The perception of career barriers among South African university students

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: It has become evident over the past several years that there are a substantial number and avariety of career-related barriers that individuals perceive and experience in theworkplace and that consequently interfere with their career development. Up to date, avast amount of studies have investigated and reported on this topic world wide, yet littleresearch has been gathered regarding the career-related barriers that South Africancitizens, especially students from higher educational institutions, perceive or experience.The aim and purpose of this quantitative research study was therefore to explore thediverse barrier perceptions and experiences of South African university students bymeans of determining the degree to which a range of internal and external barriers wouldhinder or has hindered their career development and whether these barriers (a) vary bygender, (b) vary by race/ethnicity and (c) vary by course level or academic year of study.In order to meet the study objectives and answer the three primary research hypotheses(a, b and c), respondents were invited via electronic mail to participate in a once-offonline survey which consisted of a demographic questionnaire and the Career BarriersInventory-Revised (CBI-R) (Swanson, Daniels, & Tokar, 1996).The results of the three primary research hypotheses indicated that the nature or type ofcareer-related barriers perceived and experienced by the sample of South Africanuniversity students (N = 1897) differed significantly among gender, racial-ethnic groupsand course level or academic year of study. Significant gender differences were found onall 13 CBI-R scales, racial-ethnic differences on 9 of the 13 CBI-R scales (both assessedby means of a one-way independent ANOVA) and course level or academic year of studydifferences on 3 of the 13 CBI-R scales (measured by Spearman's correlationcoefficient). The present research study therefore revealed descriptive and exploratorybaseline data regarding the perceived career barriers among South African universitystudents and clearly demonstrated the CBI-R's validity and applicability in the SouthAfrican student context. Awareness of these students' barrier perceptions can be a usefultool in planning and developing future intervention strategies for coping with andovercoming obstacles to their career progress.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University