SCHOOL AND CAREER GUIDANCE IN PRE-UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN ROMANIA: CASE STUDIES FOR EIGHTH-GRADE STUDENTS

Rezumat

Every year, extensive research is conducted across all Romanian counties on representative samples of eighth-grade students, focusing on their educational and career choices. These studies aim to refine counseling and guidance strategies for students, a process that also involves parents and reflects broader connections between education and the labor market. Effective academic and career guidance represents a key step toward aligning educational demand with academic supply and labor-market needs, while also reducing the risk of school or university dropout. This paper analyzes a selection of publicly available reports from these evaluations to identify regional and county-level particularities. It further examines two waves of career orientation research conducted in Hunedoara County in 2023 and 2024, tracking students’ choices, the motivations behind them, their main sources of information, and the school-based activities that contribute to career guidance. The findings highlight the evolution of students’ aspirations and reveal potential differences between cohorts, offering insights into the dynamics of educational and career orientation in Romanian pre-university education