Strategic factors that influence students’ career choice in Kenyan Universities: a study of United States International University

A Project Submitted to the Chandaria School of Business in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Master of Business Administration (MBA)The purpose of the study was to assess the strategic factors that influence students’ career choices in Kenyan universities with USIU being the case study. The study was guided by the following research questions: To what extent do environmental factors influence career choice among students in Kenyan Universities? To what extent do factors of opportunity influence making career choice among students in Kenyan universities? And to what extent do factors of personality influence career choice among students in Kenyan universities? This study used a descriptive research design, i.e. this research design involved observing and describing the behavior of a subject without influencing it in any way. The target population under the study was the USIU students. Simple random sampling technique was employed in this study. A sample of 100 respondents was selected randomly. This technique allowed the researcher to ensure that each case in the population had an equal chance of being included in the sample. Data collection tool that was used to collect the relevant information needed for analysis was the questionnaire. To ensure effective and efficient data analysis process, the data was coded, sorted and analyzed using regression analysis in the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). Presentation of data was in bar charts. The findings regarding the first research question on the extent to which environmental factors influence students’ career choices in Kenyan universities, showed that Students’ career choices were influenced by environmental factors. A significant percentage of the respondents agreed that their career choices were influenced by environmental factors while a portion of the respondents remained neutral. The findings regarding the second research question on the extent to which opportunity factors influenced Students’ career choices in Kenyan universities, the majority of the respondents felt that opportunity factors play a major role in influencing their career choices. Finally in regard to the third research question on the extent to which the personality factors influence the students’ career choices in Kenyan universities, indicated that the career choices of many respondents are influenced by the personality factors. Overwhelming respondents agreed that personality factors played a major role in influencing their career choices. The conclusion of the study was that environmental factors play a role in the career choices of Kenyan universities’ students. On opportunity and personality factors, the study concluded that they are very essential in influencing students’ career choices since majority of respondents overwhelmingly agreed that it does influence their career choices. The study recommended that the government and more specific ministry of education, teachers and parents should provide enabling environmental factors to students so that they can make informed decisions when making career choice. In relation to opportunity factors, these are factors that can be created and they need to be enhanced to enable students make wise choices in their career, these lies entire on the hands of parents, teachers and the government and in regards to personality, the study recommends that students be let to choose careers that interest them without much interferences from their parents and teachers. The study finally recommends for further studies to be done on the same topic with a different university as the case study