Tertiary students' perceptions of secondary school career guidance : a consumer perspective.
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Date
1996
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Abstract
The aim of this study was to focus on tertiary students' perceptions of career
education which they received at secondary school level. It will try to determine
the extent to which the role of the guidance teacher is known and also determine
whether guidance as an auxiliary service is considered helpful by students.
The,:sample consists of 92 male and female respondents drawn from the university
and the technikon in Pietermaritzburg. The measuring instrument used is the
questionnaire constructed by Skuy et al (1985) revised by Haffajee (1991) but
included a number of questions were devised by the author to address the needs
of her study. As a number of the questions in the questionnaire were constructed
by the author, it was realised when analyzing the questionnaire that questions on
parental influence were not included. Therefore, the results of this study must be
interpreted with caution.
The results of this study indicate that students received inadequate exposure to
career guidance at school. This is linked to the fact that most of the guidance
teachers themselves did not have adequate training in guidance and career
guidance. The guidance periods were also used for examination subjects and also
used by students as self-study or free periods. It is also indicated that most
students changed their secondary school choice because the career assistance
received at school was not adequate. Visits to tertiary institutions by pupils were "
found helpful as it helps one in career decision-making.
The results of this study indicate that guidance and career guidance should be
enforced at school as this will help students to make responsible career choices.
If career guidance is made compulsory at school, students will realize that
uninformed career decisions made can be costly in time and in money. The results
of this study also suggest that friends and guidance teachers are considered to be
the most important helping agents in relation to career choice. The parents are
found to have had little influence on their childrens' career choices in this study.1t
is also indicated in the results of this study that environmental influences affected the respondents career knowledge. Since some limitations of this study were found, these results must be interpreted with caution and one should be cautious in applying them to a wider population.
Description
Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg.
Keywords
Vocational guidance., Theses--Education.