Identifying career tendencies: an exploratory study of university students in Oman

Abstract

The ever-increasing rate of failure among undergraduate students in universities is a major issue in most Arab countries. Their inability to perform effectively after they graduate from the universities might reflect the inadequate quality of education provided by the university. Little that we know, quality education is not always the main cause of failure among students. Hence, this study examined the sex differences in career tendencies using the Holland test, and the associations between them and specialty of subjects among universities students in Oman. In total 533 students (236 men and 297 women) with the mean age of 22.7 were assessed at Dhofar University in Oman. Male students recorded a significantly higher score on Realistic career tendency, while female students have significantly higher scores on Artistic career tendency. Female students also recorded significantly higher scores on Social career tendency compared to male students. Parental educational levels were significantly and positively associated with Realistic, Investigative, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional career tendencies, but were not associated with Artistic career tendency. The results also show that the students in engineering specialization are more likely to have Investigative and Social career tendencies than students in Applied and Humanity subjects. On the contrary, the students in applied specialization are less likely to have Social career tendency, but more likely to have conventional career tendency. Besides, the result shows that students’ specialization in Humanity and Applied have negative significant correlation with family income and age factors, respectively. The result of the study is expected to contribute to the current body of knowledge regarding the association of career tendency with demographic factors and student’s specialization, specifically in the context of tertiary education in Oman.