Career guidance and TVET: critical intersections in the Arab Mediterranean Countries

This article investigates the relationship between career guidance and TVET in Arab Mediterranean Countries (AMCs), drawing on insights generated by two research projects carried out 10 years apart, and on the broader international literature available on the subject. An account of the two research projects is given, locating them within the spate of overlapping career guidance reviews that have been carried out in over 50 countries since 2000. Three issues are then highlighted in this article. These include, first, that there is little in the way of career guidance provision in educational settings; second, that even where a modicum of services is available, or where policy makers have declared their resolve to develop such services, career guidance is mainly valued in instrumental ways in order to steer students towards the unpopular, vocational tracks; and third, that career guidance in the region is generally considered to be of little use to those already in vocational schooling, the assumption being that those there made their occupational choice prior to entry. The article concludes by considering the role that career guidance, properly conceived, can play in facilitating youth transitions in the MENA region.