Children's Vocational Development: A Research Rationale

Abstract

Vocational development research and interventions have focused primarily on adolescents and young adults. The lack of attention to career development antecedents in children has led to a serious neglect of this period of life when the foundation is laid for career choices and outcomes in later life. A harmful by‐product is the frequent preclusion of gender‐atypical occupational pathways by boys and especially by girls. To address this situation, the authors recommend identifying a core set of constructs that describe children's vocational development and developing sound instruments to measure them, leading to a longitudinal study ranging from childhood to early adulthood.

Reasons for avoidance of vocational education in Jordan

“…It was since the beginning of the 20th century when talks began about children vocational development in the USA when Pearson introduced a program for vocational counselling for children in 1909 when they leave elementary school on to work (Porfeli et al, 2008). Liu et al (2007) consider that the childhood stage which extends up to the age of 14 is considered a vital stage in the vocational development of children.…”

“…Many people who worked at the various vocational sectors earn incomes more than their peers who joined careers that required academic education. To solve this problem, the education should provide realistic information and success story about the financial income received from certain jobs, and about the social status occupied by some of those who enrolled in traditional careers (Porfeli et al, 2008). Minhua (2015) mentioned this as one of the factors that could help "better" students enroll in vocational education in China, mainly for migrant societies, since such societies usually suffer from bad economic situations.…”

“…This is not enough considering the adverse effect in reality Porfeli et al, 2008). Students also stated that the visits they made to vocational school and noting that the buildings and facilities were old reduced their motivation to join VE.…”

“…Therefore, school curricula should be integrative and not contradictory in focusing on this issue, since curricula in general show that they highly appreciate the office jobs and doesn"t concentrate on it being equal with the vocational work. Scholars from various countries mentioned this issue (Porfeli, 2012;Yawkey and Arnion, 2001;Porfeli et al, 2008).…”

They Choose to Attend Academic Summer Camps? A Mixed Methods Study Exploring Motivation for, and the Impact of, an Academic Summer Pre-engineering Camp upon Middle School Students in a Latino Community

“…While research about children's career development is limited (Watson & McMahon, 2008;Porfeli, Hartung, & Vondracek, 2008), the qualitative study by Rowan-Kenyon, Swan, & Creager (2012) examined social cognitive factors, support, and engagement of early adolescents' math interests as precursors to career choices. Their findings indicate that using group work and extrinsic motivation in middle school math classes broadened interest.…”