The Influence of Home Factors and Parental Characteristics on Learners’ Career Choices in a South African Secondary School

Abstract Many youths complain about mistaken career choices even at the point of graduating from higher education institutions in spite of career advice provided by the school and the government. This article investigated the impact that home factors and parental characteristics have on learners’ career choices in a secondary school in Mamelodi East, Tshwane District, South Africa. The study made use of a qualitative design. Data were collected from a purposive sample of eight black grade 11 learners and five parents by means of focus group and individual semi-structured interviews. The data collected were analysed using Atlas-ti with appropriate coding that gave rise to five themes. Two of the themes, home factors and parental characteristics, are discussed. The findings show that, irrespective of parental socio-economic status and educational levels, parents derived satisfaction from motivating and assisting their children with the view to improving their future career options. Many learners, however, were ill-informed of the range of career choices available when they made decisions about their educational and occupational future since their parents lacked appropriate information necessary to advise them.