Modelling university students’ preferences and interconnectedness among various careers/occupations in Ghana

Figures & data

Figure 1. Conceptual framework showing the relationship between activities and their corresponding occupation in Ghana.

ALT TEXT: Twelve rectangular images used to represent six groups of activities leading to their specific six groups of occupations and the interrelationship between them.

Source: Authors’ constructs based on the review of literatureKey: ACTSC1 = Mechanical- Technological Activities, ACTSC2 = Mathematical Computation activities, ACTSC3 = Managerial- Clerical Activities, ACTSC4 = Science Research Activities, ACTSC5 = Persuasive- Enterprising Activities, and ACTSC6 = Fine Art activities.OCCSC1 = Mechanical- Technological Occupation, OCCSC2 = Mathematical Computation Occupation, OCCSC3 = Managerial- Clerical Occupation, OCCSC4 = Science Research Occupation, OCCSC5 = Persuasive- Enterprising Occupation, OCCSC6 = Fine Art Occupation.

Table 1. Demographic characteristics of respondents

Demographic characteristics	Frequency	Percent
Age
21–25 years	100	69.4
26–30 years	38	26.4
31–35 years	6	4.2
Total	144	100
Gender
Male	95	66.0
Female	49	34.0
Total Level 400	144 144	100 100

Source: Field data (2022)

Table 2. Construct reliability and validity

Constructs	Cronbach’s Alpha	rho_A	Composite Reliability	Average Variance Extracted (AVE)
ACTSC1	0.821	0.830	0.882	0.651
ACTSC2	0.840	0.848	0.893	0.677
ACTSC3	0.601	0.605	0.815	0.687
ACTSC4	0.872	0.872	0.901	0.568
ACTSC5	0.661	0.695	0.814	0.597
ACTSC6	0.833	0.850	0.881	0.599
OCCSC1	0.801	0.801	0.909	0.834
OCCSC2	0.775	0.795	0.855	0.597
OCCSC3	0.603	0.605	0.829	0.708
OCCSC4	0.875	0.885	0.909	0.668
OCCSC5	0.734	0.747	0.854	0.664
OCCSC6	0.898	0.905	0.919	0.620

Source: Field survey (2022)

Figure 2. An algorithm for confirmatory factor analysis

Twelve circle images representing six groups of activities and six occupations in Ghana and how they correlate with each other as well as the values for the specific items used to form the individual variables/occupations.

Source: Field survey (2022)Key: ACTSC1 = Mechanical- Technological Activities, ACTSC2 = Mathematical Computation activities, ACTSC3 = Managerial- Clerical Activities, ACTSC4 = Science Research Activities, ACTSC5 = Persuasive- Enterprising Activities, and ACTSC6 = Fine Art activities.OCCSC1 = Mechanical- Technological Occupation, OCCSC2 = Mathematical Computation Occupation, OCCSC3 = Managerial- Clerical Occupation, OCCSC4 = Science Research Occupation, OCCSC5 = Persuasive- Enterprising Occupation, and OCCSC6 = Fine Art Occupation.

Figure 3. Bootstrapping resultsfor path analysis.

Twelve circle images representing six groups of activities and six occupations with their specific items used to form them and the performance of these items or questions.

Source: Field survey (2022).

Table 3. Discriminant validity Fornell-Larcker criterion

	ACTSC1	ACTSC2	ACTSC3	ACTSC4	ACTSC5	ACTSC6	OCCSC1	OCCSC2	OCCSC3	OCCSC4	OCCSC5	OCCSC6
ACTSC1	0.807	0
ACTSC2	0.497	0.823	0
ACTSC3	0.245	0.153	0.829	0
ACTSC4	0.657	0.614	0.227	0.754	0
ACTSC5	0.325	0.298	0.450	0.485	0.773	0
ACTSC6	0.540	0.282	0.264	0.607	0.392	0.774	0
OCCSC1	0.734	0.466	0.155	0.616	0.304	0.506	0.813	0
OCCSC2	0.507	0.612	0.168	0.619	0.409	0.440	0.696	0.772	0
OCCSC3	0.302	0.242	0.335	0.403	0.477	0.380	0.469	0.610	0.841	0
OCCSC4	0.502	0.480	0.220	0.678	0.406	0.475	0.730	0.801	0.628	0.817	0
OCCSC5	0.285	0.310	0.356	0.405	0.599	0.341	0.383	0.614	0.720	0.551	0.815	0
OCCSC6	0.463	0.381	0.257	0.535	0.329	0.684	0.655	0.677	0.560	0.709	0.524	0.788

Source: Field survey (2022)Key: ACTSC1 = Mechanical- Technological Activities, ACTSC2 = Mathematical Computation activities, ACTSC3 = Managerial- Clerical Activities, ACTSC4 = Science Research Activities, ACTSC5 = Persuasive- Enterprising Activities, and ACTSC6 = Fine Art activities.OCCSC1 = Mechanical- Technological Occupation, OCCSC2 = Mathematical Computation Occupation, OCCSC3 = Managerial- Clerical Occupation, OCCSC4 = Science Research Occupation, OCCSC5 = Persuasive- Enterprising Occupation, and OCCSC6 = Fine Art Occupation.

