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1877-0428 © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under
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doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.308
ScienceDirect
PSIWORLD 2013
Career counseling needs for students – a comparative study
Sorina Chircu*
Universitatea Politehnica, Bucuresti, Romania
Abstract
To be efficient these counseling services must start from the real needs of the target group, thus investigating the real counseling
needs must be a priority. The present paper aims to emphasize the results of the career counseling needs among students from
Politehnica University of Bucharest. We chose a comparative approach of the counseling needs of students from study years I,II
and III and we estimate that these career counseling needs differ from one study year to the other. The research methods used in
this sense are document analysis and the survey-based research, the sample being composed of 962 students.
© 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of PSI WORLD 2013 and their Guest Editors: Dr Mihaela Chraif, Dr Cristian
V
asile and Dr Mihai Anitei.
Keywords: career counseling, technical students, career decision , counseling needs, labour market
1. Introduction
In the technical higher education system, the career counseling need represents a reality, an ever rising number of
students manifesting confusion regarding the choice of the correct university to attend as well as choosing a
profession in accordance to their education. The career counseling field is in a debut phase in the technical
university system and tries to consolidate its statute through diverse actions of marketing and correct informing of
students about the purpose and importance of this type of counseling (Chircu, 2012). We believe a marketing
strategy of career counseling and orientation services in the technical university system will have the awaited effect
only if we have a solid knowledge of the target group, the students. In this sense, identifying the career counseling
needs of students represents an important aspect, because it allows the creation of counseling programs in
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +4-0733-306-117
E-mail address: chircusorina@gmail.com
© 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Romanian Society of Applied Experimental Psychology.
550 Sorina Chircu / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 ( 2014 ) 549 – 553
accordance with the observed needs, which will enlarge the popularity and utility of counseling services among
students.
2. The design of research
Th
e purpose of the paper was to observe comparatively the career counseling needs of students from year I,II,III
for the adequate development of counseling programs.
The research objective comprised the career counseling needs analysis of students from Politehnica University in
Bucharest. Depending on the characteristics of the sample, we have selected as independent variable the factors of
the educational environment (
Chelcea, 2004) – the share of students from years I, III and as a dependent variable the
career counseling needs of students. The hypothesis of research is that we expect that the career counseling needs of
students from the technical university system to be different from one year to the next across the three study years.
For a level of confidence of 95% and an error margin of 3%, the representative sample was formed of 962 (of which
396 students from year I, 287 students from year II, 279 students from year III).
Table 1. The distribution on faculties of year I, II, III students comprised in the sample:
Faculty
Total students Percentage of sample Number of surveyed
students
Year I Year II
Year
III Year I Year II Year III Year I
Year
II Year III
Engineering and Management of
Technological Systems 565 355 325 14,11% 12,36% 11,85% 77 38 38
Energetic Engineering 435 267 252 10,86% 9,3% 9,19% 44 24 23
Industrial Chemistry 216 116 117 5,39% 4,8% 4,26% 11
55
Transport 459 371 367 11,46% 12,91% 13,38% 50 43 49
E
lectronics 543 460 469 13,56% 16% 17,17% 73 66 60
Automatics 510 449 447 12,74% 15,63% 16,3% 61 60 59
Mechanical Engineering 345 224 192 8,61% 7,8% 7% 29 17 13
Electric Engineering 297 165 185 7,41% 5,74% 6,74% 22
9 12
E
ngineering of biotechnical systems 200 126 95 4,99% 4,38% 3,46%
95 5
Aerospace Engineering 150 132 114 3,74% 4,6% 4,15% 56 5
Science and Engineering of Materials 204 163 126 5,10% 5,67% 4,6% 10 95
Applied Sciences 79 44 52 2,03% 1,53% 1,9% 55 5
The research methods used where survey-based research and social documents analysis. In our study the
analysis of documents comprised statistical data regarding the number of students in Politehnica University of
Bucharest, data necessary for the above sampling.
The survey regarding identifying the career counseling needs of year I, II, III students was taken and adapted
from the survey used by the Education Sciences Institute in the research „Permanent counseling” (2008) having a
number of 12 items that aim to identify and analyze students’ opinion regarding whether students are aware of the
Career Counseling and Orientation center in the university they study in (Politehnica, Bucharest); students’ degree
of participation to the individual/group counseling programs; The modality of making counseling programs;
Analysis of students’ career counseling and orientation needs; Information about life while in University;
Information regarding the labour market; Sources of information about professions and training opportunities for
students; the decision to do a profession after graduating university and the reasons of the choice; the wish to
practice in the field that they study in; the design of an ideal counseling office.
Due to reasons regarding economy of this paper, we will present the results processed for 4 of the items that we
consider relevant to the students’ attitude regarding the counseling services and the career counseling needs of
respondents.
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Sorina Chircu / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 ( 2014 ) 549 – 553
3. Results presentation, interpretation and analysis
Investigated students mention the following types of needs regarding career counseling:
Table 2. Analysis of career counseling and orientation needs of students
What students want to find out in a career counseling session Study year
Total Year I Year II Year III
1. Information about jobs in Romania
2. Information about jobs abroad
3. Study opportunities abroad
4. Study continuation opportunities
5. Techniques of job hunting
6. Information about self-awareness
7. Career planning strategies
102,96 218,12 234,36 555,44
126,72 152,11 125,55 404,38
138,6 209,51 192,51 540,62
194,04 243,95 237,15 675,14
174,24 209,51 209,25 593
142,56 132,02 167,4 441,98
158,4 143,5 189,72 491,62
Year 1 students, present as a dominant need identifying and informing regarding the study continuation
opportunities (masters and PhD), which indicates an intense orientation towards study starting from the first
university year. In study year II this need grows considerably, remaining predominant in year III students that have
very little until graduation and are interested in study continuation. The need to learn job hunting techniques (editing
a CV, letter of intention, the employment interview) is itself priority among year I students, reaching a significant
growth in year II but remaining constant as frequency in year III. For year I students, the need for learning career
planning strategies is a big one, more reduced for year II students, and in year III study becomes less priority. The
need that showed the highest progress rate from one year to the other is the one regarding information regarding jobs
in Romania.
