The effects of a short term career education program on selected aspects of career maturity of rural senior high black youth

Abstract

This research was concerned with the effects of a six week short term career education program on self appraisal, knowledge about occupation information, goal selections, career planning, and career decision making as measured by the Career Maturity Inventory (CMI). Only the Competence Scale of the CMI was utilized in conducting this study.

This study was not a true experimental research design, instead it was a developmental study designed to establish baseline data for longitudinal studies. Although a true experimental design was not utilized in conducting the study, a treatment group of 53 students and a control group of 53 students were used. The short term career education program was developed specifically for rural Black youth taking into account economic, social, and geographical factors of the population. Non-commercial activities such as music adapted from the culture, multi-ethnic scrapbook, developed by the participants in the short term career education program, and career education activities related to the Black dialect spoken in the community were among some of the innovative and creative activities that attributed to the uniqueness of the short term career education program.

The results indicated no significant difference in the treatment group and control group on pretest~pretest comparison on the total competence scale of the CMI. A dependent t-test was performed on each of the five CMI subtests on the competence scale. There was a statistically significant difference in the group mean scores on the five CMI subtests for the treatment group after exposure to the short term career education program. The treatment group mean score indicated an improved gain score on each of the five CMI subtests of the competence scale. The following research questions were developed for each of the five subtests on the Competence Scale of the CMI. 1. Does a short term career education program improve the self appraisal of rural senior high Blacks as measured by Career Maturity Inventory (CMI)? 2. Does a short term career education program improve knowledge of career information of rural senior high Blacks as measured by the CMI? 3. Does a short term career education program improve goal selection skills of senior high Blacks as measured by the CMI? 4. Does a short term career education program improve career planning of rural senior high Blacks as measured by the CMI? 5. Does a short term career education program improve the career decision making skills of senior high Blacks as measured by the CMI?

For each of the five research questions the data revealed significant mean score difference gains for the treatment group at the .05 level. The control group experienced a decrease in posttest group mean score after the six week period.

Two instruments, the Career Maturity Inventory (Crites, 1973) and a Career Education Program Survey designed by.the researcher were utilized to analyze the data. The findings in this study suggested that the short term career education program was successful with the predominately rural Black population in Port Gibson, Claiborne County, Mississippi.