Perceptions of students and career counselors about the influence of career guidance on the choice of training programmes in public secondary schools in Kenya

Abstract

The choice of a career is very important because it affects one’s entire life. To enable students make this crucial decision, career guidance is offered in secondary schools in Kenya to help the students realise their potential and select training programmes that will lead them to appropriate careers in future. Despite the fact that students are given career guidance, many students try to change the training programmes they had chosen immediately after admission or after a period of study in the university, indicating a dissatisfying choice. Since the influence of career guidance depends on how career counsellors and students perceive it, this study was carried out to establish the perceptions of students and career counsellors about the influence of career guidance on the choice of training programmes in public secondary schools. The study areas were Mombasa, Meru and Kiambu counties of Kenya. The study employed a descriptive survey research design. The target population was 31,145 form four students in 394 public secondary schools. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select a sample of 395 students from 33 secondary schools. In addition 33 career counsellors were purposively sampled. A pilot study was carried out in 3 public secondary schools in Embu County. The data was collected using two questionnaires and was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Descriptive statistics (mean, percentages and frequencies) and inferential statistics (Chi-square) were used in data analysis. The findings of the study were that career guidance was perceived to be useful in influencing the students’ choice of training programmes by the career counsellors and students. However, majority of the students had not sat for the career test hence they were not certain if it would influence the choice of training programmes or not. It was observed that demographic characteristics did not influence the career counsellors’ and students’ perceptions about the influence of career guidance on the choice of training programmes. The results were expected to inform career counsellors to evaluate their career guidance practice and improve on it. The students may review their perceptions about career guidance to ensure that it enhances their choices of training programmes, while other education stakeholders may utilise the results in the process of human resource development through provision of appropriate career guidance. The study recommended that career guidance be empowered in secondary schools to increase the students level of self-awareness as well has enable them to relate the subjects, training programmes and careers.