Career Psychology in Australia: Where Is It and Where Does It Need to Go

This paper will review changing definitions and processes of career guidance, and will emphasise the need for a renewed approach in education and psychology programs to prepare graduates for career service provision. It will present this argument within the emerging context where a new relationship between career guidance and public policy is fostering a significant array of government interventions in the provision of career services. These initiatives have significantly increased the urgency of this agenda. Demands of a changing understanding of career It is unarguable that the demand for career development support is greater than ever before. The rise in practice of and concern for career guidance is due mainly to the complex changes in the traditional employment system, and consequent changes in our notions of career, education, and career guidance, changes which have also highlighted the need for a re-examination of career guidance practice (Patton, 2002; Watts, 1996). Watts emphasised the need for career guidance provision and the concept of career to change as they presently are “creatures of the industrial age ” (p. 4). Collin and Watts (1996) asserted that individuals need to regard themselves as self-employed, with career needing to be viewed as a lifetime progression of learning and work, something that is owned by the individual, viewed subjectively and not objectively. Within this framework,