Sources of Career Guidance on Choice of Study Prograsmmes by Female Students in Institutions Under TEVETA in Lusaka Province, Zambia

This paper is an extract from an ongoing doctoral study aimed at exploring sources of career guidance on the choices of study programmes by Female students in Institutions under TEVETA in Lusaka province, Zambia. The study used an intrinsic case study research design. The population of the study was all first-year female students at one of the TEVETA accredited institutions in Lusaka province. Typical case purposive sampling was used to select one institution out of the four in the province. A sample of 20 first year female students was used in the study and was selected using the typical case purposive sampling procedure. Semi structured interview and non-participant observation guides were used to collect data. Trustworthiness of the data collected was assured through rigorous adherence to credibility, transferability, dependability, confirm ability, and flexibility quality criteria of qualitative study. The findings indicate that the sources of career guidance on the choices of study programmes by female students at the TEVETA accredited institution included family, school and peers. Among the three, family was the leading source of career guidance in choices of study programmes by the first year female students. This was attributed to the fact that most of the students went into their senior grades at secondary school with predetermined career choices from interactions with their family members. The results imply that while schools are sources of career guidance for students in tertiary institutions, there are other sources including family. It is therefore recommended that apart from school career guidance, families and peers must be considered as sources of career guidance in students