Investigating the factors influencing career preference amongst prospective and recent graduates in Ghana
Date
2014-04
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Abstract
Companies are increasingly looking to employ the best talents to keep
up in a rapidly changing business environment and to drive their strategies to
achieve long-term growth. As a result of the high cost of recruiting from the
mature and already existing labour pool to meet this need, many companies
are reaching into the graduate employment market to recruit high potential
fresh talent that can be groomed to occupy key positions. As the graduate
employment market becomes more and more competitive each year, it has
become important for employers to possess a good understanding of what
goes into the decision-making of young talents when considering which
employer to work for. To this end, this research sought to understand the
factors that influence career preferences amongst this young talent pool. The
focus was on prospective and recent university graduates.
Through the use of online surveys, the study sampled responses from 121
final year students and young workers who have graduated from universities
within the last 3 years. The study also made use of secondary data from
articles, journals, books and the internet with Donald Super's career model
serving as the theoretical framework
From the findings, career preferences of the target group are influence by
a combination of different factors. This reiterates Donald Super's career
model that self-concept changes over time and as such, career preferences
are also likely to change from time to time depending on the stage of a
person's life. Subsequently, the factors that were found to be very important
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for most respondents were: potential for career growth, the suitability of a
career for the individual's personality, talent and ability, the expected
monetary compensations, passion and interest for the particular industry as
well as the opportunity to be innovative and creative
Description
Thesis submitted to the Department of Business Administration, Ashesi University College, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, April 2014
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Keywords
Ghana, career preferences, graduates