Table 4. Inner VIF values for testing for multicollinearity among the variables

	OCCSC1	OCCSC2	OCCSC3	OCCSC4	OCCSC5	OCCSC6
ACTSC1	1.000
ACTSC2		1.277
ACTSC3			1.029
ACTSC4				1.194
ACTSC5					1.197
ACTSC6						1.132
OCCSC1		1.277
OCCSC2			1.029
OCCSC3				1.194
OCCSC4					1.197
OCCSC5						1.132
OCCSC6						1.000

Source: Field survey (2022)Key: 1. ACTSC1 = Mechanical- Technological Activities, ACTSC2 = Mathematical Computation activities, ACTSC3 = Managerial- Clerical Activities, ACTSC4=Science Research Activities, ACTSC5= Persuasive- Enterprising Activities, and ACTSC6= Fine Art activities.2. OCCSC1 = Mechanical- Technological Occupation, OCCSC2 = Mathematical Computation Occupation, OCCSC3 = Managerial-Clerical Occupation, OCCSC4 = Science Research Occupation, OCCSC5 = Persuasive- Enterprising Occupation, and OCCSC6 = Fine Art Occupation.

Figure 4. AQ10PLS algorithm for allitems measuring the constructsof the study and their performance

Source: Field survey (2022)

Table 5. Path coefficients

	R Square					R Square Adjusted
OCCSC1	0.539					0.535
OCCSC2	0.589					0.584
OCCSC3	0.427					0.419
OCCSC4	0.610					0.604
OCCSC5	0.472					0.465
OCCSC6	0.564					0.557
	Beta	Sample Mean (M)	Standard Deviation (STDEV)	T Statistics (|O/STDEV|)	P Values	Confidence Intervals		f Square
						2.5%	97.5%
1. ACTSC1 -> OCCSC1	0.734	0.737	0.047	15.771	0.000	0.630	0.815	1.167
2. ACTSC2 -> OCCSC2	0.367	0.369	0.079	4.654	0.000	0.198	0.517	0.257
3. ACTSC3 -> OCCSC3	0.240	0.246	0.062	3.877	0.000	0.124	0.359	0.097
4. ACTSC4 -> OCCSC4	0.508	0.509	0.059	8.661	0.000	0.397	0.620	0.553
5. ACTSC5 -> OCCSC5	0.450	0.464	0.086	5.230	0.000	0.296	0.623	0.321
6 ACTSC6 -> OCCSC6	0.572	0.580	0.057	10.012	0.000	0.467	0.686	0.662
7. OCCSC1 -> OCCSC2	0.524	0.526	0.071	7.378	0.000	0.380	0.672	0.525
	Beta	Sample Mean (M)	Standard Deviation (STDEV)	T Statistics (|O/STDEV|)	P Values	Confidence Intervals		f Square
8. OCCSC2 -> OCCSC3	0.569	0.570	0.058	9.758	0.000	0.443	0.668	0.550
9. OCCSC3 -> OCCSC4	0.423	0.424	0.059	7.133	0.000	0.303	0.531	0.384
10 OCCSC4 -> OCCSC5	0.368	0.360	0.084	4.407	0.000	0.191	0.512	0.214
11. OCCSC5 -> OCCSC6	0.329	0.330	0.066	4.968	0.000	0.178	0.463	0.219

Source: Field survey (2022) **p < 0.000, *p < 0.05 supportedKey: ACTSC1 = Mechanical- Technological Activities, ACTSC2 = Mathematical Computation activities, ACTSC3 = Managerial- Clerical Activities, ACTSC4 = Science Research Activities, ACTSC5 = Persuasive- Enterprising Activities, and ACTSC6 = Fine Art activities.OCCSC1 = Mechanical- Technological Occupation, OCCSC2 = Mathematical Computation Occupation, OCCSC3 = Managerial- Clerical Occupation, OCCSC4 = Science Research Occupation, OCCSC5 = Persuasive- Enterprising Occupation, and OCCSC6 = Fine Art Occupation.