Factors Influencing Choice of Career as Expressed by Secondary School Students in Ilorin Metropolis, Kwara State

This study investigates the factors influencing career choices of secondary school students inIlorin metropolis. It also examined the influence of gender, class level, religion and father’seducational status on the respondents’ expression. It employed a descriptive survey method.A total of 200 secondary school students in Ilorin metropolis were selected through simplerandom sampling technique. The participants responded to a researcher-designedquestionnaire entitled ‘Factors Influencing Career Choice Questionnaire” (FICCQ). The validityof the instrument was done by a team of 5 experts from the Department of CounsellorEducation, University of Ilorin. The reliability of the instrument was established using test retest reliability method which yielded a correlation coefficient of 0.61. The data collectedwere analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. For the demographic data,percentage was employed while t-test statistical tool was employed to test the four hypothesesat 5% level of significance. Results showed that the factors influencing career choice ofsecondary school students in Ilorin metropolis are ease of access to job opportunity (X=3.50),job remuneration (X=3.48), career guidance from school counsellor (X=3.45), societalvalues on jobs (X=3.44) family line of work (X=3.25), their performance in school subjects(X=3.20) and intellectual capability that they possess (X=2.50) among other factors.Similarly, there was significant difference in the factors influencing career choice of secondary school students in Ilorin metropolis based on gender (p=0.01), class level(p=0.02), religion(p=0.00), and father’s educational status (p=0.01). It was thus recommended that studentsshould liaise with school counsellors to fully explore the factors influencing their careerchoices. Counsellors should ensure that students are given orientation as they move from oneclass to another. This is to ensure that all students, irrespective of gender and religion areabreast of the factors influencing career choice.