CAREERS EDUCATION

Careers Education Implementation In Secondary Schools

Careers Education Implementation In Secondary Schools

Introduction

Background

In several theoretical models on the career decision-making process (e.g., Gati and Asher, 2001, Harren, 1979, Tiedeman and O'Hara, 1963 and Van Esbroeck et al., 2005), it has been hypothesized that the way individuals cope with decisional tasks during a career decision-making process has important consequences for implementing the career decision. In line with these models but at a more specific level, it has been suggested that higher levels of self and environmental exploration will result in a higher degree of congruence between the person and the chosen career, which in turn will result in higher levels of satisfaction, adjustment, certainty, and identification with the choice (e.g., Greenhaus and Sklarew, 1981, Grotevant, 1987, Singh and Greenhaus, 2004 and Stumpf et al., 1983). Similar hypotheses have been formulated with regard to the effect of commitment to a career choice on these aspects of choice implementation (e.g., Harren, 1979) and on choice actualization (i.e., the likelihood of corresponding choice entry behaviors; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994).

Aims

This study investigated consequences of high school students' career decision-making process for choice implementation in higher education..The current study also aimed to investigate longitudinally the hypothesized but understudied relationship between a career decision-making process and choice implementation. Specifically, the effect of students' process of choosing a study in higher education on subsequent choice implementation during the first year in higher education is examined.

Problem Statement

Despite theoretical attention, a review of the career decision-making literature reveals a need for empirical studies investigating the hypothesized relationship between individuals' coping with the decisional tasks during a career decision-making process and subsequent choice implementation. In this study, we investigated consequences of the career decision-making process for choice implementation within the context of high school students' choice of a major in higher education.

Literature Review

When studying the associations between a career decision-making process and choice implementation, it may be important to include several aspects or tasks that are important for characterizing a career decision-making process. By investigating the relationship between a comprehensive framework of career decision-making tasks and future choice implementation, the precise impact of a career decision-making process would become clearer. Based on taxonomies of career decision-making problems (Campbell and Cellini, 1981 and Gati et al., 1996) and theories about the career decision-making process (e.g., Gati and Asher, 2001, Harren, 1979 and Tiedeman and O'Hara, 1963), Germeijs and Verschueren (2006a) differentiated six tasks as core aspects of the career decision-making process: (1) orientation to choice (i.e., awareness of the need to make a decision and motivation to engage in the career decision-making process), (2) self-exploration (i.e., gathering information about oneself), (3) broad exploration of the environment (i.e., gathering general information about career alternatives), (4) in-depth exploration of the environment (i.e., gathering detailed information about a reduced set of career alternatives), (5) decisional status (i.e., progress in choosing an alternative), and (6) commitment (i.e., strength of confidence in and attachment to a particular career ...