Chapter 7

Career guidance and orientation

A. G. Watts

239

UNESCO-UNEVOC | Revisiting global trends in TVET

Contents
1 Introduction

241

2 The concept of career guidance and orientation

241

2.1 Relationship and relevance to TVET

3 Policy rationale

243
245

3.1 Policy rationale for career guidance and orientation in general

245

3.2 Policy rationale for career guidance and orientation in

relation to TVET

248

4 Main elements of career guidance and orientation provision

252

5 Current career guidance and orientation structures

256

5.1 Provision in educational institutions

257

5.2 Provision in workplaces

258

5.3 Provision in the community

259

5.4 National lifelong career guidance systems

261

6 Current career guidance and orientation practices in relation to TVET

262

7 Impact evidence

266

8 Conclusion

267

References268
About the author

240

273

Career guidance and orientation

1 Introduction

his paper examines the relationship of career guidance and orientation to technical
and vocational education and training (TVET). Section 2 examines the concept of
career guidance and orientation, and defines its three main elements as being career
information, career counselling and career education; it also defines career in a
broad and inclusive way, and suggests that the relevance of career guidance to TVET
has been under-explored. Section 3 examines the policy rationale for attention to
career guidance in general and in relation to TVET in particular, and suggests that it
is relevant to some of the key policy issues in TVET, including moving to a demanddriven approach, enhancing its prominence and status, and relating it to occupational
flexibility. Section 4 analyses the main conceptual elements of career guidance
provision, including the growing role played by technology. Section 5 examines the
main forms of current career guidance services within educational institutions,
within workplaces, and in the community and the potential for developing national
lifelong career guidance systems. Section 6 reviews current career guidance practices
in relation to TVET, both pre-entry and within TVET programmes. Section 7 offers
some brief reflections on impact evidence. Finally, Section 8 draws some conclusions,
and comments on the role of UNESCO in supporting the development of career
guidance in relation to TVET.

2 The concept of career guidance

and orientation

areer guidance and orientation services have been defined both by the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2004, p.19)
and in a World Bank report (Watts and Fretwell, 2004, p.2) as:

241

UNESCO-UNEVOC | Revisiting global trends in TVET

Services intended to assist individuals, of any age and any point throughout their
lives, to make educational, training and occupational choices and to manage their
careers.
They include three main elements:
Career information, covering information on courses, occupations and career
paths. This includes labour market information. It may be provided in print
form, but increasingly is web-based in nature.
Career counselling, conducted on a one-to-one basis or in small groups, in
which attention is focused on the distinctive career issues faced by individuals.
Career education, as part of the educational curriculum, in which attention is
paid to helping groups of individuals to develop the competences for managing
their career development.
The term career guidance is sometimes used to cover all of these; sometimes to
cover the first two, which is one of the reasons for the term orientation being added
to the title of this paper (the other, less strictly defensible reason is that orientation
is the French word for guidance).
The concept of career guidance needs to be distinguished clearly from two related
but basically different processes: selection (making decisions about individuals) and
promotion (attempting to persuade individuals to choose particular opportunities at
the expense of others), both of which are primarily designed to meet the needs of
opportunity providers (education and training institutions, and employers). Career
guidance, by contrast, is concerned with helping individuals to choose between the
full range of available opportunities, in relation to their distinctive abilities, interests
and values.
In the past, a distinction has often been drawn between educational guidance,
concerned with course choices, and vocational guidance, concerned with
occupational choices. This was based on the view that educational choices preceded,
or should be separated from, vocational choices. Such a view is now widely regarded
as outdated. Changes in the world of work mean that more people now make
several changes of career direction in the course of their lives, and have to learn
new competences in order to do so. Increasingly therefore, learning and work are
242

Career guidance and orientation

intertwined, on a lifelong basis. Careers are commonly not chosen at a single point
in time, but constructed through a series of interrelated learning and work choices
made throughout life. This has led to a new paradigm in career guidance, designed to
support lifelong career development (see Section 4).
The use of the term career may be taken to imply that the relevance of such processes
is confined mainly to relatively advantaged groups in high-income countries. This
would be the case if career was defined in its traditional sense, as progression up
an ordered hierarchy in an occupation or profession. Increasingly, however, it is
being defined in a much more inclusive way as the individuals lifelong progression
in learning and in work (Watts, 1999). Such a definition is in principle applicable to
all, in low- and middle-income as well as high-income countries, particularly if it is
extended to cover informal as well as formal learning and work. It is in this sense that
the term is used in this paper.
The policy significance attached to career guidance has been significantly elevated
in the last decade through a series of linked policy reviews carried out by a variety of
international organizations including the OECD (2004), the World Bank (Watts and
Fretwell, 2004) and the European Commission and its agencies (Sultana, 2003, 2004;
Sultana and Watts, 2006, 2007; Sweet, 2007; Zelloth, 2009). These have included
systematic reviews covering fifty-five countries (for an overview, see Watts, 2008),
and have been the basis for two policy manuals: one addressed mainly to high-income
countries (OECD and EC, 2004); the other to middle- and low-income countries (ILO,
2006). The reviews were used by UNESCO as the basis for a review of career guidance
in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) (Sultana, 2008). The present paper draws
heavily on these reviews.

2.1 Relationship and relevance to TVET

The specific relevance of career guidance and orientation services to TVET was given
some attention in the reviews outlined above, but has tended in general to be underexplored. Although UNESCOs Revised Recommendation concerning Technical and
Vocational Education (UNESCO, 2001) included a section on guidance, a collection
of papers published by UNESCO on guidance and counselling in relation to TVET

243

UNESCO-UNEVOC | Revisiting global trends in TVET

(Hiebert and Borgen, 2002) was mainly general in nature, and made little mention
of the distinctive issues related to career guidance within TVET itself. Much the same
was true of the section on guidance in a report by the European Centre for the
Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) (2009a) on vocational education and
training (VET) in Europe.1
There has been a tendency to take the view that career guidance is largely irrelevant
within TVET, on the grounds that entry to a vocational course implies that a career
decision has already been made. But in the context of the changes in the world of
work outlined in the preceding section, such a view is increasingly open to question.
It has accordingly been strongly challenged in a recent OECD review of VET, where it
is argued that career guidance is relevant to two of the key policy issues relating to
the development of VET (Watts, 2009; OECD, 2010):
Moving from a supply-driven to a demand-driven approach; and
Addressing the relationship between TVET and occupational flexibility.
This paper attempts to build on this analysis and extend it to the wider range of
countries represented in UNESCO. The two issues in question are discussed in Section
3.2.
The relationship of career guidance and orientation to TVET has been obfuscated by
semantic confusions. This applies particularly to career education. Whereas the term
careers education in the United Kingdom focuses essentially on career decisionmaking, career education in the United States of America (USA) has in the past
extended this to include the development of specific vocational skills and of work
habits and attitudes necessary for entering and keeping a job (Watts and Herr, 1976).
More recently, the term commonly used in the USA to describe VET has been career
and technical education, to reflect an orientation towards a career rather than a
single occupation (OECD, 2010).
Conversely, the UNESCO Revised Recommendation (UNESCO, 2001) defined technical
and vocational education to include not only specific preparation for a particular
occupation field but also more general preparation for the world of work as part of
everyones general education, including developing capacities for decision making
1 TVET and VET are used broadly synonymously in this paper, in line with the usage in documents cited.
244

