ABSTRACT
The career counseling profession is both large and highly influential in the sense that many individuals rely on counselors to guide them in their career decisions and help them find meaning and purpose in their careers. The need for career counseling is substantial. To take the United States as an example, 61 percent of the 18+ US population indicated that they would seek out career assistance, according to a representative survey conducted by the US National Career Development Association (2011). However, only 24 percent reported that they had already visited a trained career counselor, which indicates that although a substantial number of the US population has already benefited from career counseling there is also a clear potential for offering career assistance to even more people. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2016), in the United States over 220,000 career counselors are employed in elementary and secondary schools, college, universities, and professional schools, junior colleges, vocational rehabilitation services, and individual and family services. Around the globe, countries have established a range of career counseling services and policies (Watts and Sultana, 2004) and the European Union has specifically identified career counseling as a critical component to manage human resources, to help individuals and organizations adapt to changes in the world of work, to support citizens in the development of professional skills, and to secure and enhance economic prosperity of its member states (Council of the European Union, 2008).
