Although preparation for work is one of the objectives of the Brazilian basic education, there is not much written material on the subject in Brazil. In this article we aim at identifying the legal basis of work preparation in the Brazilian school context; contributing to the understanding of Career Education as a modality of Professional Orientation, more adequate to basic education. By consulting the Brazilian Education basis, we observed that the laws and the Ministry of Education favor the inclusion of "work" as a theme in the basic education curriculum, similarly to what happens in many countries. The inclusion of Career Education within the basic education curriculum is seen as a possibility to overcome the gap between legislation and the practice regarding students' preparation for work.
School Psychology; educational policy; legal processes