Abstract

The study focused on the societal influence on vocational career choice of senior secondary school students in Afijio Local Government Oyo, Oyo State. To achieve the objectives of the study, two research questions were developed and answered while one null hypothesis guided the study. The study adopted a survey research design. The population of the study consists of 1500 secondary school students in Afijio Local Government Area of Oyo State. 120 respondents were sampled using a simple random sampling technique. Data was collected through a self-designed questionnaire. The instrument was validated by three research experts and subjected to a reliability test, and a coefficient of 0.82 was obtained. This showed that the instrument is highly reliable. The questionnaire was administered to 120 respondents, and all the instruments were retrieved and subjected to the analysis. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer research questions while t-test statistics were used to test hypothesis at a 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that parent and peer groups have influence on the vocational career choice of secondary school students. Based on these findings, it is recommended among others that, though parental involvement in career is important but is good to consider the interest and ability of the students before asking them to choose any career and the school management need to start giving proper orientation to the students so as to them in selecting appropriate career and this could be achieved through the school counsellor.