A Career Practitioner's Response to the National Career Development Strategy Green Paper

The National Career Development Strategy Green Paper is a discussion paper issued by the Department of Employment, Education and Workplace Relations. It is aimed at the formulation of a coherent and structured career development strategy throughout Australia. The Green Paper seeks to lay the foundation for policy change through establishing the importance of career development for Australia. It outlines some priorities for implementation and was released for comment in June 2012. This article presents the author's comment to the Green Paper. The author outlines challenges faced by the Green Paper, and provides some historical background and a personal reflection. The comments that are made are subjective and based on involvement in vocational guidance and research since 1976 and private practice since 1989. Naturally the comments are limited by the time and resources available. No claim is made that the analysis is complete. (Contains 2 tables.)