In these days, people’s passion for occupation increases, resulting in greater competition for jobs. It is very hard to be accepted to an occupation they desire. Due to these circumstances, universities and colleges are taking charge of not only hel...
In these days, people’s passion for occupation increases, resulting in greater competition for jobs. It is very hard to be accepted to an occupation they desire. Due to these circumstances, universities and colleges are taking charge of not only helping students acquire academic achievements, but also guiding and counseling them with practical ways to seek jobs. These schools emphasize practical behavior as well as positive attitude and cognition through career guidance and counseling.
However, there were only little researches from experience in academic studies. In addition, studies related to careers stressed the cognition and attitude instead of emphasizing practical behavior for career preparation. Furthermore, the previous studies have been conducted only for 4-year-university students, teenagers, and people for special areas. There were only a few studies and researches performed for 2-year-college students. Through previous studies, it has shown that career barriers and career decision-making self-efficacy were perceived as significant variables for career preparation behavior. Therefore, it is necessary to study career barriers and career decision-making self-efficacy to efficiently carry out career preparation behaviors of 2-year-college students majoring in Secretarial Science.
The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of career barriers, career decision-making self-efficacy on the career preparation behavior among college students majoring in Secretarial Science.
In this study, the following hypotheses are set up to achieve above research objective.
Hypothesis 1 : The career barriers of college students will have significant effects on the career preparation behavior.
Hypothesis 2 : The career decision-making self-efficacy of college students will have significant effects on the career preparation behavior.
Hypothesis 3 : There will be a significant negative relationship between the career barriers and decision-
making self-efficacy of college students.
To test the above-mentioned hypotheses, data were collected using instruments to measure career barriers, career decision-making self-efficacy, and career preparation behavior. This study collected data from 172 college students majoring in Secretarial Science. As for the statistical methods, correlation analysis and regression analysis for hypothesis 1 and hypothesis 2 were used while correlation analysis for hypotheses 3 were used. To compare career preparation behavior between freshmen and sophomores, comparison analysis was performed.
The results of this study are as follows:
First, the career barriers of college students majoring in secretarial science had a partial effect on the career preparation behavior as mentioned in hypothesis 1. According to the study, the factor of 'the uncertainty of future' among career barriers mainly impacted the college students while 'economical issues', 'ages, and physical difficulties' barely had an impact.
Second, the career decision-making self-efficacy of college students majoring in secretarial science had a partial effect on the career preparation behavior as mentioned in hypothesis 2. The factors of career decision-making self-efficacy affected all of the career preparation behavior except the factor of 'solving problems'.
Third, there was a negative relationship between career barriers and career decision-making self-efficacy. These results correspond with previous reports that career barriers and career decision-making self-efficacy have a negative relationship.
Fourth, the career preparation behavior had a difference between freshmen and sophomores. The higher the grade of students, the more the career preparation behavior was conducted. These results agree well with previous reports.
Based upon the results of this study, the following recommendations were suggested for future research:
First, a wider research for various areas must be performed in the future with appropriate measured tools that need to be developed.
Second, it is necessary to attempt comparison analysis for demographic or psychological variables in future studies.
Third, in future studies, detailed studies are needed for variable influences of career decision-making self-efficacy in the process of career barriers impacting career preparation behavior.
Fourth, the sub-factors of career barriers have different impact on the career preparation behavior. Therefore, it would be useful to explore specific sub-factors of career barriers in future studies.
The results of this study will be used as a research from experience in career guidance and counseling of colleges. Moreover, these results will contribute to accomplishing career preparation behavior for college students.