Career guidance and orientation

(pp. 7, 10) which can be interpreted as effectively subsuming career education within
it. If however TVET is defined more narrowly, along the lines of the OECD definition
of VET as education and training programmes designed for, and typically leading to,
a particular job or type of job (OECD, 2010, p. 26), and if career education is defined
in the terms offered above, then it becomes more practicable and more fruitful to
explore the relationship between the two.
TVET includes both education-based technical and vocational programmes (in
schools, colleges and universities) and work-based learning programmes (including
apprenticeships). It is worth noting that the changes that have taken place in the
concept of career guidance, outlined at the start of this section, have been paralleled
by similar changes in relation to the concept of TVET. It too has been viewed as a
device to smooth the [initial] transition from education to employment (UNESCO,
2011, p. 62), but is now increasingly conceived on an iterative lifelong basis, linked to
the changes in the world of work. Thus while this paper at times refers specifically to
the relationship of career guidance and orientation to TVET for young people, much
of the discussion applies to adults as well.

3 Policy rationale
3.1 Policy rationale for career guidance and orientation in general
Career guidance and orientation is widely viewed as a public good as well as a private
good. In other words, its benefits potentially accrue not only to the individual recipient
of the services but also to the wider society. The policy rationales for attention to
career guidance and orientation as a public good were defined by OECD (2004) as
being threefold:
Learning goals, including improving the efficiency of the education and training
system and managing its interface with the labour market. If individuals make
decisions about what they are to learn in a well-informed and well thought245

UNESCO-UNEVOC | Revisiting global trends in TVET

through way, linked to their interests, their capacities and their aspirations,
investments in education and training systems are likely to yield higher returns.
Labour market goals, including improving the match between supply and
demand and managing adjustments to change. If people find jobs that use
their potential and meet their own goals, they are likely to be more motivated
and therefore more productive.
Social equity goals, including supporting equal opportunities and promoting
social inclusion. Career guidance services can raise the aspirations of
disadvantaged groups and support them in gaining access to opportunities that
might otherwise have been denied to them. (Informal guidance, by contrast,
tends to reinforce existing social inequities.)
Box 1 lists some goals in each of these categories, as identified in a study of career
guidance and orientation services in seven middle-income countries (Chile, the
Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, South Africa and Turkey) carried out for the
World Bank. Underpinning the rationale for investment in career guidance and
orientation services is the notion that addressing such objectives through structural
and institutional reforms is not sufficient. To lubricate and complement such reforms,
attention also needs to be given to supporting the processes of individual decisionmaking through which they can be made effective. This is linked to the notion that
national strategies for lifelong learning and human resource development need to
be driven not only by governments and employers but also by individuals themselves
(see e.g. EC, 2010).
Box 1. Some policy goals for career guidance and orientation services
Learning goals
S upporting lifelong learning (for both youth and adults) and the
development of human resources to support national and individual
economic growth.
Supporting a more flexible education and training system.

246

Career guidance and orientation

S upporting a stronger but more flexible vocational orientation within

the school system.
I mproving the efficiency of education and training systems by reducing
dropout rates and increasing graduation rates.
S trengthening linkages between education/training systems and the
labour market.
Labour market goals
Improving labour market efficiency.
Reducing mismatch between supply and demand.
Addressing skill shortages.
I mproving labour adaptability in response to market conditions, in
terms of both geographical and occupational mobility.
Reducing the extent and duration of unemployment.
M
inimizing individual dependency on income-support systems, as
these are introduced.
Social equity goals
S upporting equal opportunities in relation to education and
employment.
Addressing the needs of disadvantaged and marginalized groups.
Supporting the social integration of ethnic minorities.
Supporting female labour market participation.
Addressing gender segmentation in the labour market.
Source: Watts and Fretwell (2004, pp. 67).

Some of the goals in Box 1 are addressed to particular target groups. Young people are
often targeted, to support their initial transitions into the labour market. Particular
attention may also be given to groups of the disadvantaged (in terms of social class,

247

UNESCO-UNEVOC | Revisiting global trends in TVET

gender or ethnicity) and to those who have dropped out of education, training or
employment. In relation to adults, priority may be given to unemployed people or
to other groups seeking to re-enter the labour market migrants and refugees, for
example, or women returning after child-rearing, or demobilized soldiers in postconflict situations.
In general, in terms of international variations, career guidance services tend to be
more highly developed, and given greater policy priority, in high-income than in
middle- and low-income countries. The more formalized and more developed the
economy, and the more opportunities it offers for social and geographical mobility,
the more need there is for informal mechanisms for allocation of work roles to
be supplemented by formal mechanisms, including career guidance services. But
middle-income countries also face increasing challenges in these respects, to which
investment in career guidance services may be seen as a response, as the World
Bank study demonstrated. This is particularly the case in countries like some of those
in the Mediterranean region, with high rates of growth being fuelled by structural
reforms including economic liberalization, growth of international trade and foreign
investment (Sweet, 2009; Sultana and Watts, 2007). In addition, the growth of career
guidance services is related to the development of market economies and democratic
political institutions, with their greater attention to individual volition, and so may
be particularly relevant to countries in transition in these directions (Watts, 1996;
Watts and Fretwell, 2004).

