Although there is currently no national approach to career education in Australia, recent economic and labor trends have prompted the reconsideration of work experience and career education programs. Career education does not exist below secondary levels and prevocational training serves only as an introduction to extensive postsecondary technical courses. Work experience programs originally catered to handicapped students, a focus being continued in a New South Wales pilot project to ease the movement of handicapped students into the working world. Work experience programs, now generally considered to be a means of experiencing a work situation and not as specific vocational training, vary greatly in size, scope, aims, availability, and emphasis throughout the country. A trend toward comprehensive education, which integrates general, vocational, and technical education, is increasing the number and general acceptance of such programs. Existing labor/industry laws have been a barrier to work experience programs. In the state of Victoria, the 1974 Education Act overcame legal restrictions on student labor and work experience programs, serving to increase numbers of secondary students there. Non-formal government programs aim at developing the job seeking skills, literacy, and numeracy abilities of out-of-work youth aged 15-19. (SB)