PISA 2012, undertaken by the OECD, provided a unique opportunity to examine national differences in career development outcomes for young people and to relate these differences to the characteristics of these young people, of their families, and of schools.  Using the career-related items in the Education Career questionnaire, four scales were constructed that reflect 15 year-olds’ participation in career development activities, the range of career-related competences that they assess themselves as having acquired, and their judgements about whether these competences had been acquired at school, out of school, or both. Data was provided by 22 countries.  This analysis commissioned by the European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network (ELGPN) attempted to shed light on ways in which individual characteristics, family characteristics and some structural features of schools and school systems are associated with career management skills, and upon the role that schools and agencies outside of the school can play in promoting career management skills. The results showed wide differences between countries in the extent to which 15 year-olds participate in career development activities, in the extent to which they see themselves as having acquired career-related competences, and in the extent to which they have acquired these competences at school and out of school.