ABSTRACT
As any parent or teacher can attest, from a very early age, children are interested in the idea of work and excitedly imagine themselves in various occupations. Indeed, no preschool classroom is complete without the ‘role-play’ station that includes the vestments of doctors, construction workers, police officers, bakers, etc. Despite the obvious fascination with the world of work demonstrated by many children, research on career development during the childhood years has been limited (Watson, Nota, & McMahon, 2015; also see Hartung, Porfeli, & Vondracek, 2005; Watson & McMahon, 2005 for reviews of this literature). Existing research largely underscores the content of children’s career knowledge and attitudes towards work (Schultheiss, 2008; Watson & McMahon, 2005), with less attention being paid to the process of childhood career development and children’s understanding of this process (Porfeli, Hartung, & Vondracek, 2008; Watson & McMahon, 2005). The Conceptions of Career Choice and Attainment (CCCA) model developed by Howard and Walsh (2010, 2011) addresses this gap in the literature. This model describes the developmental changes in children’s reasoning about career development processes. It does not focus on the content of children’s career knowledge or interests, but instead concentrates on the nature of how children conceptualise key career development processes. In this chapter, we will described the CCCA model as well as its theoretical foundation. The empirical support for the model will be summarised and implications for intervention will be offered.
