Al-Hikmah University Journal

This study examined career choice correlates among secondary school students Esan West Local Government Area of Edo State. The correlational survey design was adopted in this study. The population of this study covered all the 3272 senior secondary school students in the 16 public secondary schools in Esan West Local Government Area of Edo State. The simple random sampling technique was adopted to select 10 schools from the study area. A further random selection of 20 students per school was drawn. The research instrument used for the collection of data was designed by the researcher. The content validity of this instrument was carried out by my project supervisor and two other lecturers in the Department of Guidance and Counselling. The reliability of the instrument of the test-retest method was used to determine the reliability of the instrument. The Chi-square (χ2) would be used to test hypothesis of the study. The hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The showed that there personal interest and parental decisions play influential role in determining students’ career choice. Moreso, students’ are more susceptible to the directives, suggestions and opinions of their peers on career matters. Consequently, peer pressure has significant influence on the vocational interests or career preference of school going children in secondary schools in Esan West Local Government Area of Edo State. It was recommended that parents should employ the assistance of professional career counsellors in helping their children to make intelligent career decisions.