Abstract
This
study examined the impact of vocational Guidance on career choice of secondary
school students in Enugu South. It also analyzed a clear statement of the
objectives and problems involved in the study. Based on the purpose of study an
extensive literature was reviewed and data was sourced from both primary and
secondary sources. The instrument used for data collection was questionnaire. A
23 item research questionnaire was used to elicit response from the 200
respondents used to carry out the investigation. The respondents were randomly
chosen out of the population, using JSS3 and SSS3 students as its subject. The
questionnaire was based on four research questions. Finally, the results were
discussed and some recommendations were made. At the end of the research the
study revealed that there are some factors that influence career choice taking
of secondary school students; and that vocational guidance has become
indispensable as long as taking career choice is concerned. Also vocational
guidance to a great extent to a great extent influences career choice of
secondary school students, vocational guidance practically reduces the level of
unemployment among school leavers.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
to the Study
1.2
Statement of the Problem
1.3 Purpose of the Research
1.4 Research Questions
1.5 Significance of the Study
1.6 Scope
of the Study
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Genesis of Guidance and Counselling
2.3 Role of Guidance and Counselling in Secondary Schools
2.4 An Effective Guidance and Counselling Programme in Secondary
Schools
2.4.1 Orientation Services
2.4.2 Appraisal Services
2.4.3 Educational and
Occupational Informational Services
2.4.4 Counselling Services
2.4.5 Placement and
Follow-up Services
2.5 Causes of Poor Academic Performance in Schools
2.5.1 Anxiety
2.5.2 Poor Self-Concept
2.5.3 Poor Methods of Study
2.5.4 Poor Reading
Techniques
2.5.5 Indiscipline
2.6 Theoretical Framework
2.6.1 Person-Centered Theory
2.6.2 Social Learning Theory
2.7 Conceptual Framework
CHAPTER
THREE
RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Research
design
3.4 Sources of Data
3.5 Population of the study
3.6
Sample and Sampling Technique
3.7 Instrumentation
3.8 Reliability
3.9 Validity
3.11 Method
of Data Collection
3.12 Method
of Data Analysis
3.13 Ethical consideration
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION OF DATA AND ANALYSIS
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
5.1 Recommendation
5.2 Conclusion
References
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Meaning and Definition of Guidance and
Counselling
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
defines guidance as “advice that is given to somebody especially by someone
with more experience while counselling “is a professional advice about a
problem”.
In a literary meaning guidance is the
process of helping an individual to understand himself and his environment.
According to Adenigbagbe (2011) guidance
is the process of directing, assisting, guiding an individual to achieve
his/her goals. Adenigbagbe (2011) also define counselling as a professional
interaction between a client or individual and a professional counsellor with
the aim of assisting the client to voluntarily change his behaviour for more
productive one.
Several authors have define guidance and
counselling in different various ways. According to Ferguson (1999) have
attempted to clarify the usage of the term by pointing out the word guidance,
as a concept, as an educational construct and as an educational services to
meet a demand.
Counselling, according to English and
English (2001) was defines as a relationship in which one person endeavour to
help one another, to understand and to solve his adjustments problems.
Carl Rogers (2001) define counselling as a
therapeutic endeavour aimed at helping a client to relax his structure gain new
experience and become integrated whole in the emphatic counselling environment
counselling can be defined by Shertzer and Stone (2004) “as the process of
helping an individual to understand himself and his world”.
UNESCO (2008) says, guidance and
counselling is a professional field which has a broad range of activities,
programmes and services geared toward assisting individuals to understand
themselves, their problems, their school environment and their world and also
to develop adequate capacity for making wise choices and decisions.
According to Adenigbagbe (2010) defines
guidance and counselling as a subjects that deals with developmental problems
of life or phenomenon problems of human being.
Guidance and counselling is the process
involving a special kind of relationship between a person who asks for help
with a maladative problem and a person who is trained to provide that help
(which is the counsellor).
Counselling can be done in two different
ways:
·
Individual Counselling
·
Group Counselling
Individual counselling is the counselling
in which the counsellor who is skilled in psychological strategies assists only
one at a time in resolving the clients adjustment problems.
Group counselling: This is the counselling
which allows the counsellor to be involved with a group of counselee at the
same time.
