Career Development Practice and Career Counselling in Australia

This article provides an overview of the field of career development in Australia and focuses upon career counselling. The overview is contextualized within the broader career development industry and recent initiatives that have raised the professionalism of career development practice. This contextualization includes the roles of the Career Industry Council of Australia and the Professional Standards for Australian Career Development Practitioners, and the education and training required for practice. The article includes a précis of public and private models for the delivery of career counselling, and presents themes within the field’s scholarship, research, and development. Career development practice in Australia includes the provision of a broad range of professional activities provided by a similarly broad range of professions. The term career development practice as it is used in Australia is similar to the term of career guidance used in the United Kingdom and Europe, and career development services used in Canada. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Peter McIlveen, Faculty