CAREER GUIDANCE: WORLD BANK PUBLICATION 2023
In 2023, Issue 2 of SKILLS4DEV newsletter of the World Bank Group focused on career guidance, marking a welcome return of WB interest in career guidance after a lapse of almost 20 years. Back then, under the stewardship of Dave Fretwell, the WB was very involved in international reviews of policies and systems for career guidance in developing and lower middle income countries, driven in part by the OECD interest in such in developed economies under the direction of Richard Sweet and Tony Watts, and matched by the European Commission and its agencies CEDEFOP and ETF in member states and neighbouring countries in the context of the development of lifelong learning policies for the education and employment sectors. The WB was involved in the development of ICCDPP and proposed to host the nascent ICCDPP in 2004 but ,due to administrative restructuring at the time, was finally unable to do so.
Starting from a WB skills development strategy perspective, career guidance is viewed in the newsletter editorial through a career management skills lense (CMS) which fits well in a programmed approach to skills development in education and training settings where to date it has generally been situated outside of national curricula. The newsletter features some relevant ETF, ILO, OECD, EC, CEDEFOP, and ELGPN publications on career guidance as well as information about relevant international networks. It is a useful starting point compendium.