CAREER CHOICE DETERMINANTS AMONG SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN THE SUNYANI WEST DISTRICT IN THE BRONG AHAFO REGION OF GHANA

ABSTRACT

The main thrust of this study was to  find out the determinants  of  career choice among Senior High School students in the  Sunyani West District  in the  Brong Ahafo  Region,  Ghana.  Descriptive  survey  design  involving  the  quantitative approach was used for the study. A sample size of 297 (with 96% return rate of 285) students were selected for the study using  a  multistage sampling procedure. A self-developed questionnaire  was  used for data collection. Pre-testing of the instrument  were  done  and  reliability  and  validity  were  ensured.  The  data collected  were  analysed  using  descriptive  statistics  (frequencies  and percentages, means and  standard deviations) and  inferential statistics (Linear Multiple  Regression,  independent  samples  t-test,  and  one-way  analysis  of variance-  ANOVA).  It  was  established  that,  generally,  some  school,  parent, teacher and student factors influence the choice of career among Senior High School students in the Sunyani West District in the  Brong Ahafo Region.  The results further show that all the factors influence career choice, their  influencesvaried in degree.  The school factors were found to be  exert  major  influence.Furthermore, it was evident that the mean differences (between male and female students) in career choice were not significant. Finally, no significant difference existed  among  the  age  range  of  the  students  with  respect  to  the  factors  that influence their career choice. It was recommended that  career guidance should be inculcated in the school  curriculum so that right from the start  (at the early stages) students would be aware and know the kind of career to choose.