The profiling of aspiration and interest towards STEM and TVET careers among Malaysian school students

Abstract

Education system in Malaysia continues to develop and expands to meet the demands of 21st century that strongly advocates the use of technology in teaching and learning. As such, basic education gives greater emphasis on two fields; STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) and TVET (Technology & Vocational Education Training) in order to encourage school students to pursue higher education in STEM and TVET fields; however, the aspiration and interest to pursuit higher education in both fields are still low among school students. The purpose of this quantitative study was to identify profiling of career aspiration and interest of Malaysian school students in both fields. Using Career Exploration Test adapted from Self Directed Search (SDS) with 90 items to evaluate six types of career interests: Realistic (R), Investigative (I), Artistic (A), Social (S), Enterprising (E) and Conventional (C), 138 students, aged 13 years old, from a particular secondary school in Selangor state were sampled as respondents. Data was descriptively and inferentially analysed. Findings showed that the pattern of dominant traits of interest were Social (S), Investigative (I), and Realistic (R). In general, there was no difference between female and male students. However, for Realistic (R) dimension, majority of male students were dominant as compared to female students. Further findings also showed the existence of high congruency between aspiration and interest for career dimensions of Social (S), Investigative (I) and Realistic (R). This study has implications for schools and related stakeholders to conduct career development programs especially to nurture the interests among students in STEM and TVET from the early stage of secondary schooling years.