Elegir en tiempos revueltos: Orientación vocacional y adolescentes “en riesgo” de exclusión social

The social and educational exclusion processes are interrelated in the daily practice. In a foundation in the outskirts of Madrid whose intervention is aimed at adolescents considered at risk of social exclusion from a public school, the scores of a Vocational Guidance test were so low that they could not even be analysed.  This paper is the result of an applied research related to the vocational orientation of students considered at risk of social exclusion, having as its ultimate purpose to offer an answer to this problem, thus allowing the generation of appropriate Vocational Guidance processes. The methodology used is adapted to the research constraints, the case study being the example of social representativeness of the phenomenon in question. A bibliographic review and an analysis of the test were carried out. Subsequently, an individual Vocational Counselling program formed the base for the case study. Therefore, it is concluded that when Vocational Counselling is limited to a single test, it may constitute another element of social and educational exclusion. Finally, proposals are made so as to address the orientation from a social work perspective.