Couple words about "Career education"

In the previous blog post, I discussed the issue of career education. As OECD reports, one of the key recommendation to enhance career guidance services is "greatly widen citizens' access  to career guidance, extending access throughout the lifespan" (OECD, 2003) In this sense, many developed countries practice different approaches and tools in strengthening career guidance among people. Career guidance strategies provided in the following passages present the best experiences in implementing career guidance policies.
It is mentioned above that career guidance is a lifelong process, which shows the need of career guidance policies at national level (OECD, 2004). For instance, "Finland's Employment Office employs some 280 specialized vocational guidance psychologists each with Master's degree. Their clients include undecided school leavers, unemployed people, and adults who want to change careers. Clients need to make appointments, and typically have more than one interview" (OECD, 2003, p.42). Summing up three countries' (Finland, Germany, Ireland) long-standing national approaches, OECD report (2003) suggests to have special institution and specialists who could professionally deal with the problem.
Countries such as Austria, Australia, Canada, Spain, the UK use another innovative way to advance career access. Australian www.myfuture.edu.au national career web site carries out information about "courses of education and training, about labor market supply and demand at the regional level, on the content of occupations, and on sources of funding for study. ... In its first seven months the site was accessed 2.5 million times" (OECD, 2003, p.42) which in turn assists people to realize their career path. The rest of countries mainly organize career development activities by holding accessible job fairs for all, supporting the public by call centers, conducting career trainings and programs and arranging different forums and workshops.
These were the fragments of career guidance policy in different societies and it is seen that developed countries' policy makers try to tie career guidance to policy agenda. If education and labor market policies are brought together it may only lead to sustainable economic development.

References:

OECD (2003). Career Guidance: New Ways Forward.
OECD and European Commission. (2004). Career guidance: A handbook for policy makers. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris, 10.