There is no distinct line of demarcation
between guidance and counselling because the two term are interwoven. There is
much guidance in counselling just as counselling entails guidance.
In practice however, the counselling
psychologist should be able to identify where guidance activities stop and
where that of counselling begins. For examples guidance is said to be more
involving because it entails provision of useful information for path finding
whereas, counselling is an aspect of guidance because it is one of the guidance
service which is more intimate and involving means to resolve problems which
require more than mere provision of information.
In terms of severity of the issues or
problem as it affect the personality of an individual, counselling is more
serious than guidance, though they both deal with the adjustment of individuals
within their contexts.
The Importance of Guidance and Counselling
are as the following
·
Guidance and counselling services enable
each learner in institutions of learning to derive optimal educational benefits
so as to actualize his/her potentialities.
·
It helps the students to make meaningful
decision and choice.
·
It helps students to interpret his
understanding of life experience.
·
It helps the learner to understand himself,
his world and to learn how to meet life demands.
·
It is a profession to make an individual
to understand who he is.
·
It also help individual to accept
responsibilities for his actions.
·
It assist the student to develop his
maximum potential.
·
It helps learner to develop in
self-understanding an transfer knowledge gained through this experience to
other event in his later life.
·
Student who have access to counselling
programmes reported being more positive and having greater feelings of
belongings and safety in their schools.
·
It promotes student development and
academic success.
·
Guidance counsellor also assist in
reducing victimization and bullying behaviour of the students.
·
It helps to address the physical,
emotional, social, vocational and academic difficulties of adolescent students.
·
Counselling services support teachers in
the classroom and enable teachers to provide quality instruction designed to
assist students in achieving high standard.
Who Teaches Guidance and Counselling?
There are exceptional characteristics
which the counsellor is expected to display in the day-to-day professional
practice of his job.
·
The counsellor should be a person who
belief in each person as an individual.
·
He/she should be committed to individual
human values.
·
He/she should be alertness to the world.
·
He/she should be open mindedness.
·
He/she should be self-understanding.
·
He/she should have the ability to maintain
confidentiality in the counselling relationship.
·
He/she should always demonstrate positive
verbal reinforcement and showing feelings of concern.
·
He/she should treat the person before him
as a fellow human being who is worthy of respect.
The
Choice of Career
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
(2004) defines Career as the series of jobs that a person has in a particular
area of work, usually involving more responsibilities as time passes.
It also mean, the period of time that you
spend in your life working or doing a partial thing.
Adenigbagbe (2011) defines choice of
career as the decision and choice making of an individual on the series of jobs
that a person has in a particular area of work.
It is the duty of school guidance
counsellor to assist the adolescent student pre-vocational by guiding him to
choose the right subject which can be combined easily with the choice of future
career.
Left unguided students, are prone to
choose subjects without directly relating them to their interests ability and
aptitude and without thinking of their future careers and the subjects that are
pre-requisite for them. For instance, a good knowledge of Mathematics is
required before a student can pursue careers in Engineering, Economic,
Geography etc. When the students want to further their education, they may
encounter difficulties as a result of their wrong choice of subject which cannot
be combined for higher education.
It is the counsellor responsibilities to
expose his students to the career possibility and limitation of each subjects
and their combinations with other subjects.
A good combination subjects is likely to
lead to the choice of a course of study and eventually a career in which the
learner can fulfill himself.
The combination should be meaningful and
should be such that can be passed easily and be combined for students in higher
institutions in order to secure a good occupation.
Nigeria, the choice of career are often
made at early age of JSS 3 – SS 1 and once the choice are made, it become very
difficult to reverse.
Counsellors needs to look into this
because it is beneficial to the country that the youth work in positions in
which they can make a full contribution to the society.
The dislike of ones job is a wide spread
of job dissatisfaction and frustration in Nigeria today. The feeling of
frustration is even sharper, if it has taken years of study and experience to
became a trained practitioner and if it is apparent that more years will have
to spent (at lower pay) in order to change to another job.
Most often, people wish that they could
have chosen differently. If such people had possessed greater insight into the
possibilities open or available to them, it is very likely that they would have
made a totally different choice.
There are some factors needs to be
considered when making a choice of career
i. Interest
of the choice maker
ii.
