Factors Influencing Student Enrollment in Career Academy Programs

Abstract

There is considerable research demonstrating strong benefits of the career academy model to students and teachers, but there is little indicating why students enroll in academies and what methods of recruitment may work best. This study assessed factors influencing students' decisions to enroll in career academy programs by looking at factors that influence students to apply for academy programs and reasons students have for choosing not to enroll in academy programs. A survey was used to collect the necessary data with n = 401 responses from students enrolled in an academy and n = 2,421 responses from students not enrolled in an academy. A factor analysis resulted in two larger groupings linking items together based on program experience and student attitudes. A Pareto analysis indicated that counselors were the greatest influencing factors on student decisions to enroll in career academy programs. Parents, teachers, other students, the course catalog, website, and brochure also played a considerable role in how students learned about the academies. The most influential reasons students have for not applying included not knowing, not interested, and missed deadline.

Academic performance, family support, interest and career decision among undergraduate students in Nigeria

“…The results of this research demonstrate that family support has a significant relationship with career decision making. This result is consistent to Ketchledge et al (2021) that portray similar finding. This finding is reasonable since family helps their children choose an educational program that is appropriate for future career.…”

“…It is evident that family has an impact on the child's decisions, development, character formation, and career processes (Cui et al, 2019). Family support was discovered to be a key determinant in career expectations (Ketchledge et al, 2021). However, some studies reveal that parental social support has a good impact on the career decision-making process of an individual (Salwani & Candrawulan, 2022;Wang & Jiao, 2022;.…”

“…Individual interest in a course of study is crucial since a lack of interest in a subject may have an impact on one's attitude, which in turn may have an impact on one's performance (Hoff et al, 2022;Maiorca et al, 2021). Only when a person makes the right career choice will it have a positive impact on the output (Ketchledge, 2021). The significance of interest and ability in influencing career choices cannot be ignored (Babatunde, 2018).…”

Parents influence on career choice of medical undergraduates.

“…Students must be able to make sound decisions prior to the selection of academic qualifications. 7 The decision to pursue medical degree is influenced by a variety of aspects, including enthusiasm in the profession, employment, a passion for helping others, and the parents' medical background, etc. Several factors, such as individual and professional attitudes, family history, job requirements, and career counselling, are likely to impact an individual's career decision.…”