Who needs to provide educational advice and guidance to whom on what matters and for what purposes? What contribution could and should this make to lifelong learning? Does lifelong learning entail a rethinking of educational advice and guidance?

In the emerging knowledge-based economy, many have argued, a career as we have known it, that is, an occupation that is entered at a point between the mid-teens and mid-twenties and not left until retirement some 30 to 40 years later, is in many cases in decline. Steady work – being able to continue in the same job for a predictable level of pay – is disappearing for all but a minority of working people, says Robert Reich (1991), the former US Secretary of Labor. New rules of employment, claims William Bridges (1995), are emerging. In a turbulent environment, organisations rapidly succeed or die, so employment is contingent on employees demonstrating their continuing value to the organisation. Employees become more like independent business agents who sell services to an employer, which means generating a self-development plan that includes the capacity to re-educate and re-design oneself as well as taking primary responsibility for investing for healthcare and a pension. In the workplace, the skill of the project worker and manager are at a premium and ease the movement from one organisation to another. The evidence in the UK indicates that the shift away from permanent, full-time and lifelong jobs is real, although the rate of shift has been exaggerated.