European Journal of Education Studies

ISSN: 2501 - 1111

ISSN-L: 2501 - 1111
Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu

doi: 10.5281/zenodo.804066 Volume 3 │Issue 6 │2017

EFFECTS OF CAREER GUIDANCE AND CAREER COUNSELLING

TECHNIQUES ON STUDENTS VOCATIONAL MATURITY

Babatunde, Joseph Ojoi

Ph.D, Department of Guidance and Counselling
Faculty of Education,
Ekiti State University, Nigeria

Abstract:
This study investigated the effects of career guidance method and career counselling
method on student’s vocational maturity. The main purpose of the study is to find out
which of the two purposed techni1ques will best facilitate the development of
vocational maturity among secondary school adolescents in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Two
research questions were raised to guide the study and one hypothesis was formulated.
The study was a quasi-experimental design of pre-test and post-test two experimental
groups. The instrument used was an adopted inventory used by Kuti in 1979. The
inventory was named Career Development Inventory (CDI). The validation of the
instrument was re-established with reliability co-efficient of 74, 76 and 80 respectively
in the sub-scale A, B, C. Treatments were done in two different schools. Career
Guidance Technique (CGT) was used in school A, while, Career Counselling Technique
(CCT) was used in school B, Career Development Inventory (CDI) was used as measure
of vocational maturity at pre-test and post-test. Based on data collected and analysed,
the results revealed general improvement in the students’ vocational maturity after
treatment. The study also revealed that Career Counselling Technique (CCT) improve
vocational maturity better than Career Guidance Technique (CGT). But both (CCT) and
(CGT) help in the improvement of vocational maturity of students. Vocational or career
guidance and counselling programme should be made compulsory in all secondary
schools in Ekiti State.

Keywords: career guidance technique (CGT), career counselling technique (CCT),

vocational maturity, career development inventory (CDI)

Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved.

© 2015 – 2017 Open Access Publishing Group 717
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EFFECTS OF CAREER GUIDANCE AND CAREER COUNSELLING TECHNIQUES ON
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1. Introduction

The organisation of career guidance services in a school system as a pioneer demands

considerable tact and skills. Many laudable ideas and programmes have failed because
the starting off or wrong steps. Success of any enterprise within the school system calls
for the co-operation all and sundry in the system. Good programmes fail to be effective
when the spirit of co-operation and teamwork are lacking among the operators.
Methods, strategies and techniques of initiating guidance programme are bound to vary
to accommodate the varying conditions in different schools or communities (Makinde
& Alao, 1987). For any guidance services or programme to achieve its goals, a guidance
package should be provided as a service that will enhance the student maturity within
the school guidance programme.
Prominent among the school guidance programme is career education, career
education is more than a matter of helping students to find jobs but include organising
a career programme in the schools among the students in the senior secondary level to
equip these students on understanding toward self-knowledge and the world of work.
Ipaye (1983) stressed that career education should enable students understand and
evaluate their society as a work organisation and assess their own chances and place as
individual within that work organisation. Students therefore needed information
through a career guidance and counselling programme with the use of an effective
guidance and counselling techniques to gain some knowledge and understanding of the
purposes and conditions of work even while at school.
To decide on a suitable or right career, the individual should know himself, and
the occupations that are available. For better self-understanding, interest, aptitude,
temperament and educational attainment should be properly addressed. Evidence
abounds in literature that the ‘self’ or individual’s view of self (self-knowledge) is the
most important component of human personality. Reports of some researchers have
identified low self-knowledge as one of the most important factors responsible for poor
career decision making among Nigerian adolescents (Okatahi and Adeyanju (1989),
Kutara (1995) Okon (2001). Self-knowledge has been described as the awareness of
individual of his/her self and one’s own ability. Owuamanam (2003) states that self-
concept is a sum total of all the characteristics a person attribute to himself both the
positive and negative values he attaches to the characteristics. By the observations
above, self-concept or self-knowledge is view as the individual evaluation of himself in
term of the totality of his abilities, attitudes, qualities, personalities, perceptions,
judgement, values and capabilities.

