The challenge of career education

In the past, the collective experiences of graduates accessing the labour market and retaining a job were fairly straightforward, but now they have given way to individual, fragmented, and unpredictable career paths. The process of career development should begin early in university studies, or even in high school, in order to support our most educated citizens in finding their place and expression in society through work. This paper seeks to contribute to an increased understanding of the state of play of career development in students and graduates of the Tourism degree program at the University of Macerata, Italy. It reports empirical data gathered from them and explores ramifications of the results for changes in pedagogy.