Table 3. Analysis of career counseling and orientation needs of students (descriptive statistics)
N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
Counseling Needs - Year 1 396 1 7 5,21 1,018
Counseling Needs - Year 1 287 1 7 4,19 0,974
Counseling Needs - Year 1 279 1 7 3,05 1, 293
Valid N (listwise) 962
In table 3 we can observe the discontinuity of the counseling needs mean from the initial test in year I to the latter
in year III – the value of the mean 5,21 is modified in year III with the value 3,05 for a standard mean of 1,018,
respectively 1,293. Our hypothesis is confirmed.
Taking into account the fact that the need that registered the highest progress rate from one study year to the next
is the one related to information regarding the labor market in Romania, we are interested to see the exact
information students want to know regarding the labor market.
Table 4 - Analysis of information needs regarding the labor market
552 Sorina Chircu / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 ( 2014 ) 549 – 553
Information needs regarding the labor market Study year
Total Year I Year III
Work conditions
Salaries
Responsabilies
Part-time jobs
Legislation
150,48 180,81 142,29 473,58
138,6 215,25 237,15 591
158,4 111,93 142,29 412,62
190,08 143,5 195,3 528,88
83,16 51,66 27,9 162,72
Regarding information about the labor market, we can see a grown interest towards finding a part-time job for
year I students; year II students offer a bigger importance to information regarding
salaries and work conditions,
and year III students are interested mostly in salaries and finding a job.
In table 5 we can observe the discontinuity
of the labor market information mean – the value of the mean 4,85 is modified in year II with the value 2,94 and in
year III the value is 3,28 for a standard deviation of 0,818, respectively 1,172 and 1,219. Our hypothesis is
confirmed.
Table 5 - Analysis of information needs regarding the labor market (descriptive statistics)
N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
Labor market Info - Year I 396 1 5 4,85 0,818
Labor market Info - Year II 287 1 5 2,94 1,172
Labor market Info - Year III 279 1 5 3,28 1,219
Valid N (listwise) 962
Taking into account the fact that these counseling needs regarding their own career can be fulfilled by the Career
and Orientation Center, we want to see to what extend the students that participated in the investigation know about
the existence of the career counseling center in Politehnica University. From their answers, we can observe that the
number of students that know about the existence of a career counseling center in their own University grows from
one year to the next. Thus in year I, 50% of students know about the existence of the Career Counseling and
Orientation Center in Politehnica University of Bucharest for students and 50% declare they don’t know anything
about it. In year II we can observe a 20% growth of the number of students that re informed that, in the University
they study in, there is a career counseling center destined for them.
In year III, the growth of the information rate regarding the existence of the Career Counseling and Orientation
Center is still small, compared to the one in the previous year, only 5% extra students confirming the information.
Also we have considered useful to find out what precisely they want to find in a counseling center that matches their
needs.
Table 6 – analysis of the need for the design of a counseling office
The Design of a counseling office
Study year
Total Year I Year II Year III
The possibility of being listened
99 28,7 111,6 239,3
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Sorina Chircu / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 ( 2014 ) 549 – 553
Friendly atmosphere
The existence of a discussion group in the center
237,6 86,1 111,6 435,3
59,4 172,2 55,8 287,4
The conditions that should exist in a counseling office are different from one year to the other. Thus, for year I
students, warm, friendly atmosphere is the basic condition of a counseling office, this including a secure climate
ba
sed on confidentiality and respect.
The main need of year II students, regarding the counseling office is given by the existence of discussion groups
in the center, that will reunite them and debate various themes of interest.
We can therefore observe in year II, a bigger affiliation and socializing need among the investigated students.
The possibility of being listened and a friendly atmosphere are aspects that year III students would like to find in a
career counseling and orientation office.
4. Conclusions
The resulting data shows us that the general hypothesis “we expect that the career counseling needs of students
from the technical university system to be different from one year to the next across the three study years”, is
confirmed. Year 1 students, present as a dominant need identifying and informing regarding the study continuation
opportunities (masters and PhD); in
study year II this need grows considerably, remaining predominant in year III
students that have very little until graduation and are interested in study continuation. The need to learn job hunting
techniques (editing a CV, letter of intention, the employment interview) is itself priority among year I students,
reaching a significant growth in year II but remaining constant as frequency in year III. For year I students, the need
for learning career planning strategies
is a big one, more reduced for year II students, and in year III study becomes
less priority. Regarding information about the labor market, we can see a grown interest towards finding a part-time
job for year I students; year II students offer a bigger importance to information regarding salaries and work
conditions, and year III students are interested mostly in salaries and finding a job
Therefore, counseling services given both in individual consultations, workshops, trainings, group counseling can
be attractive for students stimulating them to participate, if they start from real, identified needs.
References
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C
hircu, S. (2012). Consilierea pentru cariera in invatamantul superior tehnic [Carrer counseling in technical colleages] Universitatea din
Bucuresti.
L
aroche, M. (2008). Consilierea permanent
ă [Permanent counseling]. Bucrureúti: Institutul de ùtiinĠe ale EducaĠiei.