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Expectations of individual at times influence the planning and performance of

such an individual toward career decision making. Famade (2001) observes that
expectations of teachers and the school counsellors on their students greatly influence
their planning. Counsellors positive expectations of their students always call for
guidance programmes that was designed and presented as a school guidance
programme with the co-operation of other significant others in the school setting for
better students decision making. Tamunomama (1996) in Gbore (2006) list four
attributes of self-concept as academic self-concept, physical self-concept, psychological
self-concept and social self-concept as attributes considered for decision making in the
world of work. The techniques used in this study for improving vocational maturity of
secondary school students is the career guidance approach to vocational development.
Some researchers had shed light on the relative effectiveness of the methods,
some studies reported that the career guidance approach is more effective than career
counselling approach, while some are of the opinion that career counselling technique
was better. For clarity and avoidance of doubt, this study was put in place and was
carried out in Ekiti State of Nigeria.
Fisher (1980) attempted to measure the relative effectiveness of career guidance
programme on a measure of career maturity for Roman Catholic High School students
in one of his studies on vocational development in United States of America. The
treatment used was a three session programme in vocational guidance and it consist of
lectures, the use of visual aids, administration of an interest inventory and inventory of
work related activities. The dependent variable for the study was career maturity as
measured by scores obtained on the career maturity inventory. The result revealed no
significant difference on the level of career maturity between the treatment and control
group. Brown and Book (1991) finding disagree with the findings of Fisher (1980)
Broom and Book, argued that their won experiment difference was found between the
treated and control group.
In a longitudinal study of Amundson, Borgen and Tench (2004), they found that
young people left high school unprepared for current career realities and both the
career and personal areas of adolescents lives were in a state of change and uncertainty.
This holds the opinion that toward the end of student’s final year in secondary school,
they expressed optimism entering the career area of their choice and are expected to be
successful workers. About half of the subjects used in their study indicated some
concern about meeting post – secondary entrance standards. Through observations,
some months following graduation from secondary school, depression, self-esteem, and
anxiety were correlated with a range of perceived problems which includes lack of
money lack of support from parents and friends external attributes of

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career/employment difficulties. The focus of this study for the guidance practitioners in
Nigerian secondary schools is to provide career guidance and career counselling
programmes for students to foster vocational maturity. The programme is to assist
Nigerian students in arriving at wise decision on occupational options in their later
days. Secondary school education should help in preparing students for career decision
making if unable to proceed to higher level of education.

2. Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of career guidance and career
counselling techniques on the vocational maturity of secondary school students in
Nigeria. Specifically the programme was meant to find out which of career guidance
and career counselling technique will be effective in enhancing the vocational
development of Nigerian adolescents.

2.1 Research Questions

One general question was raised to guide the study base on the general questions
raised, one research question was also postulated:
1. What is the level of students’ vocational maturity?
2. Will career guidance techniques (CGT) and career counselling technique (CCT)
improve the student’s vocational maturity?

2.2 Research Hypothesis

Based on the research question raised, one hypothesis was formulated.
1. There is no significant difference between the vocational maturity of students
exposed to career guidance techniques (CGT) and career counselling technique
(CCT).

3. Methodology

The study was a quasi-experimental design of pre-test and post-test two experimental
groups as represented below:
Q1 X1 O2
O3 X2 Q
Where O1 O3 are pre-tests
O2 O4 are post-tests
X1 are group with Guidance Technique (Treatment)
X2 are group with Counselling Technique (Treatment)
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The population for the study was all the secondary school students in senior
secondary school class II in Nigeria. The sample of the study consisted of 240 students
of 120 male and 120 female selected from four secondary schools in two local
government area of Ekiti State using stratified, simple random sampling and purposive
techniques. The selection of the local government areas was done randomly, while the
strata recognised the sex and location of schools, purposive recognised the student’s
selection and the state.
There are two experimental groups for the study with 120 students in each
groups. The protest of the instrument was administered on all the students in their
various schools. For thus study, students that score 81 to 323 were regarded as been
matured vocationally. Which those students that scored from 80 – 58 were tagged to be
students with low vocational maturity. To avoid interference during treatments,
subjects, were attended to in their various schools, they were pre-tested, Treated and
post-tested, than data were gathered for analysis.

