Factors Affecting the Career Choices of Junior High School Students of Ulat Integrated School: Input to Administrative Concern, S.Y. 2018-2019

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

The researchers, being a counselor and a school head, have observed that most junior high school students are undecided on a career they will choose.

METHODS

A questionnaire was the main data gathering instrument for the study.

RESULTS

Majority of the respondents perceived that grade point average or the GPA, gender, and family monthly income relate significantly with the career choices of the junior high school students. On career choices, Business and Economics is the most preferred course of the respondents. They plan to manage their own company or be the boss in the workplace. Others think that finishing this course will bring them a comfortable lifestyle. On the social factors (parents, relatives and peers), data revealed that parents were the most influential persons in their career choices (regardless of sex and interest). The idea that Filipinos are under an authoritarian family-centered orientation where the child has to be obedient, submissive, loyal, and expected to follow their parents' decision are still carried today.

DISCUSSIONS

The results exhibit the necessity for the school to create new programs and activities related to career education. This research focused on the Grade 10 students, implying the need to start career guidance as early as Grade 7. The researcher recommends further study to test how intense the provision of a concrete school-based career guidance program will affect the students' career choice.