Vocational career decision-making of Finnish upper secondary school students

Abstract

The aim of this research was to clarify the characteristics of Finnish upper secondary school students as vocational decision-makers. The focus was especially on what skills and competences were related to decision-making at different phases of the decision-making process. Altogether, 216 upper secondary school students filled in the e-questionnaire. The clustering of generic competences and dimensions of the career decision-making profiles revealed three different kinds of decision-makers: followers, cautious decision-makers, and goal-oriented decision-makers. Even though the division into clusters in relation to decision-making was mixed, characteristics of these decision-maker groups will help understanding of personal features that promote or delay adolescent vocational decision-making.

Keywords:

• vocational career
• decision-making
• upper secondary school student
• high school student

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements to Professor Itamar Gati who accepted the translated version of the Career Decision-Making Profiles (CDMP) questionnaire and gave us permission to use it as an instrument in our research.

Notes

1. d = Cohen’s estimation of effect size.