An IT career choice model

Abstract

Research focusing on students’ Information Technology (IT) career choices shows that their decisions were influenced by factors, such as exposure to programming concepts at school level, culture, parents, teachers and role models. Theories relating to career choice have focused on individual characteristics and their environment. In South Africa however, there have been limited studies investigating the factors influencing students’ IT career decisions, specifically choosing study programmes in Computer Science (CS), Information Systems (IS) and IT. The aim of this study was to evaluate a proposed IT career choices model. A questionnaire was developed and distributed amongst CS/IS/IT first-year students at the Nelson Mandela University in South Africa and 205 students completed the survey. The data were statistically analysed, including Exploratory Factor Analysis. The study highlighted that students with high academic confidence and exposure to programming concepts at an early age, chose an IT career. The study further showed  statistical differences between students speaking different home languages and genders in their perceptions about the IT industry and choosing an IT career. The main contribution of the study is the evaluation of a proposed IT Career Choice Model, based on existing theories, literature and the statistical results obtained from the study.