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This article reports on research carried out under the Economic and Social Research Council's (ESRC's) Learning Society Programme. The program comprised 14 projects involving research into the learning society and the ways in which it can contribute to the development of knowledge and skills for employment and in other areas of adult life. This article is one of a series of comparative studies which explore notions of lifelong learning, learning organisation and learning society in Europe and, in some cases, reflect on the use of comparative research in the social sciences. The authors describe three different models of a learning society and consider changing forms of guidance (career and educational) in several European countries and interpret their significance in the light of these models. In particular, guidance services in the Netherlands are contrasted with those in England, Scotland, France, Germany and Italy. It is suggested that views of a learning society should move past a simplistic correlation between skill development and more rapid economic growth to a consideration of alternative models.