REGIONAL POLICY STYLE IN CAREER GUIDANCE: BACH VERSUS COLTRANE (OR VENETIAN STRUCTURE VERSUS LOMBARD EXPERIMENTATION)

Career guidance has gained renewed relevance in Europe as education systems, labour markets, and welfare institutions are asked to support increasingly complex educational and occupational transitions. Yet, as a policy domain located at the boundary between education/training and active labour market policies, career guidance remains comparatively under-explored through the lenses of mainstream public policy analysis – especially regarding why similarly positioned territories adopt different configurations of policy tools. This dissertation addresses this gap by analysing regional career guidance policy instrument mixes in Italy and explaining their variation through an interpretive model grounded in regional policy style. The study asks: (RQ1) which policy instruments constitute the regional career guidance instrument mix, and (RQ2) what explains the variation in these mixes. It adopts a most similar systems comparative design by selecting two highly comparable regions – Veneto and Lombardy – which share high levels of socio-economic development, similar labour market and education-training structures, comparable social stratification, political alignment, and exposure to European influence, yet display markedly different approaches to career guidance policy design. Methodologically, the research combines content analysis of regional policy and regulatory documents (laws, regional government resolutions, plans, reports, and other policy materials) with 47 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders involved in career guidance governance and delivery (regional officials, accredited providers, social partners, and institutional actors). This mixed qualitative strategy allows reconstruction of each region’s instrument mix and triangulation of documentary evidence with actors’ interpretations of governance dynamics and administrative routines. The theoretical framework builds on the classic concept of policy style (Richardson et al. 1982) and reworks it at the subnational level as regional policy style, drawing on a multidimensional model that links: (i) ideological subculture as a foundational driver; (ii) policy paradigms (how the problem is conceptualised); (iii) governance (patterns of actor relationships and coordination); and (iv) administrative style (standard operating procedures and the day-to-day translation of political priorities into action). The central hypothesis is that collaborative, programmatic, and politically stable regional settings tend to produce more coherent mixes, whereas weaker problem definition, fragmented governance, and less participatory administrative styles tend to generate fragmented mixes. Findings show a clear divergence: Veneto exhibits a comparatively coherent and integrated instrument mix, anchored in a small number of key regional laws, clear organisational structures, and the strategic funding of territorial networks and dedicated guidance measures – supporting regional steering and system-wide integration. Lombardy, by contrast, displays a more complex and fragmented mix, characterised by a larger number of instruments, multiple coordination venues, and a strong emphasis on individual choice and public–private competition consistent with a regulated quasi-market paradigm; this creates weaker integration across measures, while also leaving room for experimentation and innovation in specific policy windows. Overall, the analysis confirms that distinct regional “institutional personalities” – evoked metaphorically as Veneto’s “Bach-like” orchestration versus Lombardy’s “Coltrane-like” improvisation – help explain why similar contexts yield different instrumental configurations, highlighting the often-underestimated role of governance and political continuity in shaping coherent policy mixes.