A Study on Factors affecting the Career Choice of Students in Higher Education Institutions in Sultanate of Oman

Abstract

The study investigates the factors affecting the career choice of students in a selected Higher Education Institute in Sultanate of Oman. A sample of 248 students was chosen from three academic departments in the University. There is a weak positive relationship between all the independent variables grouped into demographic, environmental, opportunity and personality factors with the dependent variable, career choice of the students. Two opportunity variables i.e. knowledge of high paid jobs and opportunities for part time jobs even though weakly correlated have a significant impact on the career choice decisions of the students. Among the personality factors even though all the variables are weakly correlated, only social skills have significant impact on career choice path of students. The study recommends that the University Counselling Department may focus on assisting the students with professional counselling services. The On the job training department in collaboration with the counselling department may identify the training requirements of the students and provide suitable training to the students so as to improve their employability skills. Personality development programmes and public speaking training can go a long way to improve their social skills which is found to have significant impact on the career path choice. Having an active career guidance cell that provides relevant academic and career information could enable the students to make informed decisions along the way