The career consciousness of the first-year college students and the effects of the career education program

This study investigated the features and career consciousness of the first-year college students. We determined the necessary content of the career education program and examined how the program influenced the students' career perspectives. We performed a questionnaire before and after the career education course entitled "Introduction to Career”. Over the three-year period, total of 1737 students took the course and answered the questionnaire. The results showed that, among the basic skills considered necessary to work as adult members of the society, the students felt they were weakest in “action” but were strongest in "team work”. The results also showed that more students felt they had a strength in the ability to form relationships with others, but less students felt they had a strength in the ability to influence others. Furthermore, the results indicated that, by taking the career education course, the students felt that 1. they had more opportunities to consider their careers, 2. they had clearer career goals, 3. they had more specific objectives on their college lives, and 4. they felt less anxious about their futures. Finally, while the results showed that the career education program had an overall favorable effect on the students in all 9 departments surveyed, the degrees of the effects were different among different departments. This suggests that each department needs to modify the content of the career education program according to their students' needs