An Examination of the Effect of Career Course Length on Student Occupational Engagement

The purpose of this ex post facto research project was to examine the effect of career course length on student occupational engagement. To answer this question, Occupational Engagement Scale-Student (OES-S) scores for students enrolled in 16-week and 8-week long career courses were analyzed using t-tests and multiple regression. The study included 745 University of Kansas undergraduate students enrolled in either the Job Search for Liberal Arts and Sciences Students or the Internship Exploration career courses between January 2017 and August 2019. Sixteen-week sections were conducted during the fall and spring semesters. Eight-week sections were offered during summer sessions. All courses were taught online and overseen by the same instructor. Results indicate students enrolled in traditional 16-week career course sections had significantly higher OES-S scores at the end of the course as compared to students in the 8-week career course sections. While there was a significant difference between 16-week sections and 8-week sections, students in 8-week course sections also achieved gains in occupational engagement scores. Additionally, results suggest career courses are an effective career intervention to increase student occupational engagement. It is recommended that a robust set of career courses be offered in both traditional and accelerated lengths and that efforts be made to increase the number of students from underrepresented populations in career courses, primarily the Internship Exploration course. Recommendations for future research include examining the efficacy of online career courses, determining the role age plays in the acquisition of occupational engagement, and examining additional career course dependent variables in concert with occupational engagement.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Kansas

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Gaston, Alton David

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Wolf-Wendel, Lisa

• Higher education administration
• Counseling psychology
• Higher education
• career courses
• career intervention
• career services
• course length
• occupational engagement

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright held by the author.

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:17606

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/35579