The biggest worries in adolescents may be their career paths. Adolescents are wondering about their aptitudes and interests, what kinds of jobs are available in our nation, which one is appropriate for them, and also interested in finding out what to...
The biggest worries in adolescents may be their career paths. Adolescents are wondering about their aptitudes and interests, what kinds of jobs are available in our nation, which one is appropriate for them, and also interested in finding out what to prepare for the job of their choice.
The reality of our nation’s education, however, is focused on standardized education for college entrance. Parents are interested in grades rather than curious about what the adolescents are interested in or what they can do well. Adolescents enter college that is appropriate for their grades without knowing what they can do well and what is right for their aptitude because they are tied up with grades and tests. Even in college, they are focused on building up their curriculum vitae for future employment rather than finding out their aptitudes and interests. If they choose their job and work based on their curriculum vitae they have been building, they may not be able to adapt to their job and suffer because the job does not fit their aptitude.
The purpose of the present study was to comparatively analyze the current status of career and occupational maturity of adolescents, and the effects of social backgrounds (capital) on career maturity, and find out and compare what activities help choosing career and what the adolescents are actually doing. In addition, the actual status of adolescents’ part-time jobs and the difference in motivation for having a part-time job and legal protection according to the adolescents’ social capital were investigated.
The analysis of the effects of social backgrounds (capital) on career maturity revealed differences in career maturity depending on the economic capital. It was found that the higher the economic level, the higher the maturity on future occupation. Social capital also revealed that the more friends one has, the higher the career maturity is. In case of cultural capital, the group that does concrete cultural activities showed higher career maturity than the group that does simple cultural activities such as playing games or watching TV.
Among the activities that are related to career path, the most frequent activities adolescents did were, in the order from the highest to the lowest, taking aptitude test, reading books or magazines related to career, and taking career counseling. Active and specific activities showed low performance level. The adolescents recognized, however, that active and specific activities such as vocational training and onsite field training will help in determining their career, while activities such as aptitude test and counselling will provide the least help.
They think that the activities they do most in reality will not influence their career decision. These activities were determined not to have significant influences on career decision.
Regarding adolescents’ part-time job experiences, 15% of the entire respondents had an experience of part-time job, and they had part-time job twice on average.
For those who had part-time jobs, the types of their jobs were mostly serving or delivering jobs at general restaurants such as Bunsikjeom (a noodle snack bar), followed by serving at a café or distributing flyers. The results above show that the types of part-time jobs these adolescents took were limited.
The motivation for adolescents taking a part-time job is to make spending money. Taking a part-time job for experience was 1/3 of all respondents.
The significance of the present study lies in the fact that it investigated more practical factors that influence the career maturity by comparing the difference in career maturity by social backgrounds (capital), and by the motivation of taking part-time job.