The university years are the important period to prepare future career, and above all to choose a specific job. For this reason, career path is the most urgent and important concern to most university students. In Korea, because of the lack of systema...
The university years are the important period to prepare future career, and above all to choose a specific job. For this reason, career path is the most urgent and important concern to most university students. In Korea, because of the lack of systematic career path guidance and social atmosphere to have a high level of education, there are many university entrants who just entered university under the social pressure that they have to enter university, regardless of their own aptitudes and future prospects. In this context, numerous conflicts and problems have been generated in relation to career path development. To solve such problems, almost all the universities conduct career path counseling, but the efficient ones are not carried out, owing to urgent career path guidance during the employment season, belated guidance, or career path guidance lack of considering the features of school years.
This study organized and implemented a career path group counceling program, which applied cognitive behavior theory, for university freshmen to search for suitable career path from the freshman year. Hence, this study presented how to utilize and the means for effective career path group counseling program by identifying what impacts the program has upon university freshmen's social support, self-efficacy of career path, and decision making for career path.
The group counseling program was provided to the freshmen of "D" University located in Gyeongsan, Gyeongsangbuk-do, who took the course of "University Life Design." This study organized and undertook a group career path counseling program applying cognitive behavior theory to the experimental groups, and no program was provided to the control group.
The Social Support scale and the CDMSE scale, and the decision making type scale, were used so as to verify the differences between the groups before and after the program applying.
As a result, in the career path group counseling applying cognitive behavior theory for university freshmen, the social support, the self-efficacy of career path, and the decision making for career path significantly improved, and the significant differences were not shown in the control group. These results imply the effects of the group career path counseling. Therefore, the programs suitable for university freshmen should be constantly developed, based on the results of this study. In addition, the study for to provide the career path counseling in the earlier stage and the career guidance for university students need to be actively carried out.