CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Schooling days is one time where a youth’s mind is most susceptible to influence, ideas and values which alter the way a person thinks, acts and perceives things (Oyebode, 2010). This is a particularly important moment which will affect one’s own decision-making processes and career choices. Thus, parents are always assumed to play significant role in shaping and influencing how their school-going children make wise career decisions, which inevitably, impact their future career choice. From another perspective, parents are also considered influential which in turn means they also have the ability to influence their children’s future. As students are invariably impressionable, their decisions could be very much influenced by their parents, but peers‟ influence on their choice of career should also not be underestimated (Oto, 2014).

Career may be defined as the progress and actions taken by a person throughout a lifetime, specially related to that person‘s occupations. A career is often composed of the jobs held, titles earned and work accomplished over a long period of time, rather than just referring to one‘s position (Knowles, 2014). (Fayomi, 2012) defines career as an occupation or profession, especially one requiring special training, followed as one‘s lifework. It also defines career as a person‘s progress or general course of action through a phase of life, as in some profession or undertaking (Head, 2015).

Choosing a career is an extremely important decision that impacts an individual‘s entire future. Career exploration is defined as the extent to which possible careers are researched and considered. Research by Breakwell G. and Beardsell (2013), has suggested that exploring career options before committing to a career increases future career success and satisfaction. However, the choice of career by an individual is influenced by various factors and among them parental and social influence is very important. Each individual undertaking the process is influenced by many factors, including the context in which they live, friends and peer group and parental socio-economic background and status (Calkins, 2013). 

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