The survey charted the perceptions and opinions of lower secondary school guidance counsellors regarding vocational education and training in Finland. Main themes included, among others, the future plans of the ninth-graders the councellors had guided during the past year, the councellors' perceptions of how general and vocational upper secondary education are appreciated, and factors that affected the educational guidance given by the councellors to the ninth-graders. The study was commissioned by the Ministry of Education and Culture and Skills Finland. Data collection was conducted by IROResearch.

First, the councellors' perceptions of the ninth-graders' opinions on studying were charted with various attitudinal statements concerning, for example, how important the ninth-graders thought studying was for the future and whether they thought studying was interesting or working was more interesting than studying. The counsellors were also asked whether the ninth-graders thought various educational choices were interesting for them personally (e.g. general or vocational upper secondary education or tenth grade). Factors affecting how the councellors guided the ninth-graders were examined (e.g. the student's success in their studies, their ambition and will to succeed, their parents' opinions). The fields of education that most interested ninth-graders who planned to continue into vocational education or training were surveyed (e.g. humanities and arts, natural sciences, information and communication technologies). Finally, the councellors were asked whether they thought they had enough information on vocational education and training considering their work in guiding ninth-graders.

Background information included the respondent's gender, how long they had worked as a lower secondary school guidance councellor, municipality of residence and region of residence (NUTS3).