Investigating the usefulness of careership theory for understanding career decision-making among Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) engineering students
Date
2023-09
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Abstract
Most of the South African research on career guidance and career decision-making is focussed in the schooling sector and towards university pathways. There is little research with regards to career decision-making in the TVET sector except for the recent research of Maluleke (2022a) who investigated student views regarding what influences their career decisions. This current research study aimed at investigating the usefulness of careership theory for understanding career decisions among TVET engineering students at a selected TVET college in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. Since the theory informing the study was conceptualised and used to understand the UK TVET context, this study sought to test its affordances for understanding career decision-making in the South African TVET context. The study firstly determined the factors that affect career decision-making and secondly investigated the usefulness of careership theory in understanding those factors. Drawing on data from semi-structured interviews, the study firstly examined the factors that influenced career decisions among first and final year engineering students. Secondly, since the study was aimed at testing careership theory in the South African TVET context, the theory was used as a conceptual framework for analysing the data. The three aspects of the careership model of career decision-making that derive from careership theory were used to interrogate the data to firstly uncover the factors at play in the career decision-making process and secondly, to investigate whether those factors can be explained in light of careership theory. Significant others were not only found to influence career decision-making but they proved to wield power of influence over respondents. Career decision making among TVET engineering students showed to be characterised by turning points. Careership theory proved to be an ideal theory in explaining career decision making in a South African TVET context. The young people proved to have a sense of urgency in their career decision-making and most of them did not receive career guidance prior to enrolling at the TVET college.
Description
A research report submitted as part of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education by Coursework and Research Report with the Department of Education, Faculty of Humanities, Wits School of Education, at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023.
Keywords
Career decision-making, TVET engineering sector, Careership theory, Gauteng Province, South Africa, UCTD
Citation
Mamogopodi, Lesley Thuso. (2023). Investigating the usefulness of careership theory for understanding career decision-making among Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) engineering students. [Master's dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WIReDSpace. https://hdl.handle.net/10539/40728