Certainty in career choice among Kenyatta University students implications for career counseling

Abstract

While the career development process is life-long, choices made during the college years are particularly significant in setting the foundation for future professional options. Selecting a career can be a daunting task for many University students who must balance their own interests with what is available in the various Universities as with their academic performance. It is in this view that the researcher aimed at investigating the career certainty of the university students. Stratified sampling was used to enhance representation of the student population while the academic advisors were randomly sampled .The main research instruments utilized in the study were questionnaires and interviews. The data gathered was both qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative was thematically presented in narrative form while quantitative statistics involved the use of frequencies, totals, percentages, and tabulation. Correlation techniques by Pearson’s product-moment correlation (r) were carried out to analyze the degree of relationships between the variables while Chi-square and analysis of variance were done to determine the significant differences between the variables. It was found out that though the students claimed to have high level of career certainty, this fact was disputed by their academic advisors and their other results in the other variables of the study. There were many factors that affected the students’ career choices amidst them being their level of occupational information, their decision- making ability and their level of clarity in their personal attributes and resources. The need for career counseling across all the levels of education was highly revealed by the findings of this study