Factors Influencing Choice of Occupational Area among Technical Education Students with Differing Entry Qualifications

Abstract

This study investigated the factors that influenced choice of occupational area of two groups of students admitted into the Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) Technical Programme who had Senior Secondary School Certificate (SSSC) and National Technical Certificate (NTC) respectively. Third year Technical Education students of the Federal College of Education (Technical), Omoku, Nigeria comprising 40 and 30 students with SSSC and NTC respectively were used for the study. Arithmetic mean and t-test were used to analyse the data. Reliability of the t-test results was ascertained by the use of ftest of homogeneity of group variance. Interest in study area; perceived availability of job opportunities related to area of specialization; simplicity of area in training and in employment; and perceived affordability of equipment for self-employment were found to influence choice of occupational area among the two groups.