Stages of Career Development During Childhood

Childhood vocational development remains, to some extent, an unexplored space. Existing literature focuses on what children know about careers and where that information came from, with little regard to the processes children go through to develop that knowledge. This paper uses Career Construction Theory to synthesise the literature and suggest a series of stages that can help us understand vocational development in childhood. Childhood vocational development takes the form of meaning-making, where children explore the world of work within their context as actor, agent and author. The development that takes place during childhood provides the foundation for their first significant career transition choices; they bring embedded ideas, their vocational identity, and the career adaptability skills they have developed to date.