Description: The process of career choice can be conceptualized as a normative developmental task that adolescents must cope with (adaptation). How can the career choice process be structured? Compared to Great Britain and Germany, Swiss students must choose an apprenticeship early (Beinke, 2000). What are risk situations in the career choice process? Herzog, Neuenschwander & Wannack (2004) described this process using a stage model that differenciates a prior stage model of Heinz (1984): (1) diffuse orientation, (2) concrete professional orientation, (3) looking for an apprenticeship, (4) consolidation of the career choice, (5) vocational training, (6) entrance to job market. Every stage ends with a decision. The process of career choice includes a professional choice and the transition between educational contexts. We hypothesized that adolescents enter risk situations when resources and strategies are dysfunctional. We focus on a risk situation in stage 3 which is characterized by missing training opportunities and professional perspectives 2-3 months before the transition in 9th grade. The focus on the situation, as opposed to a focus on the group fits with the proposed contextual approach. A risk situation occurs in a defined period of the adolescents' career. Methodology: The stage model was examined using a repeated measurement design with three waves. 532 adolescents (females 44%, non-Swiss nationality 17%) were tested at the beginning and at the end of their last year in their compulsory school (9th class level, mean age=15.1). They were contacted a third time 6 months after the transition by mail (response rate 74.4%). The questionnaire was standardized and contained published, reliable scales and new items/scales. Using factor analysis the item-structure and scale reliabilities were examined. Conclusions: The results highly supported the stage model. After the transition (from wave 2 to 3) most students continued on to stage 5. Only four adolescents did not follow the hypothesized stage sequence from wave 1 to wave 2. After the transition (from wave 2 to 3) most students continued in stage 5. Only four adolescents immediately entered the workplace as untrained workers (stage 6), and one adolescent repeated the 9th year of school (stage 1). Using data on resources and strategies from wave one, the risk situation in contrast to the regular situation in stage 3 (wave 2) could be predicted with logistic regression analysis. The best predictor was the timing of the career process: Adolescents who are late in their career choice process have a high probability to enter into this risk situation. Vocational training institutions define a strong normative timetable in this transition process. Adolescents without sufficient resources and strategies cannot fulfill these demands. Adolescents successfully pass through the stages if they (1) have sufficient personal and social resources to cope with the task and (2) successfully use convenient strategies that they are able for an appropriate decision. The importance of our findings for other European countries with comparable timing of vocational choices will be discussed.