3.2 Policy rationale for career guidance and orientation in relation

to TVET
Most of the goals mentioned in Section 3.1 are relevant to TVET. But the role of
career guidance and orientation in strengthening the role of individuals in driving
national strategies is of particular significance, supporting moves to make TVET more
responsive and demand-driven.
The case for TVET is based on preparing learners for employment, thereby meeting
labour market demand. But Grubb notes the persistent fear that VET programs
will lose contact with employers, that VET will be supply-driven or dominated by
248

Career guidance and orientation

the concerns of VET providers, rather than demand-driven or dominated by the

needs of employers (2008, p. 30). In seeking closer articulation with labour markets,
attention may accordingly be paid to planning approaches based on consultation
with employers; but this is rarely effective in itself (OECD, 2010). It therefore tends
to be replaced, or at least supplemented, by an approach based on responsiveness
to learner preferences. The rationale for this offered by OECD (2010, pp.512) is
threefold:
Students are often good judges of their own skills and the characteristics that
may make them better suited to one job than another so taking account of
their preferences leads to higher productivity.
Students know more about what they most enjoy doing, so that even when
labour market outcomes are weaker, they are compensated in terms of their
well-being.
It is counterproductive to coerce students into careers they do not want
the very high proportion of VET graduates in nearly all countries who change
occupations after only a few years probably reflects some welcome career
development, but it may also be the result of some misconceived career choices.
In addition, Grubb (2008) notes that learners will want to read the labour market
and to enter programmes with the best prospects of getting them into desirable
employment in both the short and long term.
There is thus a strong policy case for effective career choices to assure the quality
of these processes, by ensuring that learners decision-making is well informed
in terms of both self-awareness and opportunity awareness and well thought
through. In these terms, career guidance and orientation acts as a further bridge
between TVET programmes and the world of work, with the learner as an active agent
in strengthening this relationship.
Investment in career guidance may also in some cases be justified as a means of
increasing interest in TVET as opposed to general education. This emerged as an issue,
for example, in the UNESCO review of career guidance in the OPT (see Box 2), where
a key driver for the policy interest in career guidance was as a tool for directing
more students towards vocational tracks, including female students in particular.
249

UNESCO-UNEVOC | Revisiting global trends in TVET

The review noted the need to keep a balance between directing/orienting on the
one hand, and supporting personal decisions on the other. Other policies were also
needed to raise the profile and attractiveness of TVET (Sultana, 2008) which career
counselling could then lubricate impartially at the level of personal decision-making.

Box 2. Career guidance in the OPT

A review of career guidance in the OPT was conducted for UNESCO by
Professor Ronald G. Sultana (2008). Subtitled Mapping the Field and Ways
Forward, it was based on a one-week study visit. The report aimed to map
and examine current initiatives in the career guidance field in the OPT, to
place them in the context of international initiatives in this field, and to
explore ways to establish a career guidance system in the OPT. The report took
careful account of the particular political and economic situation of the OPT,
its damaging impact on the business and investment climate, and the limited
employment opportunities available to Palestinians, which made any notion
of occupational choice seem a luxury.
Despite these problems, a number of noteworthy career guidance initiatives
were identified, in relation to career information, career education, career
counselling, employment counselling and job placement. Several of these
were in the non-governmental sector. Examples included the Step Forward
programme of the Sharek Youth Forum, which included career counselling,
educational guidance, interactive training workshops on writing curricula
vitae and job-interview skills, on-the-job training opportunities and work
experience, work simulation (such as a model court for law students), careers
fairs, and training and support in setting up a business.
The report recommended a number of policy options, including the
establishment of a National Task Force for Career Guidance.

Career guidance may also be linked to efforts to enhance the status of TVET by
viewing it as a positive option rather than as a residual destination for those who
have failed in general education. In some countries, in the Mediterranean region
250

Career guidance and orientation

for example, the education system has often been based on rigid tracking based on
examination results, with less successful students being guided into TVET in order
to limit student flows into higher education (Perez and Hakim, 2006). In seeking to
open up such systems, and for instance to make it possible for students to move from
vocational streams into higher education, the greater attention to student choice
requires career guidance support.
The other major specific policy rationale for career guidance in relation to TVET is
to support the relationship between TVET and occupational flexibility. The UNESCO
Revised Recommendation stated that TVET should lead to the acquisition of broad
knowledge and generic skills applicable to a number of occupations within a given
field so that the individual is not limited in his/her choice of occupation and is able
to transfer from one field to another during his/her working life (UNESCO, 2001,
p. 21). The effectiveness of attention to generic transferable skills is likely to be
more effective if TVET programmes include career education components that give
explicit attention to other occupations to which the skills and competences being
acquired within the programme are transferable, so making the concept of transfer
more transparent and tangible (Watts, 2009).
Such occupational flexibility can also be enhanced by national qualification
frameworks (Bjrnvold and Coles, 2008; Young, 2007). These are designed to relate
qualifications in different sectors to one another, developing linkages and pathways
with portable credits that allow students to move more flexibly from one sector of
education and training to another. Such frameworks are being developed in around
100 countries (Bjrnvold and Deij, 2009), including for example almost all countries
of the South African Development Community (SADC) region (SADC and UNESCO,
2011). In South Africa, the South African Qualifications Authority has taken the lead
in developing a national strategy for career guidance, on the grounds that learners
need navigational support if such frameworks are to be used effectively (Walters et
al., 2009) (see Box 3, on page 278).

251

UNESCO-UNEVOC | Revisiting global trends in TVET

4 Main elements of career guidance and

orientation provision

t was suggested in Section 2 that career guidance and orientation services include
three main elements: career information, career counselling and career education.
To these three terms, the International Labour Organization (ILO) adds employment
counselling and job placement (2006, p.1). Such terms are particularly valuable
when considering the role of public employment services (PES) in relation to career
guidance (e.g. Sultana and Watts, 2006; Borbly-Pecze and Watts, 2011). Job
placement, however, is usually viewed as being separate from career guidance, while
employment counselling can be viewed as part of career counselling, even though
it focuses mainly on immediate employment goals.
Closely related to career guidance are a range of other activities. These include
tutoring, coaching and mentoring; portfolios and individual learning plans; interests
inventories, psychometric tests and other online tools and resources; work experience
(when used for exploratory rather than preparatory purposes), work shadowing, work
simulations and work visits; taster programmes; and enterprise activities.
Career information is the core of all effective career guidance provision. It needs
to include information on occupations, on learning opportunities, and on the
relationships and pathways between the two. It also needs to include labour market
information, on changing supply and demand in relation to different occupations.
In many middle- and low-income countries, however, career information in general,
and labour market information in particular, is very limited (see e.g. Sultana and
Watts, 2007; Zelloth, 2009).
While information is essential for effective career decision-making, it is not
sufficient. As noted by the OECD, public investment in information is of little value
if its potential users are not able to access the information, to understand it and
relate it to their personal needs, and to act upon it (2004, p. 91). Moreover, as Grubb
(2002) points out:

252

Career guidance and orientation

In many respects the choices about schooling, work, and careers are not
choices in the same sense that we think of the choices among shirts or fruit
or financial services; they are much more difficult issues of identity, involving
deeper issues of what a person is, what their values are, how they position
themselves with respect to others and to social groups, what they think of as
a worthy life the many different elements defining who they are.
(Grubb, 2002, p.11)
Information therefore needs to be supplemented by other career interventions if it
is to be effective.
Traditionally, the dominant model of career guidance provision was based on talentmatching approaches: measuring individual abilities and matching them to the
demands of different occupations. This has been challenged on a number of grounds.
In particular, it has been argued (see Watts and Fretwell, 2004, p. 24) that:
The matching process should be concerned not just with individuals abilities
and aptitudes, but also with their needs, values and interests.
Career guidance should be concerned not only with matching of existing
attributes, but also with self-development and growth.
Emphasis should shift from discrete decisions made at particular points in
time to the underlying and continuous process of career development through
which individuals determine the course of their lives.
The aim of career guidance should not be to deploy expertise to make decisions
for people, but rather to help people make decisions for themselves.
Accordingly, there has been a shift to a new paradigm, based on three main
components:
Career guidance should be available throughout life, to support lifelong
learning and career development.
It should be viewed as a learning experience, encompassing a range of learning
interventions.

