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Socio-cultural Factors Influencing Student's Career Choice
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.0 Background to the Study
Students
career ‘choice’ is a subject which has attracted academic, professional
as well as public attention due to its multifaceted nature. Since
career is a result of the interplay between individuals within
organizational and social structures, it yields well to analysis form
diverse perspectives ranging from occupational psychology to
organizational sociology. Research on students career choice is not
uncommon on occupational groups such as accountants and , health care
professionals (Morrison 2004; Hallissey et. al, 2000, Kyriacou and
Colthatt, 2000. The aim of such research is often to predict students
career choice behaviour based on personality as well as demographic
distributive factors.
When we think about career choice, several
things immediately come to mind, such as job description, training and
education required, career outlook, as well as salary - but there are a
number of other factors that may influence an individual’s decision.
Thus, skills and abilities, that is, considering the individual's skills
and abilities and how they may fit a particular occupation comes out of
one of the earliest career development field, trait factor theory, and
is still in use today.
It is important to understand that career
choice is not made based on any one factor is our choices are subject to
many influences; individual, cultural, social and environmental. The
combination and interaction of various influences on an individual
decision-making are unique to him or her and the individual's"
situation. The number of choices that we are aware of and the number of
choices that exist and are available to us in reality may differ.
Furthermore, there may be choices that we are not aware of, or which are
unavailable to us due to structural constraint that we may fail to
recognize. Lack of awareness of our full range of choices may lead us to
make use of a limited range of career alternatives or opportunity
structures. Understanding factors that impact on career `choice' would
be instrumental in designing and delivering better informed counselling
and mentorship (Rant and Michael, 1983). Sheridan et.al, noted that the
initial career ‘choice’ of managers and the relative status of their
department play a role in outcomes of their career tournament, such as
promotion, transfer, and salary progression. Therefore, identifying
possible influences of career choice is important as such influences may
impact on job entry behaviour as well as subsequent career outcomes.
Some
people strongly belief that university graduation provides advantages
in employment in comparison to high school graduation. Thus, a
university entrance examination is regarded as the most important stage
and pathway for business life and employment. As a result of this
believe, admission to university, even a less preferred one is regarded
as more important than the quality of the match between occupations and
individual abilities. (Ozkale et. al; 2004). The mismatch and graduation
from a less preferred discipline have considerable impacts in the early
years of careers (Erdogmus, 2003), resulting in a continuation of the
career `choice' process subsequent to graduation from the first
university degree. Parents as the key source of funding for children
education may be interpreted as an indication of a form of collectivist
culture (Price, 1997).
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]This study attempts to explain the socio-cultural factors influencing student's career choice in Kosofe Local Government area of Lagos State. The study adopted a qualitative approach. While a total of 150 respondents were selected using simple random sampling, the research instrument was a structured questionnaire having both open and closed ended questions. The social cognitive career development theory and the career development -model were used to explain the concept further. Also, two hypoth ... Continue reading---
