Course Preference of College Entrants Basis for New Program Offerings

One of the significant decisions in lifeone must make is choosing a course to take in college forits effect on the person is a lifetime. Often, students arefaced with a lot of options and considerations before theycan finally make up their minds. Along with these factorsis the prevalent concern on degrees offered byuniversities and colleges, which are becoming irrelevantto the demands of companies or industries. This study isanchored on the Social Cognitive Career Theory(SCCT), which emphasizes that career development hasseveral interrelated aspects. The study focused on 486college entrants which was randomly selected to identifythe course preference as basis for new course offering ofthe different departments of the College. Thisundertaking utilized a descriptive research design, whichidentified the profile of the respondents’ gender, schooltype, and track/strand. Further, factors affecting coursepreferences were determined, and later named the topthree preferred courses of the respondents. Resultsrevealed that Career Opportunities, Personal Interestand Passion and Skill are the leading factors that affecttheir career choice. Data further showed that BSPsychology, BS Preschool Education, BS ComputerEngineering, and BS Hospitality Management areamong the top course choices. These results reflect thatrespondents are fully aware of the in-demand courses,thus opt for those courses as it opens a lot of careeropportunities for them after college. Emphasis onpossible career opportunities, significance of personalinterest, passion and skill in the career programs givento students during career orientation and advocacycampaigns are highly recommended.

Keywords – Career opportunities, In-demandcourses, Industry-academe partnership, Senior highschool, Career Programs