3.1 Research Instrument

The instrument for data collection was an adapted Career Development Inventory
(CDI) from Kuti (1979). This inventory had been used in Nigeria by Kuti. He stated that
the modified instruments differs from the original, not interim of format or construct,
but in term of eliminated items. The eliminated items were substituted with equivalent
English words that are familiarly known and commonly used and understood by
literate Nigerians. CDI is an objective multifactor, self-administering inventory design
to measure the vocational maturity of males and females adolescents. The instrument is
of three scales, the first two scales measure attitudinal components while the third scale
measures the cognitive components of vocational maturity of respondents. The first and
second parts of the scales consisted of items which are indicative of planning
orientation, and the use of resources for exploration of information. The response
continuum is on a five points (a b c d e) interpreted to mean (1 2 3 4 5) respectively. The
range of scores in the two parts is from 55 - 58 - 290. The third scale which is the third
part of the instrument comprises occupational information and knowledge of the world
of work. The response to each item is also in five point (a b c d e) but only one of the
options is the correct answer and the score is 1. The range of score in this part is 0 - 35.
Therefore, the range of score for the whole scale, that is, the first, second and the third
part of the scale is 58 - 323. Subjects that score below 25% of the total scores are
regarded as vocationally immature.

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3.2 Validity of the Instrument

The face and construct validity of the sub-scale A B C of the CDI has been established
by Kuti (1979). He reported the validity co-efficient of the sub-scale as 0.75, 0.62 and
0.69 respectively. However, since the instrument was adapted for this present study, the
face and construct validity was re-established by test experts where some items were
amended, some were modified to reflect the students understanding in Ekiti State. The
establishment of the instrument reliability was also done by Kuti with the reliability co-
efficient of 0.78, 0.80 and 0.75 respectively. The reliability co-efficient instrument was
also re-confirmed to give 0.72, 0.74 and 0.80 respectively.

3.2 Experimental Procedure

The treatment package developed and used in this study was tagged ‚Group career
guidance and counselling programme‛. In the schools used, the school counsellor of
each schools work co-operatively with the researcher with the help of the school
counsellors the principal, staff and all the students also work with the research with
their full co-operation.
Group A — Career Guidance Technique (CGT) in the school where CGT was
used, with the help of the school counsellor, five guidance sessions was agreed on.
 1st session: Pre-test, the Career Development Inventory (CDI) was
administered on the students and collected back.
 2nd session: Treatment starts with organisation of career talk by professionals.
 3rd session: Treatment continue with career talk by professional different from
the 2 session.
nd

 4th session: Researcher and school counsellor interactions with the student as a
follow-up responses to their previous interactions with professionals.
 5th session: Administration of post-test on the students that complete sessions.
Group B — Career Counselling Technique (CCT) as applicable in the group A
school, co-operation of all the staff and students was secured, the school counsellor also
work co-operatively with the researcher. Five counselling sessions was arrived at:
 1st session: Pre-test, students were asked to complete the CDI and collected
back.
 2nd session: Treatment started by asking the students to complete the
Vocational Interest Inventory (VII) of Bakare. Here the students respond were
scored and the interest profile of each students were drawn.
 3rd session: Treatment continue, occupation clusters were identified as outdoor,
mechanical, computational, scientific, persuasive, artistic, literary musical, social
services and clerical.

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 4th session: All the identified occupational clusters were clearly explained with
sample of occupation associated with each cluster. Employment prospects,
nature of work, work environment, qualifications, preparations entrance,
advancement were well explored with the students.
 5th session: Administration of post-test on the students that complete all the
session.

3.3 Administration of Post-test and Data Analysis

At the end of each experimental session, the Career Development Inventory (CDI) was
administered accordingly and data were drawn from the scores for analysis.
Descriptive statistics we rued, bar chart was also use, while t-test was used to test the
only hypothesis formulated at 0.05 level of significance.

4. Results

The results of the research questions and the hypothesis formulated and tested at 0.05
significance and discussion of findings are presented here.

Question 1: What is the level of students’ vocational maturity?

