Abstract
To choose a career is not an easy endeavour. It requires research and a well-thought-out process. During the process of choosing a career, it is vital to take into account various factors such as interests, values and goals.
Using a generic qualitative approach, this study investigated the factors that influence young adults' career choices in South Africa from the viewpoint of 21 young adults through semi-structured interviews. Employing a thematic analysis eight themes were identified which included career counselling, internal driving force, family expectation, external driving force, social status, financial implication, role models and role of teachers in career choice.
The findings suggest that there are various factors that influence young adults’ career choices, which differ from person to person. Participants were of almost the same occurrences among career counselling, internal driving forces, external forces, and family expectations. Significant drops started appearing in social influence and financial implications with role models and teachers’ perspectives having the lowest frequencies in determining the student’s career path.
The findings have implications for how career counsellors help learners to make career choices as well as satisfaction with those choices.
Keywords: career counselling, career choice, parents, cultural background, role models