Career Development: A Project for the 21st Century‪.‬

The International Symposium 2006, titled shaping the future: Connecting career development and workforce development, was the third international forum of senior government policy makers, experts in the field of career development and employers. Attended by teams of delegates representing 22 countries and six international organisations, the International Symposium 2006 focused on the interface between career development and workforce The participation of development. delegations from so many different countries demonstrated the growing global recognition of the value of career development for citizens, In a paper presented to the first symposium that explored links between career development and public policy held in 1999, Saviekas (2000) described career development practitioners' attempts to find ways to 'strengthen national strategies for workforce development and career guidance as well as to forge an international vision for career service delivery' as a 'new project' for them (p. 52). Since that time, the need to move forward on the project envisioned by Saviekas has become more pressing as issues such as lifelong learning, ageing workforces and skills shortages have emerged as major workforce development challenges and, in turn, policy makers have increasingly looked to career development as a strategy to assist in the achievement of their public policy goals.