1.1 Introduction
Vocational Choice refers to the process whereby an individual makes up his mind in favour of a particular career or occupation at a given time after due consideration of other alternative careers. Choosing a career is not a trial and error exercise. It is a deliberate effort made at once. Choosing a career is like choosing a life partner in view of their implications for one’s happiness or otherwise in future. A career is an individual’s journey through learning, work and other aspects of life. Decision making concerning appropriate choice of career or occupation to take is the most critical problem facing students in secondary school system and young school leavers (Mba. 2015). According to Mba (2015), secondary school is one means of delivering Education to the adolescents and is an intermediate school between elementary school and college, usually offering general, technical, vocational, or college-preparatory courses.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Vocational choice is one of many important choices students make in determining future plans. This decision will impact them throughout their lives because; the essence of who the student is revolves around what the student wants to do with their life-long work. Career selection has become a complex science with the advent of information technology, the emergence of post industrial revolution and job competition. At secondary school level, a student is expected to have knowledge of what he or she intends to do in the future, this in turn guides the choice of subjects the West African Certificate (WACE). Children are invariably initiated about their sex roles or sex identity by their parents. Parents initiated this role in the absence of Vocational Choice of their children thereby imposing a particular career on them. This stereotyping of roles affects the secondary school students on their choice of career (Anagbogu, 2012).
According to Obi (2011), he articulated that Napier opined that vocational guidance is the process by which all the various factors affecting individuals occupational choices are sorted out, weighted and brought into focus and by which, the young person is helped to make his choice on the full knowledge of the facts about his own potential to them; so vocational guidance was organized as a social service to assist young people in choosing their career. More so, most cultures have demarcated roles for boys and girls (Obi, 2021).
People are blessed with abilities, personality, traits and other characteristics, Almost every individual at one point in time or another in his/her life makes a decision on the choice of life career. In democratic societies, man has freedom of choice relative to the kinds of word that are available. It is important to note that choice and decision relating to career occur not only at the point of entry but throughout the life of the individual. The decision of life more importantly career decision or choice can be contorted at various stages of life.
In Nigeria, an increasingly complex and uncertain job market adds to the difficulty of career decision making. It is therefore the recognition of the prevailing situation that the vocational guidance and career counseling are being advocated for the school system of the country is also required to spell out in clear terms, the system in the country’s development plan at all levels of education and all tiers of government in line with dictates of such plans, there is always the needs to produce relevant manpower and vocational by the country educational curriculum. This is with a view to developing realistic and effective weapons for the accomplishment of natural growth and development. The critical nature of issues relating education and vocation is born not of the complex natural of education self education should be elaborated and should be geared towards making the individual realties of his environment.
In Nigeria, the seemingly complex system of education has brought with it a deliberate attempt to identify the occupation they could be appropriately elected for further training based on their infest and performance. This leaves the students with problem of choice of career among many vocations. These problems could be reduced with a good understanding of the factors that affects students’ choice of vocations and occupations as their career in the future.
Vocational development is not static, but changes. Career decision determines to a very large extent the entire life style of an individual, including: social status, value system, income, leisure time activities, choice of friends, mental or physical health, etcetera. It determines how satisfied or frustrated an individual will be in life. A career is more than a job. lt is a way of life especially when we consider an individual’s personal characteristics such as desires, interest, needs, goals, abilities, etc, and the social and physical condition of society. A person who merely moves from one job to another simply because of increasing salaries or fat pay packets has no career. On the other hand, a person who begins his life as a Nurse in the Hospital and finally becomes a Medical Doctor has a career. Therefore, an individual makes a career decision when he decides to enter into one type of work such as: Medicine, Engineering, etc, and progresses through it. A career is said to cover the sequence of positions, jobs or occupations in the life of an individual that is his /her working life. It is the total pattern of jobs held during a workers lifetime.
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to investigate the Influence of Gender and Environment in Students Vocational Choice in Secondary School Students.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Investigation revealed that most secondary school students are faced with the problem of choosing a career. This is due to mainly the lack of guidance and counseling services in the schools. They make choice on their own depending on the subject that is being offered and taught in school. There are other problems as a result of ignorance in choosing career; as a result students make many mistakes. Students overlook the advice of the professional counselor regarding Vocational Choice in the interest of economic and social changes in the society.
Students face the problem individual differences. They also face the problem of social changes. The problem of unemployment faced by the Nigerian school leavers, coupled with the economic uncertainties which is aggravated by inadequate career information and thus makes students to lack knowledge in making Vocational Choice.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to investigate the Influence of Gender and Environment in Students Vocational Choice in Secondary School Students in Rivers state. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To factors that affect vocational choice among students in the area under study;
- To examine the opportunity factors that affect vocational choice among students in the area under study;
- To investigate the personality factors that affect vocational choice among students in the area under study; and
- To find out if there is any influence of vocational choice among secondary school students in terms of gender, religion and school type.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- Does secondary school students’ gender, religion and school type influence their vocational choice in the area under study?
- Can peers and associates influence students’ vocational choice?
- Does Guidance and counseling in schools determine students’ vocational choice?
- Can the subjects studied in schools determine the students’ vocational choice?
- What are the environmental factors that affect vocational choice among students in the area under study?
- What are the opportunity factors that affect vocational choice among students in the area under study?
- What are the personality factors that affect vocational choice among students in the area under study?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
Hypothesis One
- H0: There is no significant difference in environmental factors affecting vocational choice among secondary school students.
- H1: There is a significant difference in environmental factors affecting vocational choice among secondary school students.
Hypothesis Two
- H0: Secondary school students’ gender, religion and school type does not influence their vocational choice in the area under study.
- H1: Secondary school students’ gender, religion and school type influence their vocational choice in the area under study.
Hypothesis Three
- H0: There is no significant difference in the influence of gender and environment on the vocational choice of Christian and Muslim secondary school students.
- H1: There is a significant difference in the influence of gender and environment on the vocational choice of Christian and Muslim secondary school students.
1.7 Significance of Study
The study will to be useful to students, parents and society at large by providing information regarding the importance of gender and environment on the students in school. The outcome could provide useful information on how to guide students in the choice of career with attention of the influence of the variables on and how to overcome obstacles with less ease.
The findings of this study will further assist the students in making the rightful choice of career and also help those students to lay good foundations for themselves in their field of interest, ability and talent that will invariably develop the child physically, intellectually and emotionally to become useful to him/herself and the society at large.
Lastly, the findings of this study will serve as reference material for students of education, the reading public and those who wish to conduct further research in this area.
1.8 Scope of Study
The scope of the research is focused on the Influence of Gender and Environment in Students Vocational Choice in Secondary School Students in Rivers State.
1.9 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this establishment to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
1.10 Definitions of Terms
Career: an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person's life and with opportunities for progress.
