Choosing a Career - the Case of Students of the university

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Choosing a Career - the Case of Students of
the university of Buea Nnane Peter Ebontane
Department of Educational Foundations
and Administration, Faculty of Education
University Of Buea
Abstract
Students who enrol in the University of Buea focus more on their
respective fields of study than on their future careers and occupations.
Although obtaining a degree is of primordial importance, nevertheless, any
degree obtained without a job prospect guaranteeing substantial financial
remuneration in future may be meaningless in traditional African society.
The reason is because parental and other extended family members’
investment on offspring expects financial support and caring from these
children during their old age. Therefore the choice of an occupation/
career/profession (job) should depend on relevant information through
counselling. This study determines the proportion of students who
presently know their future occupation/career/ profession and those who
do not. On this account the study hypothesized that since students are
in academic programmes of their choices, they are aware of their future
occupation/career/profession. The X-square statistics was used to test
the hypothesis. To determine the proportion of students with knowledge
about their future occupation/career/profession, a questionnaire was
distributed to a sample of 200 students in their final year of studies. The
analysis was done quantitatively and based on percentages. The findings
showed that as high as 32% of the respondents did not have knowledge
of the type of job they would get into upon graduation. Furthermore, it
was evident that while 44.5% of the respondents said they would want
to have a job for the sake of financial remuneration, the reason given
by the other 55.5% was personal satisfaction. For the latter that opted
for personal satisfaction or other job rewards, 52.25% gave a variety of
reasons for the choice and 47.75% gave all of the seven reasons. Emerging
recommendation was that university students, prior to graduation, should
be exposed to adequate relevant information related to different types of
jobs and/or occupational opportunities.
Key Concepts: Job/ Occupation opportunities, Occupational Choice,
Relevant information, Job Satisfaction
Résumé
Les étudiants nouvellement inscrits à l’Université de Buéa s’intéressent
davantage à leurs domaines d’études respectifs qu’à leurs futures carrières,
c’est-à-dire au métier qu’ils vont exercer dans l’avenir. Bien que l’obtention
d’un diplôme soit d’une importance capitale, le fait de terminer ses études
sans la perspective d’un emploi qui assure une rémunération conséquente
dans l’avenir peut s’avérer vain dans le contexte de la société traditionnelle
africaine. Car les parents, ainsi que les autres membres de la famille
élargie qui investissent sur les études de leurs progénitures attendent en
retour l’aide financière et l’affection de celles-ci pendant leur vieillesse. Par
conséquent, le choix d’une profession/carrière/un métier doit dépendre
des informations pertinentes obtenues grâce à l’orientation scolaire. La
présente étude définit la proportion d’étudiants qui savent et ceux qui ne
savent pas actuellement la profession/carrière/le métier qu’ils vont exercer
dans l’avenir. Elle part du postulat selon lequel le fait pour les étudiants
de s’inscrire dans des filières de leur choix suppose qu’ils savent quelle
INTRODUCTION
Many students have enrolled in and
graduated from the University of Buea
without knowing what would be their
occupation/career/profession (job) upon
graduation. Others do not seem to know
the reason why they choose a particular
job, nor have they thought about what
they value the most when making
decisions about occupational choice.
Most often some university students do
not have enough self-knowledge or the
knowledge of educational offerings and
vocational opportunities to make realistic
decisions. It is important, while still
undergoing studies at the university, to
have access to appropriate information
on occupational choice. As Schein (1980)
points out, a person’s occupation, the
daily work that satisfies basic economic
needs, has been shown to be a central
aspect of the person’s self-concept and
source of self-esteem. The pressure to
make premature vocational decisions
sometimes results in students choosing
an occupation in which the student does
not have the interest and ability required
for success.
The purpose of this study was to
determine the proportion of students
who know what their occupation/career/
profession would be upon graduation
from the university, and those who
do not know. To know this, students
need vocational guidance. Career or
vocational guidance here means the
presentation of facts about jobs and
occupational fields, the requirements
of the various occupations, and
employment possibilities in order to
help students select careers intelligently
and realistically.
Because the concept “career”
has been defined as an occupation
or profession as one’s lifework (the
Random House College Dictionary,
1982); “occupation” defined as an
employed activity for financial reward
which involves a number of tasks that