The paper also looks at the history of national career policy and strategies. It describes career development services and why good career development is important. It also considers the users of the system, including ‘pre-careerees’, ‘early careerees’ and ‘transition careerees’ and who delivers services to them.<\/p>\n

The paper also examines who provides information about career options. These sources include professional career guiders who “provide career advice, information and guidance to individuals”, education and training providers “that deliver learning designed to develop an individual’s career and employability skills,” job placement agents “that help connect individuals with a job and who may or may not also offer career advice,” and trusted influencers “such as parents, friends and partners who provide informal advice and guidance – noting that this advice may be skewed by individual biases.” And that latter statement is, unfortunately, true.<\/p>\n

There are other possible influencers too, including employers who “create career opportunities” and industry and sector Influencers “that present information and promote opportunities in particular industries.”<\/p>\n

The discussion paper outlines the wide range of information sources about career options, including governments, education providers, industry, not-for-profits and the career development sector. It explores the changing career landscape, and the challenges in responding both to “an evolving career landscape and the changing nature of work.”  These challenges include career information that “is often fragmented, disjointed, outdated and not related to the person’s circumstances” and advice that is inconsistent, misguided or insufficient. Finally, it examines the features of a quality carers information system, drawing on experiences from other countries and domestic insights.<\/p>\n

As the paper sees it, the features of a quality careers information system are that it is lifelong and holistic; relevant; connected, connecting and integrated; enabling and empowering and tailored to the individual. It also needs to be clear and coordinated and display leadership so that it provides career development services with a strong and essential drive for “integration, consistency, accessibility and quality.”<\/p>\n