher education institutions are actively engaging in student outreach, but it is not clear that the current organisation of information flows and career advice are working in the most effective way to reach all relevant student groups, which limits its potential to promote access to higher education, student-to-programme match and completion rates.
Recommendations:
1. Improve the access to resources for staff involved in career guidance and vocational development for students in upper secondary education (years 10-12).
2. Develop an Educational Community Outreach Programme to organise career advice that occurs outside of secondary education, including higher education outreach activities and community mentoring initiatives.
References
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