Aiming high: Australian school leavers’ career aspirations and the implications for career development practice

School leavers are aspiring to professional occupations in signifi cant numbers. The availability of careers in the professions is considerably less than the numbers of aspirants. Those providing career counsel to school leavers are critically placed to provide the structure and information that will assist young people develop career plans that recognise the limitations of occupa-tional availability. Young people can also be assisted to explore ‘why ’ a person works and the dominant discourses within which they live. The development of resilience and recognition of alternative perspectives will assist young school leavers manage the compromises many will inevitably confront in the years after leaving school. Working with school leavers as they prepare to complete their formal years of compulsory education provides a range of challenges for school-based career advisers and others providing similar counsel. The stated career intentions of young people can range from the clearly decided to the uncertain and ambiguous. Young people have many infl uences while developing their values and beliefs about them-selves and the world of work. Community infl uences, parents, peers and teachers, life experiences and the media can all play a part in developing an understand-ing of the world of work and post-school option