253

UNESCO-UNEVOC | Revisiting global trends in TVET

It should foster the individuals autonomy, helping them to develop the skills
and knowledge they need in order to manage their career decisions and
transitions.
This reflects a move from a psychological to a pedagogical approach: from testing
to tasting, with a primary focus on helping individuals to develop their career
management skills. At the same time, there is evidence from a Dutch study in
vocational education that concrete learning experiences need to be accompanied by
opportunities to participate in career-oriented dialogues if students are to develop
career competencies effectively (Kuijpers et al., 2011).
A widely adopted framework for defining career management skills is the so-called
DOTS model (Law and Watts, 1977), the elements of which are self-awareness,
opportunity awareness, decision learning and transition learning. More recently,
blueprints for defining career management skills on a lifelong basis have been
developed in Canada (National Life/Work Centre, n.d.) and Australia (MCETYA, 2009).
Work has also been carried out in Europe on exploring critically the nature of such
skills (Sultana, 2011).
In reframing career guidance and orientation provision, a key role is being played
by information and communication technologies (ICT). These have huge potential
for extending access to services and for improving the quality of those services. This
includes not only information, but also automated interactions in which users can
interrogate the information in relation to their own preferences and characteristics,
without additional use of staff time. In addition, the more recent advent of Web 2.0
and 3.0 technologies, including social media and user-generated information, opens
up new possibilities, including interactions with career informants (people already
in the occupation or course the person is seeking to enter) (Hooley et al., 2010). Many
users, however, need help to learn how to find reliable information among the mass
of content available (World Bank, 2006, p.17).
Technology is also increasingly being used to enable individuals to communicate
with career professionals via the telephone or the web. A particularly innovative and
significant initiative of this kind is outlined in Box 3.

254

Career guidance and orientation

Box 3: A career advice helpline in South Africa

In South Africa, a career advice helpline is being developed which comprises
a multi-channel career development service accessible by various means
(including telephone, text messages, email, Twitter and Facebook), linked to
a career information and career resources website, media activities (such as
a national radio campaign), and linkages with institutions providing career
development services, such as community colleges.
The helpline is viewed as a core element of a new comprehensive career
guidance system for South Africa. Its development is being led by the South
African Qualifications Authority, as a means of activating learner usage of its
National Qualifications Framework.
The helpline builds upon experience with similar helplines in New Zealand
and the United Kingdom, but its development has also been enriched by
drawing upon a tradition of equity-driven community-based career centres
established by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) under the previous
apartheid regime. One of its distinctive rationales is the capacity of the mobile
telephone to reach out into rural and disadvantaged communities.
Sources: Flederman (2011), Keevy et al. (2012).

It is important to recognize that career guidance provision needs to be adapted to the

cultural context in which it is set. Cultural issues include the significance of family
influences and patronage, and also of attitudes relating to directiveness and fatalism
(Sultana and Watts, 2007). Such issues may be influenced by socio-economic factors:
for example, in countries without pension and other public benefit systems, families
may be significantly dependent on, and therefore expect to have a significant say in,
the career choices of their children. Arulmani (2011) has promoted the development
of culturally resonant careers programmes in India, and has demonstrated how
negative career beliefs can be countered through such interventions.
Career guidance provision may also be influenced by values in other ways. For
instance, the concern for sustainable development has induced interest in the

255

UNESCO-UNEVOC | Revisiting global trends in TVET

concept of green guidance, in which emphasis is placed on encouraging individuals

to consider the environmental implications of their career choices (Plant, 1999).
A final issue worth noting is the relationship between career guidance and enterprise.
Careers programmes should be concerned not only with employment but also
with self-employment and entrepreneurship. There are strong links between these
concepts and the notion of career self-management, reflected in the notion that my
career is my business (in both senses of the term: it is my source of income, and it
is my concern) (Hakim, 1994). Since the informal sector can be viewed as the latent
entrepreneurial sector, it also provides a means of extending the concept of career
development to cover the informal economies (which in many middle- and lowincome countries provide the main source of livelihood for many people).

5 Current career guidance and orientation

structures

he main organizational structures for delivering career guidance and orientation

services have been analysed in detail in the international reviews outlined in
Section 2. They can be divided into three main groups:
Career development provision in educational institutions,
Career development provision in workplaces,
Careers services in the community.
Each is here examined in turn, followed by a brief discussion of the potential for
developing national lifelong career guidance systems.

256

Career guidance and orientation

5.1 Provision in educational institutions

In educational institutions, there is often some formal provision designed to help
students to manage their career-related choices and transitions on entry to, while
studying in and on exit from the institution.
In schools, these may include career education programmes that form part of the
core curriculum. Such programmes have been established in a number of school
systems, particularly in lower secondary schools, though sometimes extending to
primary and upper secondary schools too. They may be stand-alone programmes
run as a separate course, subsumed within other courses (such as personal, social
and health education, or social studies), infused within most or all subjects across
the curriculum, or provided as extra-curricular programmes (often on an intensive
basis over a day or longer). Some countries include work visits, exploratory work
experience and work shadowing alongside or as part of such programmes. All of
these programmes tend to be more highly developed in high-income countries.
Career counselling tends in many countries including many middle-income countries
(Watts and Fretwell, 2004; Sultana and Watts, 2007; Sweet, 2007) to be provided
as part of a broader role of guidance/school counsellor (or school psychologist/
pedagogue). This role also covers guidance on pupils learning and behavioural
problems, and on the personal and social problems to which these may be linked.
The counsellor may or may not have also been trained as a teacher, and may or may
not also do some teaching. In the World Bank study of middle-income countries,
counsellorpupil ratios ranged between 1:300 and 1:800 (Watts and Fretwell, 2004,
p. 9). Within such roles, there is consistent evidence that career guidance tends to be
marginalized, in two respects:
Guidance counsellors tend to spend much of their time on the learning and
behavioural problems of a minority of pupils, at the expense of the help needed
by all pupils in relation to their educational and vocational choices.
Guidance on such choices tends to focus mainly on immediate educational
decisions, rather than on occupational decisions and on longer-term career
implications.

