Career Guidance Program and the Job Preferences of Academic Track Students in Buhaynasapa National High School

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Career Guidance Program (CGP) is a school program that aims to help students make wise career-related decisions based on their abilities, interests, skills, attitudes, and available job opportunities. This plays a vital role in strengthening the job preferences of the students upon the implementation of the K to 12 Program for the benefit of 21st-century learners. This study aimed to determine the extent of implementing Career Guidance Program in terms of Career Information Provision, Career Assessment, and Career Counselling, thus, highlighting the significant relationship of the implication of the Career Guidance Program and the job preferences of Academic Track students in Buhaynasapa National High School for School Year 2017-2018.

METHODS

A descriptive method was utilized in this study with a validated questionnaire and conducted interviews as research instruments. The study made use of 128 Grade 11 students of Buhaynasapa National High School during the School Year 2017-2018, obtained through stratified sampling using Slovin's Formula with a 5% margin of error. Before conducting the study, the researcher secured permits to authorities. The researcher sought the approval of the authorities before personally administering the research instrument used.

RESULTS

As perceived by the respondents, CGP helps individuals to choose a career based on their ability and passion. It also informs students about their future choices by actively engaging them in processes that will allow them to understand their interests and abilities. The perceptions of the respondents obtained the composite mean of 3.56 and interpreted as strongly agree. On the other hand, activities relative to career counseling obtained the highest composite mean of 3.55 and interpreted as a very great extent. The researcher also found out that there is a significant relationship between the implementation of Career Guidance Program and the job preferences of students specifically in career assessment. It is evident on the obtained p-value of 0.016 that is lower than 0.05 level of significance.

DISCUSSIONS

The findings indicate that implementing Career Guidance Program helps the students in setting their career goals. It has also revealed that there is a significant relationship between the implementation of Career Guidance Program, specifically in career assessment and the job preferences of the Academic Track students. In the same way, the program will help the students have better job preferences to fulfill their goals in the future.