he aim of this paper is to contribute to developing a better understanding of the actual conditions in which guidance is provided to apprentices in ordinary work situations. It develops methodological tools and categories for analysing guidance at work and reflects, in a critical perspective, about the contributions and limitations of a practice-based learning system as it is implemented in Switzerland. On the basis of empirical material consisting of audio-video recordings, and drawing on analytical tools borrowed from various approaches in applied linguistics, we propose to investigate how discourse and verbal interaction contribute to the accomplishment of guidance in ordinary work activities. More specifically, we describe various ways of accomplishing direct guidance at work by distinguishing what we call a) spontaneous guidance, b) requested guidance, c) distributed guidance, and d) denied guidance. These categories contribute to depict a contrasted view of the learning potential associated with the practice of work.