The Role of Higher Education and Industry in Supporting Career Goals and Decision Making

Abstract

<jats:p> Both higher education institutions and employers need to evaluate the factors that influence students' career goals and career-related decisions because of their importance to and impact on career management and decision making. The objective of this study is to identify the importance of career goals and factors influencing students' career decision making in South Africa. A non-probability sample was selected, with 488 completed responses. The findings indicate that there are significant differences between gender and ethnic groups in terms of the importance of career goals and career influencing factors. The results suggest that high-quality education is needed in conjunction with industry involvement through proper job training and/or internships. </jats:p>

Factors influencing graduate job choice – a systematic literature review

“…Previous studies demonstrated a pattern of bifurcating the factors influencing graduate job choice in three themes: internal, external and interpersonal factors (Abbasi and Sarwat, 2014;Agarwala, 2008;Albugamy, 2014;Aycan and Fikret-Pasa, 2003;Ng et al, 2008;Fabea, 2014;Gokuladas, 2010;Jordaan, 2009;Lightbody et al, 1997;Omar et al, 2015;Özbilgin et al, 2005;Sultana and Mahmud, 2020;Thampoe, 2016;Wilkinson, 1996). We believe that two more themes, namely, institutional factors (Albugamy, 2014;Fabea, 2014;Gokuladas, 2010;Jordaan, 2009;Lightbody et al, 1997;Omar et al, 2015;Wilkinson, 1996) and sociodemographic factors (Agarwala, 2008;Albugamy, 2014;Ng et al, 2008;Gokuladas, 2010;Jordaan, 2009;Özbilgin et al, 2005;Sultana and Mahmud, 2020;Wilkinson, 1996), are required to be added for better understanding of career choice antecedents more precisely.…”

“…Personal interests. Personal interests refer to individual subject items in their life, being one of the variables of an internal factor, has been proposed as a primary determinant of career choice (Gokuladas, 2010;Jordaan, 2009;Sultana and Mahmud, 2020). Students' perception about their skill, competence and ability has been considered as a critical factor for selecting a right career option over another (Agarwala, 2008;Ng et al, 2008;Jordaan, 2009;Özbilgin et al, 2005).…”

“…Personal interests refer to individual subject items in their life, being one of the variables of an internal factor, has been proposed as a primary determinant of career choice (Gokuladas, 2010;Jordaan, 2009;Sultana and Mahmud, 2020). Students' perception about their skill, competence and ability has been considered as a critical factor for selecting a right career option over another (Agarwala, 2008;Ng et al, 2008;Jordaan, 2009;Özbilgin et al, 2005). Some studies also mentioned that students give importance to their education and training, which are determinant of their skills, competence and ability (Agarwala, 2008;Ng et al, 2008;Özbilgin et al, 2005).…”

“…the organisation (Jordaan, 2009) and access to the career options (Agarwala, 2008;Ng et al, 2008;Özbilgin et al, 2005) also act as determinants of graduate job choice. Thus, we may summarise that growth opportunities factors critical for career choice are training and internship facility, on-job learning opportunities, higher study opportunities and travelling.…”

“…Market-related factors. The graduate students' job choice emphasised on employment conditions of their field, such as availability of the job opportunities (Jordaan, 2009). Students also consider market gaps and opportunities while selecting a first job (Aycan and Fikret-Pasa, 2003).…”