Abstract:
Career choice is a very important decision in life. Secondary school students are prepared
through career guidance to make career choices that are best suited to them. However this
is not always the case and many high school graduates have continued to choose careers
which they are not happy with. To help them make better career choices, it is important
that career guidance teachers understand the influence of parental and students’ personal
factors on secondary school student’s career aspirations. The purpose of this study was to
determine whether parents’occupation, level of formal education and students
characteristics, specifically gender and academic performance have any influence on
students career aspirationsin Nyahururu Municipality, Laikipia County, Kenya. The study
utilized ex-post facto research design. A stratified sample of 327 Form III and IV students
from eleven (four public and seven private) secondary schools were purposively selected
for the study from a target population of 1565 students. A structured questionnaire was
administered to the respondents who had been selected through stratified and simple
random sampling techniques from a target population of 1565 students. Using statistical
Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) programme version 20.0, data were analyzed
through frequency counts and percentages with respect to nominal scale data.Hypotheses
were tested by use of ANOVA and t-test statistics at .05 alpha level. Parents level of
formal education (p<.05), student’s gender (p< .05) and students’academic performance
had statistically significant influence on students’ career aspirations. However, this was
not the case with regard to parents’ occupation. The study offers useful insights to
secondary schools on how to strengthen career guidance and counseling departments so
as to be more effective in aligning students to the right career paths In particular, there is
need to strengthen parent-school meetings so as to sensitize parents on matters pertaining
to career guidance for their children.
