Presents a rationale for including life planning in career guidance programs, describing how each of the following is served by life planning: counseling, assessment, credential portfolios, career and labor market information, employability skills, and work experience. Outlines elements of a comprehensive career and life planning program. (SK)

Describes the Planning for Life program and its seven criteria for effective career planning: clarity, commitment, comprehensiveness, collaboration, coherence, coordination, and competence. (SK)

Educational excellence is shaped by and reciprocal to the confidence of students in their ability to pursue programs that challenge their abilities, provide access to opportunity, and rest upon self-knowledge and informed choice. This demands vocational guidance and assessment. (JOW)

Consists of an annotated bibliography of selected recent publications in the area of career education. Includes some discussion on accessing the materials. (CH)

In an 8-state pilot study of the Career Orientation and Planning Profile, a U.S. version of the Fukuyama Profile, 1,247 students, 27 teachers, 18 counselors, and 15 principals identified benefits and outcomes of its use, confirming the feasibility of the instrument as a career guidance tool. (SK)