IMPACT OF VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE PROGRAM IN CAREER DECISION-MAKING IN THE SULTANATE OF OMAN

Abstract

ABSTRACT The concept of professional decision-making and professional self-efficacy takes a prominent position and is an important field of scientific research in the field of psychology. Since professional self-efficacy is positively related to the ability to make professional decisions, there is a necessity for individuals in general and students in particular for guidance programs designed to help them improve their professional self-efficacy and ability to make educational and professional decisions. This study aimed to identify the level of professional self-efficacy and the level of ability to make educational decisions among tenth-grade female students in the North Sharqiyah Governorate, and to investigate the effectiveness of a guidance program based on the (A.D.V.P) methodology in developing the ability to make educational decisions and improving professional self-efficacy among the study sample. The study sample consisted of 48 female students, 23 for the experimental group and 25 for the control group. The quasi-experimental approach was used in this study. The following tools were also used: a measure of educational decision-making ability, a measure of professional self-efficacy, in addition to a counseling program consisting of 14 counseling sessions that were applied only to the experimental group in the second semester of the educational year 2021/2022. After collecting the data and processing it statistically using arithmetic means, standard deviations, and a t-test, the results indicated that the level of ability to make educational decisions and the level of professional self-efficacy were average. The results also showed the effectiveness of the counseling program in developing the ability to make educational decisions and improving the level of professional self-efficacy, where statistically significant differences were found between the experimental and control groups in the level of ability to make educational decisions, and the level of professional self-efficacy in the post-measurement in favor of the experimental group. The results also showed that there were no statistically significant differences between the average scores of the experimental group members on the educational decision-making ability scale and the professional self-efficacy scale in the post and follow-up measurements, which indicates the continuity of the effectiveness of the counseling program. The study recommended that career guidance specialists benefit from the guidance program used in this study, and to test the program at different educational levels and categories.