This article focuses on the transition from pupil to student. This transitional phase involves the
challenge of having to take a decision regarding a career path. For some pupils, this represents
perhaps their first major decision they are confronted with since the early school years: What do I
want to be? What kind of career suits me? This transition involves more than just a career choice; as
part of the transition, a number of biographical issues are activated, which are all aimed at one’s life
plans as a whole: ‘How do I want to live or what is important to me in life?’ As such, the individual is
also confronted with the question of what still ‘fits’ with his or her previous orientation, experiences
and perspectives, in the light of new plans for the future or experiences in the course of the transition.
This involves questions and biographical issues, which relate to growing up in general. Very few are
able to easily escape such biographical challenges and tensions. However, the responses or forms of
dealing with these issues can vary.