This paper purports to question the nature, the modalities and the agents of a specific form of guidance: the accompaniment of adults retraining for manual professions through work place and school training. The specificities of such career choices suppose the use of multiple forms of accompaniment, coming from the institutional, training and familial spheres. To what degree does accompanying these trajectories constitute a factor in their success? Interviews with ten candidates testify to the accompaniment they got and to their expectations, at times unmet. These adults, constantly involved in transactions, negotiate their transitions through their on means, thanks to individual resources, obtained in professional experience and enriched through the obstacles overcome. Accompanying these trajectories should require nonetheless the creation of a space for listening, dialogue, even debate, which would recognise the legitimacy of the project and allow the subject to represent it physically.