THE INFLUENCE OF GUIDIANCE AND COUNSELLING SERVICES ON THE CAREER CHOICE OF STUDENTS IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of guidance and counseling services on the career choice of students in tertiary institutions, using the University of Benin, Benin City. In carrying out this research work, seven research questions were raised, research question one was answered while research questions 2-7 were hypothesized. The study is essentially correlation survey research design. The random sampling techniques was used to select a sample size which consisted of 300 students which were from five different faculties in the University of Benin. A questionnaire titled Influence of Guidance and Counselling Services on the Career Choices of Students in Tertiary Institutions (IGACSCCSTI) Adapted from Fischers and turners (1970) testing was used to elicit responses from the respondents. Descriptive Statistices was used to determine the reliabity of the instrument using the Cronbach’s Alpha reliability method. Mean and Standard Deviation was used to analyze the research questions, simple statistics, frequency and percentage was used to analyze the demographic characteristics of the respondents. Two sample independent t-test, one-way anova, one-way post hoc, pearson product moment correlation was used to analyze hypotheses one to five. Findings of the study reported that guidance and counseling services has an influence on the career choices made by students in tertiary institutions. The study revealed that there is a relationship parental educational background and the career choices made by student. The study also revealed that there is a relationship between parental expectations and the career choices made by student. The study also revealed that the relationship between the general influence of guidance and counseling services and the specific influence of the parental educational background is significant. The study also revealed that the relationship between the general influence of guidance and counseling services and the specific influence of parental expectations is not significant. The study also revealed that there is a relationship between age of students and the career choice that they make. It is expected that this study will provide a new perspective of how the students view guidance and counseling services and equip them with the knowledge of its importance and influence. The study recommended that government agencies should create place the guidance and counseling programme as part of the normal school curriculum because it will be a source of enlightenment to students at all levels in teaching them on making informed career decisions, parents should as a matter ix visit counseling clinics for knowledge as it will help them bridge the gap between their children and themselves and also assist them to develop coping mechanism.