257

UNESCO-UNEVOC | Revisiting global trends in TVET

In some cases, these problems may be exacerbated by using guidance counsellors to

carry out administrative tasks which have nothing to do with their guidance role,
and may indeed (in the case of disciplinary tasks) be in conflict with it (Watts and
Fretwell, 2004, p. 9).
Accordingly, some countries have made separate appointments of career counsellors
or careers teachers. An alternative model is for such career counsellors to be based
in an agency outside the school, closer to the labour market, and independent of
the interests of the educational institution (which in some cases may tend to bias
the guidance, for example by favouring the schools own learning provision over
alternative provision). The German model, in which the PES plays such a role, has
been influential in some other countries.
Alongside such specialists, teachers may also play a guidance role, in particular by
adopting an additional role as tutors or homeroom teachers. This may include some
curriculum time, which can be used for guidance as well as administrative purposes.
In tertiary education institutions, specialist careers services are well-established in
such countries as Australia, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the USA, and are growing
in some other countries. They may include job-placement services (which school
services usually do not), and are sometimes part of more broad-based counselling
services or student services. In addition, there has recently been a growth of career
education in higher education institutions, in the form of career development
modules and the like (e.g. Kumar, 2007; Watts, 2006).
Some countries have also developed what are effectively career education courses
in adult education. In addition, career guidance elements may be included in access
courses for those returning to formal education after a substantial gap, and in
processes for the assessment and recognition of prior learning.

5.2 Provision in workplaces

In some high-income countries, employees commonly look to their employer for
some forms of career guidance, especially related to learning new skills and to
career development within the organization (see e.g. MORI, 2001). Some employers
provide systematic career development provision for their employees, but this tends
258

Career guidance and orientation

to be confined mainly to larger employers in high-income countries (including

multinational companies), and to key talent groups such as graduates and managers
(CEDEFOP, 2008a). In a number of countries too, trade unions have become involved
in schemes designed to support the skills development of their members (Clough,
2009).
Also common in larger companies in high-income countries is outplacement provision
for employees who are being made redundant. These services are usually purchased
by the company from external career guidance providers (see Section 5.3).
Public policy can support career development provision in workplaces, either by
including it as allowable expenditure against training levies, or through voluntary
quality-mark schemes (OECD, 2004).

5.3 Provision in the community

The strength of provision being embedded in educational institutions and workplaces
is that these are the sites where many individuals are located for substantial parts
of their lives, and where their careers are significantly forged. But these institutions
may have an interest in influencing their career directions, which can jeopardize the
impartiality of the guidance that is offered. This is even more the case in workplaces,
in relation to consideration of options outside the organization for individuals whom
the employer wants to retain. Moreover, many individuals are not located in either
educational institutions or workplaces for example, those who are unemployed.
For all of these reasons, a range of career guidance provision is located elsewhere in
the community. Some is in the public sector, some in the voluntary and community
sector, and some in the private sector.
In the public sector, the main such provision is offered by PES. As noted in Section
4, such provision tends to focus mainly on employment counselling and on
immediate employment goals, and to be linked to job placement. In countries with
unemployment benefit systems, this type of provision tends to be linked to sanctions
related to claiming unemployment benefits (in other words, people only retain the
right to claim such benefits if they attend employment counselling sessions and
carry out agreed action plans) and to gatekeeping roles in relation to training or
259

UNESCO-UNEVOC | Revisiting global trends in TVET

other provision supported out of public funds. In middle- and low-income countries
without such systems, the unemployed may have little if any incentive to use the
services.
Some PES, however, also provide career counselling which focuses on longer-term
career goals and is more client-centred in nature. This may be offered to some
unemployed individuals and job-seekers; it may also be offered to students and to
employed individuals, or to individuals thinking of returning to the labour market.
In addition, PES may play a significant role in the collection and dissemination of
career and labour market information (Sultana and Watts, 2006; Borbly-Pecze and
Watts, 2011).
In a small number of high-income countries, separate all-age careers services have
been established, notably in New Zealand, Scotland and Wales. Such services offer
coherence and continuity of provision, with related cost savings and added value.
They can also provide a professional spine for a national lifelong career guidance
system (see Section 5.4), which includes supporting capacity-building of guidance
provision in educational institutions and other sectors (Watts, 2010).
Career guidance provision in the voluntary and community sector is much stronger
in some countries than in others. In some cases, its role has been stimulated by the
contracting out of some public employment services to these kinds of organization
(Considine, 2001; OECD, 2004). Voluntary and community organizations can also
play a particularly important role in relation to disadvantaged groups returning to
education and training (Hawthorn and Alloway, 2009). In Sultanas (2008) review
of services in the OPT (see Box 2), he noted that NGOs had been at the forefront
of innovation and service provision, and were often more grassroots-based than
governmental services and closer to the communities in which they operated. Some
external donor organizations accordingly prefer to work through such organizations,
especially where relevant government agencies are not well developed (ILO, 2006, p.
45). It is also noteworthy that the new career helpline in South Africa draws upon
a tradition of equity-driven community-based career centres established by NGOs
under the previous apartheid regime (see Box 3).
Finally, career guidance provision in the private sector tends to be confined to certain
niche areas. Only a limited number of career counselling services are funded entirely
260

Career guidance and orientation

through fees paid by individuals, even in high-income countries. There is a stronger

market where such services are paid for by employers (notably for outplacement
services) or by government contracts. There are also markets in many higherincome countries in career information and in employment agencies, much of it
based not on user pays but on opportunity provider pays models. Some web-based
employment services, for example, include career information and advice as a hook
to attract customers. However, this raises questions about the comprehensiveness
and impartiality of such information from a user perspective (Hooley, Hutchinson
and Watts, 2011).
Although career guidance is a public good, this does not mean that all such provision
should be paid for by governments. Possible public-policy roles in relation to the
market in career guidance provision include to stimulate the growth of the market,
to quality-assure the market, and to compensate for market failure (OECD, 2004).

5.4 National lifelong career guidance systems

The international studies outlined in Section 2 have not only reviewed the range of
career guidance provision on a lifelong basis, but have examined tools and structures
designed to coordinate such provision more strongly, making it more seamless to the
citizen. In Europe, most countries have now developed national lifelong guidance
forums or other coordination mechanisms, designed to bring together the relevant
government departments, social partners and other stakeholders, in order to achieve
improved communication, cooperation and coordination. Tasks might include the
development of cross-sectoral protocols and quality standards (CEDEFOP, 2008b;
ELGPN, 2010). Hungary provides a particularly systematic example (Watts and
Borbly-Pecze, 2011). More limited coordination mechanisms have been developed
in some other middle-income countries (see e.g. Sultana and Watts, 2007, p. 47;
Zelloth, 2009, p. 47).

