Gender and Grade interaction on career decision factors among South African high school students

This study sought to investigative the interactive effects of grade and gender of high school students on the factors impacting their career decisions and whether the main effects were significant. Literature review is used to identify relevant factors which are then incorporated into the design of the survey instrument. The questionnaire is administered via a postal survey and information was collected from 1091 high school students in the Western Cape Province. Survey response data is subjected to descriptive statistics and subsequently parametric tests and univariate analysis of covariance (ANOVA). The findings suggest that there are significant differences among grades on the importance of career decision factors with students in Grade 11 rating the following factors of salary, working conditions and life long learning higher than those in Grades 10 and 12. On the other hand students in Grade 12 or "matric" reported "skills shortage" as the factor influencing them to enter the Construction Industry while those in Grade 10 were more influenced by "family tradition". The study found that that across the ten career decision factors examined, a statistically significant Gender x Grade interaction was found only in three of them as follows: Salary [ F(2, 1085) = 4.752, p < 0.05], Opportunities for Promotion [ F(2, 1085) = 4.222, p < 0.05], and Lifelong Learning Opportunities [F (2, 1085) = 3.720, p < 0.05], reflecting that whereas the females and males did not differ according to the gender, the females in 11th grade (Mean Score = 1.383) scored significantly lower than the males (Mean Score = 1.3502) for the Salary factor, and Lifelong Learning with females (Mean Score = 1.698) and the Males (Mean Score = 1.620). The research limitation of the study is that the cross-sectional data made it difficult to generalise the findings. The findings are of particular importance to high school teachers and guidance counsellors who influence career choices amongst high school students in encouraging students in the final grade or "matric" in choosing the correct career within the Construction Industry irrespective of the grade or gender. The study has originality in that there are few studies which try to investigate the interacting effects (Gender * Grade) on the career decision-making process of high school students in an African environment. This study contributes to bridging that gap.