Career preparation during grades nine through twelve is most effective when it builds on a district’s solid foundation of career awareness (Grades K through 5) and career exploration (Grades 6 through 8).

The study of the process adolescents use (Grades 9 through 12) to make career decisions has been an area of research for nearly ninety years. According to Ginzberg, Ginsburg, Axelrad and Herma (1951), the high school student is characterized as being in the tentative period of career development. During this period, development consists of the stages of interest, capacity, value and transition. Other changes include beginning to be aware of personal skills and talents and the application of those skills and talents to a career choice.

Two contemporary vocational theories are particularly relevant to models of school-to-work transition and the concept of career development over the lifespan. The first is Holland’s (1997) theory of vocational types and the second is Super’s (1990), developmental life-space and life-span theory. Holland (1997) developed a theory to predict the characteristics of persons and environment that lead to positive or negative vocational outcomes, as well as the characteristics that lead to vocational stability. Holland’s theory is based on the belief that vocational career choice is an expression of one’s personality. Super (1990) proposed that careers are life long and outlined five stages of career development of which the exploratory stage (ages fourteen through twenty-five) is characteristic of the high school student. Adolescence represents the tentative and transitional sub-stages. The developmental tasks at this age include crystallization, which is characterized by high school students formulating ideas about work that might be appropriate for them.

SC-CGM Home • Career Preparation Home
EEDA and Personal Pathways Resources for Educators