261

UNESCO-UNEVOC | Revisiting global trends in TVET

6 Current career guidance and orientation

practices in relation to TVET

areer guidance and orientation is relevant to the quality and effectiveness of

TVET programmes at two stages: prior to entering a TVET programme, and within
the TVET programme.
Prior to entry, two principles are important (Watts, 2009):
That all young people should be made aware, within their career education
programmes, of TVET options alongside the other options available to them,
That young people interested in TVET options should have access to career
counselling, supported by high-quality career information, to ensure that their
choices are well informed and well thought through.
In relation to pre-entry guidance, there is evidence in a number of countries of
bias in favour of general education options at the expense of TVET options. This
is particularly the case where career advice is provided by academically trained
teachers with limited knowledge of the wider world of work. This problem may be
exacerbated where institutions have an interest in encouraging students to enter
courses at their own institution rather than those offered elsewhere, especially where
school funding is linked to student recruitment (OECD, 2010). This is one of the
rationales for providing career guidance to school students from an external service
(see Section 5.1). It is also a rationale for improving the professionalization of career
guidance practitioners: moves in this direction are taking place in a range of countries
(CEDEFOP, 2009b). Such moves are supported by concern that career guidance
should be a separate profession rather than being assimilated into psychological
counselling, and that the list of competences required should pay more attention
than in the recent past to knowledge of labour and learning markets (OECD, 2010).
It is also important that career education and career counselling should be supported
by relevant career information. In relation to TVET, such provision needs to include
information on (Watts, 2009):

262

Career guidance and orientation

The available TVET options;

The qualifications to which they lead, and the further qualifications to which
they give access;
The occupations to which these qualifications provide access, and the extent to
which the qualifications are sufficient for entry;
The salary/wage levels offered by these occupations;
The projected demand for these occupations (a strong exemplar here is the
Occupational Outlook Handbook published by the Department of Labor in the
USA);
The labour market outcomes achieved by those successfully completing the
programmes, including the nature of their jobs, their salary/wage levels,
whether or not the jobs are in an occupational sector directly related to
their TVET programme, and the extent to which they are using the skills and
competences acquired in the programme.
However, as noted in Section 4, career information in general, and labour market
information in particular, is very limited in some countries. Even simple destinations
data from TVET courses are often missing (e.g. SADC and UNESCO, 2011). Addressing
these gaps is a priority in such countries if access to TVET is to be adequately
supported.
Such information may be supported by other programmes designed to improve
awareness of TVET options. In Turkey, for example, vocational and technical education
fairs have been organized annually in all cities to demonstrate the advances made
in this sector and to make it more widely known; regulations have insisted that all
eighth-grade students in the city should be scheduled to visit the relevant fair in
groups, as part of a wider programme to orient them to TVET and its relationship
to employment opportunities (Watts and Fretwell, 2004, p.12). Similar activities are
organized in Algeria and Morocco, where websites clearly setting out the TVET offer
have been put online, and guidebooks, posters, promotional videos and open days
support the attempts to attract more students to the TVET sector (Sultana and Watts,
2007, p. 35).

263

UNESCO-UNEVOC | Revisiting global trends in TVET

In TVET programmes, the key principles are:

That career guidance should be available at all relevant decision points, and
on exit,
That career education programmes have an important role to play both
in preparing students for future career decisions and in supporting the
transferability of their learning.
Both need to be built as core strategies into curriculum design (Watts, 2009).
Some TVET programmes adopt structures of progressive specialization, which mean
that further decisions carrying career consequences need to be made after entering
the programme. In Egypt, for example, a new study plan for technical education
introduced in 2008/09 aimed to postpone specialization to the second year, with
only a family of occupations selected in the first year, thus creating the potential for
orientation programmes and other guidance activities (Zelloth, 2009, p.15).
In addition, some countries have been introducing structural changes to improve
progression pathways between TVET and higher education. A study in Australia,
however, indicated that progress in improving such pathways had not been
accompanied by corresponding progress in the provision of career support to
facilitate these pathways (Harris et al., 2006).
More broadly, career education elements in TVET programmes need to pay attention
to career paths in the occupations to which the programme is designed to lead. This
should include, for example, opportunities for self-employment and entrepreneurship.
Furthermore, as noted in Section 3.2, the elements should give some attention to
other occupations to which the competences acquired in the programme might be
transferable. This can include experience-based elements, such as additional work
placements in other sectors, in order to demonstrate their transferability in action.
It is also important for career guidance and placement services to be available towards
the end of courses, to help students to review their plans: in Hungary, for instance,
over a quarter of vocational secondary students and over a third of vocational
training students indicated that they would choose a different occupation if they

264

Career guidance and orientation

could start again (Kis et al., 2008, p. 26). In addition, help needs to be available earlier
in courses for any students who are thinking of, or at risk of, dropping out, to ensure
that they are able to transfer as easily as possible to an alternative programme.
In general, though, career guidance tends to be weaker and more often absent
in vocational than in general education programmes. In Australia, for example, a
review of career development services in post-secondary institutions concluded that
students in technical and further education (TAFE) had fewer opportunities than
those in universities to benefit from career guidance in their institutions. Whereas
almost all universities had dedicated career services units with an institution-wide
responsibility for providing career services to students, such services in the TAFE
sector were more likely to be provided as part of general student services such as
student counselling (PhillipsKPA, 2008). The inclusion of career services in generic
counselling services or integrated student services is also evident in post-secondary
vocational institutions in other countries: in Germany, for instance (OECD, 2002).
In such instances, career guidance tends to be viewed as a reactive remedial service
for students with problems, rather than as a proactive core support for all students.
A possible rationale for the reduced attention to career guidance in vocational
institutions compared with general education institutions is that attention to
career pathways related to particular vocational courses is embedded in the courses
themselves, and in the arrangements made for work-experience placements,
for tutorial support, and for making use of the experiences and contacts of staff
(especially, in some cases, part-time staff) in the relevant occupational sector. Three
issues need to be raised in relation to such provision:
Whether it introduces students to the full range of opportunities in the sector,
Whether it covers career pathways in the sector rather being confined to entrylevel jobs,
Whether it covers the needs of students who might be interested in changing
career direction (including making them aware of other occupational sectors
to which some of the competences they have acquired might be transferable).