Intelligence of the choice maker
iii.
Aptitude and talent of the choice maker
-
The interest as to do with the interest that the choice maker has
towards the particular course, since interest is what a person is fond of doing
above others as it appeals to one’s mind. Therefore, it is necessary to put
into consideration the interest of the students on a particular subjects
combinations before choosing it.
-
Intelligence: The intelligent of the student also is very important. For
instance, a student that is intelligent in the area of Mathematics, Chemistry
and Physics want to read law in the higher institution prone to encounter
difficulties on his way because he needs English language and Government as the
most subjects combined for law course. Intellectual ability remains a
significant factor in educational and occupational choices.
In the choice of subjects that leads to
specific occupations, the students should seek the assistance of a counsellor
to guide them in their choices.
-
Aptitude and talent of the choice maker: Aptitude is an inborn ability
to be able to profit from a course of instruction.
Aptitude and talent are closely related.
Talents refers to that inmate inability which make a person perform a specific
task without making a conscious effort. A person who shows interest aptitude
and talent for a career is likely derived job satisfaction.
Purpose
of Choosing Career
To make the students prepare and be aware
of the specific tasks of their choices.
To directs students in cultivating proper
attitudes and skills needed to function in the society particularly in the
world of work.
To enable students to prepare and develop
awareness of the time and money required of a person be trained and educated
for specific career.
Most students in senior secondary schools
find it difficult to choose correctly the subject combinations in their final
exams (WAEC/NECO) which determines their future choice of career.
The crucial decisions made may become very
difficult to reverse, if wrong choices are make, it will affect the future life
of the students career.
With the existence of guidance and
counselling in the secondary schools, it will really help students in choosing
their subject combinations which will enable them to be happy in their future
career.
In Nigeria, guidance and counselling was
introduced with the aim of directing, helping, assisting those choosing
vocational occupation job, placement, employment opportunities and advancement.
The Federal Government included the
offering of guidance and counselling courses in the university curriculum both
at the post-graduate and undergraduate programme, now some colleges of
education offer courses in guidance and counselling. This become compulsory
course in the teachers curriculum in tertiary institutions that train teachers,
with the aim of making young men and women teachers in training to understand
human behaviour from the psychological perspective and the factors that are
responsible for the changes in that behaviour.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The counsellor occupies a very strategic
position in any educational system. The Federal Government is aware of this
fact this is why the re-emphasis is one the need for guidance and counselling
services in the new National Policy on education (9-3-4) system. It is also
clear from the Federal Ministry of Education that counsellors should operate on
full time basis. Also most principals and teachers are aware of the
counsellors’ services. Despite this fact, it has been observed that the
services are not encouraged at the secondary school level.
Apart from academic problems of failure
and dropout of students, from schools, other numerous psyco-social, vocational
and personal social problems abound among students in our secondary schools.
The control or resolution of these
problems is always channeled to mainly school authorities and teachers while
the seeking of counsellors attention is always ignored.
1.3
Purpose of the Research
It examines the important role of guidance
and counselling in the secondary schools.
The purpose of the study is to find out
the effect of guidance and counselling on senior secondary school student in
their choice of career.
It also intends to assist and enlightened
the secondary school students when choosing their subject combinations,
especially the senior students when preparing for their final examination which
lead them to their offer courses in higher institution.
1.4 Research
Questions
Research questions
1. To what extent
has vocational guidance been able to influence career decision making of secondary
school students?
2. How does
vocational guidance reduce the level of unemployment among school leavers?
3. What
factors influence the career decision making of secondary school students?
4. What are
the factors that influence or affect the effective implementation of vocational
guidance in secondary school leavers?
1.5
Significance of the Study
The outcome of this study may serve as the
basis for arising the government to locate and appoint counsellors in our
secondary schools as guiding the (Adolescent) students in choosing their career
for their future.
The researcher will also enlightened the
administrators in the secondary schools on the vital role of a counsellor in a
school and not an intruders in their schools.
The guidance counsellor also will not be
looked down on their job which the government think it is mere luxury.
1.6
Scope of the Study
The study is based on the effect of
guidance counselling in our school especially the senior secondary students in
their choice of career when choosing it and how school administrators will
embraced counsellors in their schools.
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