Career Choice and Academic Programme among Senior High School Students in the Ashanti Mampong Municipality, Ghana

Abstract

The study examined career choice and academic programmes among senior high school students in the Ashanti Mampong Municipality. The study was guided by three research questions and three hypotheses. The study used the descriptive cross-sectional survey design with a quantitative approach. Multi-stage sampling procedures (purposive, proportionate, and simple random sampling) were used to select a sample of 336 respondents for the study. The instrument used to gather data was the questionnaire. The data was analysed using means and standard deviation while hypotheses were tested using an independent sample t-test. Results revealed that environmental factors, institutional factors, and personal characteristics influenced students' career choices and academic programmes. The study revealed that there was no significant difference in the perception of male and female students regarding the environmental factors that influenced their selection of career choice and academic programme. The study further revealed gender differences in institutional factors when making decisions about their career choice and academic programme. The study again revealed no gender difference in the mean score of students’ perception regarding their personal characteristics that influenced their choice of career and academic programme. Based on these findings, it was recommended that educators and school counsellors should focus on parents’ socio-economic status when counselling students on career choice and academic programmes.