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RESEARCH PAPER
Investigation of factors influencing career choice among STEM undergraduates in Nigeria universities
1
School of Mathematics, Natural Science and Technology Education, Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, SOUTH AFRICA
Publication date: 2023-01-14
EURASIA J. Math., Sci Tech. Ed 2023;19(1):em2221
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Shortage of expertise in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields have
been reported over the years despite financial and social interventions by government through
policies and efforts of stakeholders. Remediating the afore stated requires a retrospection into
the factors responsible for learners’ choice and career orientation in STEM. As such, this study
investigated undergraduates’ choice of STEM field and career orientation employing descriptive
research. Undergraduates’ choice of career questionnaire with interpersonal, intrapersonal and
career outcome expectancy components formed the instrument with reliability index of 0.86.
Purposive sampling was employed in the selection of 200 undergraduates in STEM related
disciplines from public universities in Nigeria. Three research questions were raised to evaluate
the extent of agreement and variance to each of the factors while three hypotheses were
formulated and tested using one-way ANOVA among undergraduates’ choices. From the findings,
career outcome expectancy outclassed both interpersonal and intrapersonal factors as reason for
career choice. This study recommends that factors considered in this study have the possibility of
impacting how institutional policies, educational leaders, and stakeholders determine the kind of
support/intervention expected to buffer career choice among STEM students.
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