Career decision-making amongst high school learners: A descriptive-exploratory study from South Africa

Abstract

The study examined factors influencing career decisions using a sample of high school learners in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. A mixed-method approach was utilised. In the quantitative phase of the study, a sample of 536 high school learners in South Africa filled out the Career Interest Inventory (Fisher & Stafford, 1999) in understanding factors that influence career decisions. Phase two sought to understand qualitatively how the identified factors from phase one influence the enactment of career decisions using focus groups with 60 learners drawn from the sample in phase one. Results from phase one showed that learners' career decisions were highly influenced by academic experiences and self-efficacy, parents, teachers, and peers, respectively. Learners perceived ethnic-gender expectations and negative social events as having low levels of influence when making career decisions. Female learners are significantly more highly influenced by parents, teachers, academic experiences, and self-efficacy than their male counterparts. Findings also reveal not only the complexity but also the sense-making that occurs when making career decisions. Implications are made based on these findings.
 
 Keywords: Career counselling, career decisions, career development, high school learners;

Pengambilan Keputusan Karir: Suatu Tinjauan Literatur

“…Instrumen lain adalah instrumen dukungan orang tua dalam pengambilan keputusan karir remaja oleh Dietrich dan Kracke (Neuenschwander & Hofmann, 2022), Career State Inventory (CSI) dikembangkan oleh Leierer et al tahun 2017 dirancang untuk memperoleh penilaian (keadaan) saat ini tentang kesiapan pengambilan keputusan karir seseorang (Hayden & Osborn, 2020), Career Interest Inventory dikembangkan oleh Fisher & Stafford tahun 1999 mengukur faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi keputusan karir (Chinyamurindi et al, 2021), Career Decision Inventory (CDI) dikembangkan oleh Çakır pada tahun 2004 untuk mengukur tingkat keputusan karir (career decision level) siswa dan terdiri dari 30 item yang memiliki 5 sub-dimensi yaitu konflik internal, kurangnya pengetahuan diri, kurangnya pengetahuan pekerjaan dan lapangan, keyakinan irasional tentang pilihan karir, dan konflik eksternal (Kutlu & Bedel, 2021).…”

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“…Moreover, Jemini-Gashi and Kadriu (2022) reported that personal interest for a certain academic field was among the facilitating and determining factors for them during their process of career decision-making. In agreement, Chinyamurindi, et al, (2021) showed that learners' career decisions were highly influenced by academic experiences, personal interests and self-efficacy.…”

“…Moreover, Jemini-Gashi and Kadriu (2022) reported that personal interest for a certain academic field was among the facilitating and determining factors for them during their process of career decision-making. In south Africa, Chinyamurindi, et al, (2021) study showed that learners' career decisions were highly influenced by academic experiences, personal interests and self-efficacy. Finally, Quinlan and Renninger (2022) reported that most students who were studying science in university had a well-developed interest that had motivated their choice of programme, and their subject interest and career decidedness were linked.…”

Developing Specialization Model Applications for High School Students

“…Applications of specialization models that meet the criteria of accuracy can answer the needs of school counselors to be able to provide appropriate specialization recommendations to students. This is because student career decision-making is a very important activity (Chinyamurindi et al, 2021;Gacohi et al, 2017;Zamroni, 2016). One of the urgency of the career specialization can be answered by using the application of the career specialization model that has been developed.…”