Table 1: Frequency count and percentage of student level of

vocational maturity before treatment
Maturity Level Range of Scores Frequency Relative Percentages
High 162 – 323 40 16.7
Moderate 81 – 161 80 33.3
Low 0 – 80 120 50.3
Total 240 100

The table 1 revealed that 40 students representing 16.7% had high vocational maturity,
80 students representing 33.3% had moderate vocational maturity, while 120 students
representing 50% had a very low vocational maturity. This results shows that majority
of the student had low vocational maturity before treatment.

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Table 2: Frequency counts and percentage of student level of

vocational maturity after treatment
Maturity Level Range of Scores Frequency Relative Percentages
High 162 – 323 50 20.8
Moderate 81 – 161 90 37.5
Low 0 – 80 100 41.7
Total 240 100

Table 2 revealed that 50 student representing 20.8% had high vocational maturity after
treatment, 90 students representing 37.5% had moderate vocational maturity, while 100
students representing 41.7% still maintain their low level after treatment. This result
shows that there is improvement in the vocational maturity of students after treatment.

Hypothesis (HO): There is no significant difference between the vocational maturity of

students exposed to group career guidance (CGT) and (CCT) techniques.

Table 3: t-test comparison of vocational maturity of students exposed to

CGT and CCT techniques
Groups N mean SD df t-cal t-tab
CGT 72 90.54 16.47
CCT 64 127.89 34.76 134 8.097 1.96
P < 0.05 (Significant)

Table 3 revealed that the mean scores of CGT and CCT are 90.54 and 127.89
respectively, while the t-calculated is 8.097 and it is greater than the table value of 1.96.
This implies that there is significant difference between the vocational maturity of
students exposed to CGT and CCT. This implies that CCT improved the vocational
maturity of students better than CGT.

5. Discussion, Conclusion and Recommendation

The results of the study revealed a general low vocational maturity of the respondents
before treatment. This implies that majority of the participants scores were below the
high and moderately vocationally matured level. The findings clearly showed that
many students in Ekiti State secondary schools were not exposed to vocational
education as expected from the school counsellor. This finding is in line with the
observation of Vernon (2006), that many adolescent who completed secondary school to
join the workforce are not fulfilled in their expectations and aspirations concerning
career development. Meanwhile, according to Vernon, termination of education is not a
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crime but students should be helped to reach a level of self-understanding and self-
fulfillment concerning career expectations.
This study also revealed that the group guidance and counselling programme
package brought about improvement in the students vocational maturity. This finding
tends to establish the fact that if students are exposed to training in vocational
education, their vocational behaviour will improve. The students will also have better
orientation toward career choice and what information or exploration to make in
respect of career planning. The finding revealed percentage increased in all the
locations where training took place.
The findings of the study also established the fact that using career guidance
technique (CGT) will be of benefit to students in fostering vocational maturity. The
study also suggests that the use of career counselling technique (CCT) would lead to
better improvement in the vocational education. The results revealed that both
techniques improve the student’s vocational maturity. This finding agrees with
Egbochukwu (1998) on her investigation on the effect of three guidance techniques and
initial entry career maturity behaviour on student’s self-appraisal. The result of this
study negates the general belief that the act of giving vocational education does not
need a special training, that performance in school subjects is sufficient to make one
understand oneself toward career choice (Adeyemo, 2005).
Conclusively, the study revealed that group career guidance and counselling
techniques led to improvement in vocational maturity of students. Any of the guidance
and counselling technique helps in improving vocational maturity.
Vocational or career counselling should be made compulsory in all secondary
schools in Ekiti State. School authority should support their school counsellors to
incorporate into school programmes and curriculum the vocational education.

References

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Unpublished M.Ed. thesis, Ondo State University, Ado-Ekiti.
3. Alao, A. A. (1981). Career in counselling: Options available to the beginner.
Career Journal of the Nigerian Career Council, 6(2): 53-58.

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EFFECTS OF CAREER GUIDANCE AND CAREER COUNSELLING TECHNIQUES ON
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4. Egbochukwu, E. O. (1998). Effects of guidance techniques and initial/entry career

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Thomson Learning.

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