265

UNESCO-UNEVOC | Revisiting global trends in TVET

It is also important to identify whether such provision is subject to systematic

institutional policy and quality standards, or is left to individual course teams to
determine.
In middle- and low-income countries, career guidance in TVET institutions tends to
be even more limited, and is often restricted to informal help offered by individual
teachers/trainers (Sultana and Watts, 2007, p. 35). There are nonetheless examples
of relevant initiatives. Zelloth (2009, pp.3132), for example, reported that in
Macedonia, careers centres had been established in all vocational schools, as part
of an international donor programme; and that in Georgia, careers managers and
consultants were to be introduced in all newly established VET centres.

7 Impact evidence

he OECD Career Guidance Policy Review (2004) concluded that there was a great
deal of positive evidence of the impact of career guidance interventions on
learning outcomes in relation to career management skills and related motivational
and attitudinal outcomes; that there was some evidence of positive effects in
relation to such behavioural outcomes as participation in learning programmes, and
learner attainment; but that the available evidence on long-term outcomes (such as
social mobility) was limited, mainly because of the costs and technical difficulties
involved in mounting relevant studies. More recent reviews (e.g. Hooley, Marriott and
Sampson, 2011) support this broad conclusion.
In terms of the relative impact of different career guidance interventions, metaanalyses (notably Whiston et al., 1998; Whiston et al., 2003) indicate that if the
aim is to provide the greatest gain in the shortest amount of time for the client,
individual counselling is much the most effective intervention, followed by computer
interventions, with group counselling, workshops and class-based interventions
some way behind. But if the criterion is the greatest gain for the greatest number
of clients per unit of counsellor resource, the most cost-effective is computer-based
266

Career guidance and orientation

interventions, followed by class-based interventions and workshops. Counsellor-free

interventions are less effective than interventions involving a counsellor; computer
interventions supplemented by counselling are more effective than computer
interventions on their own.

8 Conclusion

his paper indicates that career guidance and orientation is strongly relevant to
TVET programmes, but that its relationship to such programmes has been underexplored and is still weakly developed in many countries, especially middle- and
low-income countries. There are signs that this may now be beginning to change,
not least because career guidance and orientation is beginning to be recognized
as a significant means of making TVET more responsive and demand-driven, and
addressing its relationship to occupational flexibility. It is critically important prior
to entry to TVET programmes, to ensure that TVET options are considered by a wider
range of learners, and that learners decisions related to them are well informed and
well thought through. It is also important during and on exit from such programmes,
to support individuals sense of direction and the transferability of their learning.
More attention needs to be given to the policy implications of these issues, and
to evaluating what can be learned from current and innovative practices. Such
evaluations should include impact evidence.
UNESCO could play a significant role in strengthening the role of career guidance in
relation to TVET, through its research and other catalytic activities. Its recent review
in the OPT (Sultana, 2008) is a good example of what is possible. In doing so, it
would be helpful and cost-effective to build upon the international studies that
have been conducted in recent years through the OECD, the World Bank, and the
European Commission and its agencies (see Section 2). Regions that merit particular
attention include Central and Southern Africa, and Central and South America (the
only countries in these regions covered in the reviews to date are South Africa and
Chile respectively).
267

UNESCO-UNEVOC | Revisiting global trends in TVET

References
Arulmani, G. (2011). Striking the right note: the cultural preparedness approach
to developing resonant career guidance programmes. International Journal for
Educational and Vocational Guidance, Vol.11, No. 2, pp. 7993.
Bjrnvold, J. and Coles, M. (2008). Governing education and training; the case of
qualifications frameworks. European Journal of Vocational Training, Vol.42/43, pp.
203235.
Bjrnvold, J. and Deij, A. (2009). The purpose and the main features of the
European Qualifications Framework in an international context. Paper presented at
a conference on European Qualifications Framework: linking to a globalised world.
Brussels, 29 January.
Borbly-Pecze, T. and Watts, A. G. (2011). European Public Employment Services and
Lifelong Guidance: Analytical Paper. PES to PES Dialogue. Brussels, EU DirectorateGeneral for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion.
Clough, B. (2009). Unions and Partnership: Union Learning Representatives and the
Governments Skills Strategy. London, Unionlearn.
Considine, M. (2001). Enterprising States: the Public Management of Welfare-toWork. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
CEDEFOP. (2008a). Career Development at Work. Panorama Series 151. Thessaloniki,
European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP).
. (2008b). Establishing and Developing National Lifelong Guidance Policy
Forums. Panorama Series 153. Thessaloniki, CEDEFOP.
. (2009a). Continuity, Consolidation and Change: Towards a European Era of
Vocational Education and Training. Thessaloniki, CEDEFOP.
. (2009b). Professionalising Career Guidance: Practitioner Competences and
Qualification Routes in Europe. Panorama Series 164. Thessaloniki, CEDEFOP.

268

Career guidance and orientation

European Commission. (2010). New Skills for New Jobs: Action Now. European
Commission Expert Group on New Skills for New Jobs. Brussels, European Commission.
ELGPN. (2010). Lifelong Guidance Policies: Work in Progress. Jyvskyl, Finland,
European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network (ELGPN).
Flederman, P. (2011). A career advice helpline: a case study from South Africa.
International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 1
13.
Grubb, W. N. (2002). Who am I: the inadequacy of career information in the
information age. Paper prepared for the OECD Career Guidance Policy Review. Paris,
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
. (2008). Vocational Education and Training: Issues for a Thematic Review. Paris,
OECD.
Hakim, C. (1994). We Are All Self-Employed. San Francisco, Calif., Berrett-Koehler.
Harris, R., Rainey, L. and Sumner, R. (2006). Crazy Paving or Stepping Stones? Learning
Pathways within and between Vocational Education and Training and Higher
Education. Adelaide, Australian National Centre for Vocational Education Research.
Hawthorn, R. and Alloway, J. (2009). Smoothing the Path: Advice about Learning and
Work for Disadvantaged Adults. Reading, England, CfBT Education Trust.
Hiebert, B. and Borgen, W. (ed.). (2002). Technical and Vocational Education and
Training in the Twenty-First Century: New Roles and Challenges for Guidance and
Counselling. Paris, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO).
Hooley, T., Hutchinson, J. and Watts, A. G. (2010). Careering through the Web. London,
UK Commission for Employment and Skills.
. (2011). Enhancing Choice? The Role of Technology in the Career Support
Market. London, UK Commission for Employment and Skills.
Hooley, T., Marriott, J. and Sampson, J.P. (2011). Fostering Career and College
Readiness: How Career Development Activities in Schools Impact on Graduation

