Career guidance reform in Norway: A critical account of the last twenty years

The first employment office was established in Norway in 1897, a full 12 years before Frank Parson published "Choosing a vocation", which for posterity has has stood as the starting point for career guidance as a professional field. Although it began early, the career guidance field
in Norway developed slowly and arduously. Yet, a lot has happened since the turn of the millennium. In 2019, Kompetance Norge hosted the international symposium for the ICCDPP (International Centre for Career Development and Public Policy). This shows the development of the career guidance field over the previous two decades. How could this happen? In summary it can be said that although there were many different activities in the 20th Century, the career guidance field in Norway, really emerged after the OECDs evaluation in 2002. This showed that the field was organisationally and conceptually fragmented, and that its terminology was unknown among those who worked with vocational and educational guidance in Norway.
This chapter discusses how national and international cooperation and dialogue have contributed to the development of career guidance in Norway through four periods since the turn of the millennium. The chapter asks how
national and international influences have shaped the field and which rationalities lie behind the different lines of development.