Assessment of Guidance and Counselling Services Offerred to Students on Career Choice in Secondary Schools in Nakuru Municipality, Kenya

Abstract

Success in life is largely dependent on an individual`s wishes and aspirations. Guidance and Counselling comes in handy to assist students in schools to have a clear focus on their aspirations. This is mainly because students lead a life full of excitement, more especially on their future careers. Guidance provides direction on the subjects to take before a student makes a choice of a future career. This will make it possible for students to make a selection of market oriented and competitive careers. The objective of this study is to make sure that students understand the need to make career selection early in life when they are in form 3 to make sure that they don`t take life for granted since they can be frustrated midway in their career choice and development. The future of a student`s success in life depends on the type of career choice he makes early in life. In this study, forms 3 and 4 students (3<sup>rd</sup> and 4<sup>th</sup> grade of secondary school cycle in Kenya) in Nakuru Municipality were sampled. This was an ideal area of study as the population is multicultural and urban. Stratified random sampling was used in this study to select 120 students. Teacher counsellors were purposely selected. Questionnaires were the instruments used to collect data. Through data analysis with the use of SPSS the findings revealed that lack of satisfactory and effective career services offered in schools led to poor career choices and hence  frustrations among school leavers. The study recommends provision of satisfactory resources in career guidance and counselling departments for effective service delivery, extra training for career teachers to be current with changing life styles, teacher counsellors` workload to be considered for reduction and an emphasis on careers in great demand in the market. School leavers should be assisted to become job creators rather than job seekers.

Keywords: Career, Guidance and Counselling, Career Counselling, Career counsellor.