269

UNESCO-UNEVOC | Revisiting global trends in TVET

Rates and Students Life Success. Derby, England, International Centre for Guidance
Studies, University of Derby.
ILO. 2006. Career Guidance: a Resource Handbook for Low- and Middle-Income
Countries. Geneva, International Labour Office (ILO).
Keevy, J., Steenekamp, S. and West, P. (in press). A qualitative approach to career
development within the context of the South African National Qualifications
Framework. Paper submitted to the South African Journal of Higher Education.
Kis, V., Ferreira, M. L., Field, S. and Zwick, T. (2008). Learning for Jobs: OECD Reviews
of Vocational Education and Training: Hungary. Paris, Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Kuijpers, M., Meijers, F. and Gundy, C. (2011). The relationship between learning
environment and career competencies of students in vocational education. Journal
of Vocational Behavior, Vol.78, pp. 2130.
Kumar, A. (2007). Personal, Academic and Career Development in Higher Education:
SOARing to Success. London, Routledge.
Law, B. and Watts, A.G. (1977). Schools, Careers and Community. London, Church
Information Office.
Market and Opinion Research International (MORI). (2001). Demand for Information,
Advice and Guidance. Winchester, England, Guidance Council.
MCEETYA. (2009). Australian Blueprint for Career Development. Canberra, Australia.
Ministerial Council on Education, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA).
National Life/Work Centre, Canada. n.d. Blueprint for Life/Work Designs. Ottawa,
National Life/Work Centre.
OECD. (2002). OECD Review of Career Guidance Policies: Germany Country Note.
Paris, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
. (2004). Career Guidance and Public Policy: Bridging the Gap. Paris, OECD.
. (2010). Learning for Jobs. Paris, OECD.

270

Career guidance and orientation

OECD and European Commission. (2004). Career Guidance: A Handbook for Policy
Makers. Paris, OECD.
Perez, E.C. and Hakim, G. (2006). Reforming Technical Vocational Education and
Training in the Middle East and North Africa: Experiences and Challenges. Luxembourg,
Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.
PhillipsKPA. (2008). Review of Career Development Services in Australian Tertiary
Institutions. Canberra, Department of Education, Employment and Workplace
Relations.
Plant, P. (1999). Fringe focus: informal economy and green career development.
Journal of Employment Counseling, Vol. 36, No. 3, pp.131140.
South African Development Community (SADC) and UNESCO. (2011). Status of
TVET in the SADC Region. Paris, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO).
Sultana, R. G. (2003). Review of Career Guidance Policies in 11 Acceding and Candidate
Countries: A Synthesis Report. Turin, European Training Foundation (ETF).
. (2004). Guidance Policies in the Knowledge Society: Trends, Challenges and
Responses across Europe. Thessaloniki, European Centre for the Development of
Vocational Training (CEDEFOP).
. (2008). Career Guidance in the OPT: Mapping the Field and Ways Forward.
Paris, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
. (2011). Learning career management skills in Europe: a critical review. Journal
of Education and Work, Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 124.
Sultana, R. G. and Watts, A.G. (2006). Career Guidance in Europes Public Employment
Services: Trends and Challenges. Brussels, Directorate-General for Employment, Social
Affairs and Equal Opportunities, European Commission.
. (2007). Career Guidance in the Mediterranean Region. Turin, European Training
Foundation (ETF).
Sweet, R. (2007). Career Guidance in the West Balkans Region, unpublished paper.
Turin, ETF.
271

UNESCO-UNEVOC | Revisiting global trends in TVET

Sweet, R. (2009). Work-Based Learning Programmes for Young People in the

Mediterranean Region. Turin, ETF.
UNESCO. (2001). Normative Instruments Concerning Technical and Vocational
Education. Paris, United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO).
. (2011). The Hidden Crisis: Armed Conflict and Education. Paris, UNESCO.
US Department of Labor. n.d. Occupational Outlook Handbook . Available from
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/ (Accessed 02.10.2012.)
Walters, S., Watts, A. G. and Flederman, P. (2009). Navigating the National
Qualifications Framework (NQF): the role of career guidance. South African Journal
of Higher Education, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 561574.
Watts, A.G. (1996). International perspectives. In A. G. Watts, B. Law, J. Killeen, J.
M. Kidd and R. Hawthorn (ed.), Rethinking Careers Education and Guidance: Theory,
Policy and Practice. London, Routledge, pp. 366379.
. (1999). Reshaping Career Development for the 21st Century. Derby, Centre for
Guidance Studies, University of Derby.
. (2006). Career Development Learning and Employability. York, England, Higher
Education Academy.
. (2008). Lessons learned from national reviews: implications for the United
States. Paper delivered to National Career Development Association symposium,
Washington DC, 78 July.
. (2009). Learning for Jobs: the Relationship of Career Guidance to VET. Paris,
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
. (2010). National all-age career guidance services: evidence and issues. British
Journal of Guidance and Counselling, Vol. 38, No.1, pp. 3144.
Watts, A. G. and Borbly-Pecze, B.T. (2011). The development of a lifelong guidance
system in Hungary. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance,

272

Career guidance and orientation

Vol. 11, No. 1, pp.1728.

Watts, A. G. and Fretwell, D. (2004). Public Policies for Career Development.
Washington DC, World Bank.
Watts, A. G. and Herr, E. L. (1976). Career(s) education in Britain and the USA:
contrasts and common problems. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, Vol.
4, No. 2, pp.129142.
Whiston, S. C., Brecheisen, B. K. and Stephens, J. (2003). Does treatment modality
affect career counseling effectiveness? Journal of Vocational Behavior, Vol. 62, pp.
390410.
Whiston, S. C., Sexton, T. L. and Lasoff, D. L. (1998). Career-intervention outcome: a
replication and extension of Oliver and Spokane. Journal of Counseling Psychology,
Vol. 45, pp.150165.
World Bank (2006). World Development Report 2007: Development and the Next
Generation. Washington DC, World Bank.
Young, M. (2007). Qualifications frameworks: some conceptual issues. European
Journal of Education, Vol. 42, No. 4, pp.445457.
Zelloth, H. (2009). In Demand: Career Guidance in EU Neighbouring Countries. Turin,
ETF.

About the author

rofessor Tony Watts is a self-employed international policy consultant on

career guidance and career development, based in Cambridge, England. He is a
Founding Fellow and Life President of the National Institute for Career Education
and Counselling (NICEC), and Visiting Professor at the University of Derby and at
Canterbury Christ Church University. He has lectured in over sixty countries, has

273

UNESCO-UNEVOC | Revisiting global trends in TVET

carried out a number of comparative studies of career guidance systems around the
world, and has acted as a consultant to various international organisations including
the Council of Europe, the European Commission, OECD, UNESCO and the World
Bank. He is a consultant to the European Commissions European Lifelong Guidance
Policy Network and a member of the Board of the International Centre for Career
Development and Public Policy.

274