The National Career Orientation Portal was launched in 2010 in Hungary with EU support and it was co-financed by the European Social Fund. International and Hungarian best practice tools have been used to develop the portal.

In our society and in addition to Lifelong Learning (LLL), increased emphasis is given to Lifelong Guidance (LLG) and Lifewide Guidance (LWG). We need a procedure that provides advice and offers citizens the possibility to assess their abilities, competence and areas of interest at any time in their lives so that on that basis they can decide on training and employment as well as form their individual journey in the areas of learning and work. Lifelong Learning can only be successful if career orientation advice is not just a privilege for the minority but rather it is accessible to everyone. Modern societies provide career and job advice, and for a long time this has been much more than just advice provided to those who are at the beginning of their working life. Internet-based advice can be used to multiply the effectiveness of career advice, acting almost as an extended arm.

The project under the title of "The conceptual and methodological development of the career orientation system" of the Social Renewal Operation Programme 2.2.2, supported by the EU, aims to establish the Lifelong Guidance System in Hungary between 2008 and 2010. The Employment and Social Office has provided the professional management for this. During the programme, a Lifewide Guidance career orientation system was introduced. Its main aim is to develop a Hungarian career advice network and to extend the range of career orientation and career information tools.

One of the main achievements of the project is the National Career Orientation Portal. During its development, it was important to take into consideration the best practices and tools of the Hungarian and international career orientation portals that are already running. With its own developments, the National Institute of Vocational and Adult Education has contributed to creating the data content.

The accessible functions of the portal can be listed in the following categories:

- on-line career orientation questionnaires (assessment procedures)

-search and browsing tools (professions, qualifications, educational faculties, etc.)

- searchable information archives (concept archives, collection of links, document archives, etc.)

- other information (news, up-to-date information, articles, project introductions, etc.)

You can start a search at the portal via three channels: 1. World of Learning; 2. World of Work; 3. Virtual Community of Advisors.

In the World of Learning channel, interested adults can select the "Adult Learning" element. If they complete the questionnaires, they can find out about their abilities, areas of interest, and weaknesses as well as obtain information on the possibilities in the "Subject Search" and "Training Search" area. They can prepare their own competence ledger and come face-to-face with their work motivation and value preference. They can watch films introducing various professions and click on the detailed description of the actual profession. One of the unique functions of the portal is the section introducing jobs and professions. They can select the job centre nearest to them on the map from more than 150 offices operating all over the country.

In the World of Work channel, they can choose from the following elements depending on their actual life situation: first job, leaving a job and changing careers, starting your own enterprise and losing a job. The interested parties receive help in looking for a career, a qualification and a subject or location for a qualification.

The Virtual Community of Advisors channel can be accessed by registration. It provides an effective and modern way of creating a living community of professionals offering career advice in Hungary.

Of course, the Internet-based systems do not make the advisors' work obsolete, but it may change their work. During the search on the Internet, questions may arise about the way the information is processed. It must be possible to receive personal advice as well as advice over the telephone, by e-mail, through forums and chat rooms.

Within the new system, advice centres have been set up in 24 Hungarian towns in which about 50 trained professionals provide help to interested people who are about to start their career or face changes in their career and wish to receive information about their individual skills. The professionals received regular training to be able to provide up-to-date, tailor-made advice. In Hungary, such career orientation services are free and available to people of all ages.