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This chapter notes that career guidance in Libya has not yet developed as a separate and distinct service. Counselling is often associated with the management of young people's behaviour, and throughout the different periods of educational development and reform in the country, the orientation and preparation of students for the world of work has mainly been carried out through the selection and distribution of individuals based on their examination results. Even when career guidance started being recognised as one of the services that should be made available to students, the field's main attraction lie in its potential in orienting students towards the vocational training sector. Career advice is provided informally within the extended family, with some university faculties also attempting to organise career information services, though here too the approach remains directive, in relation to perceived 'needs' of the economy. Externally funded projects have been instrumental in introducing contemporary approaches to career guidance, though whether these initiatives take root and go to scale still needs to be seen.

Published abstract.

Another chapter in this volume also focuses on Libya and is available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 131.127. Show less

This chapter highlights the ways in which career guidance, understood as a process that provides information, advice and guidance to students and adults with a view to better balance the supply and demand of skills, cannot flourish in Algeria given the phenomenon of academic drift. Despite clear evidence that a vocational education and training pathways is more likely to lead to employment, Algerian students continue flocking to universities, which have become mass institutions feeding widespread unemployment nation-wide. In the meantime, student orientation services remain quite powerless, given that it is mainly the logic of the grade, and the French tradition of conseil de classe, that determines the educational pathways to be followed by students, where choices are made by default, irrespective of ability, inclination, and desire. The spectre of an army of unemployed youth, frustrated and disoriented, poses severe problems that career guidance cannot be expected to resolve on its own. While some initiatives have been launched to support career planning and development for both students and adults, the jury is still out as to their impact and longevity.

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The Lebanese education system is structured in such a way that potential career options for students are restricted by the tracks they are assigned to after the middle secondary level. A large number of students are diverted into vocational and technical education after Grade 9, while students who advance to upper secondary schooling are channelled into tracks that align with tertiary education and training pathways. Career orientation is thus built into the Lebanese education system. The history of career guidance in public sector education is a meagre one as there appears to be little political will to enact this aspect of education. What formal career guidance exists is largely located in the non-government sector. The chapter includes reference to career guidance services provided by [United Nations Relief and Works Agency] UNRWA for Palestinian refugees residing in Lebanon.

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