Career(s) education in Britain and the USA: Contrasts and common problems

An analysis of the meanings attached to 'careers education' in Britain and to 'career education' in the USA reveals a number of important differences, each of which identifies questionable assumptions in the careers education model emerging in Britain. Attention is also addressed to three major problems which have received inadequate attention in both countries: the socio-political aims of career(s) education, the extent to which it should be concerned with paid employment, and the relationship between the content of careers education curricula and the institutional structures within which these curricula are based.