Take care to get the job you like; otherwise you will have to like the job you get. - Anon

Outplacement, or career transition, is the process of encouraging and enabling people who are facing redundancy or enforced job change to find a new position. It often takes the form of a package, funded by the employing company or organisation, which usually includes a training workshop for a group of employees, followed by a period of individual counselling. It might also include psychometric tests and, less commonly, individual help with selecting and responding to job vacancies.

Investing in outplacement is the mark of a caring employer. Organisations like the armed forces and the police have long had outplacement (or ‘resettlement’) programmes in place, because their conditions of service mean that most of their employees will leave the organisation when they are still young enough to find alternative work. Other companies choose to operate outplacement systems in response to a redundancy programme to help their redundant staff make a smooth transition. However, many businesses are, understandably, reluctant to invest much money in employees who are shortly about to leave; therefore, much outplacement provision is under-funded.

It is difficult for independent trainers to compete with large companies, so most trainers delivering outplacement work do so as an associate of one or more of these providers.

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