Career Preference amongst Year 10 Students in Malaysia: A Pilot Study

Career choice exerts a profound influence on an individual’s life. In Malaysia, a Year 10 student has to decide whether to take up arts or science stream and this in turn influences their career aspirations. It is believed that during these formative years, this decision is influenced by various factors.
Objective: The present pilot study was conducted to determine the influences of various factors like age, gender, location, maternal and paternal occupation and their education levels on the career preferences of Year 10 students in Malaysia.
Methods: This analytical cross-sectional study was carried out by using the questionnaire method. The career preferences were categorised into arts or science pathways depending on the interests showed by students. These career preferences were then compared with the various factors and correlation and regression analysis was performed. The differences were analysed by chi square test and independent T-test using Epi Info Version 7.0.
Results: This study involved forty seven Year 10 students. Age and maternal education level were found to be significantly influencing the preference towards the Arts or Science career pathway. The younger students preferred the Science stream (P = 0.0002). The children, whose mothers were highly educated showed more preference towards Arts stream (P = 0.035). The other factors were not statistically significant in their association.
Conclusion: It is likely that children at a younger age are influenced towards the science stream due to social attitude towards people with technical background. Mothers with higher education level might be discouraging their children towards the more technical career choices due to occupational stress.