Institute of Rural Management Anand

Career Objectives in a Socioeconomically Diverse Student Community

Course: Rural Research Methods(RRM) Instructors: Prof. Shyam Singh and Prof. Indranil De

Submitted by, Shubham Malviya, 34046 Siddhartha Sankar Bora, 34047 Smrity Kumari, 34048 Snehit Prakash, 34049 Sonal Singh, 34050 10/09/2013

1. OVERVIEW
This study intends to find out how the socioeconomic conditions act as an important factor in deciding career objectives by students from different communities. Career choices take place within the context of the society and the economy. Some factors that influence career choices among students are caste and gender, peer groups, parents, family members, dignity and social esteem and the area of residence and respective culture. Some economic factors like income, opportunities available, economic situation and time orientation also play a role. In the Indian context, the reservation accorded to a student based on the scheduled status of his community has significant influence on the career progression of a student. Also, the perceived feeling of esteem enjoyed by particular professions in certain societies influences the career decisions a lot. Further, regional diversity, upbringing and childhood aspirations all have their contributions.

2. Research Problems
Every student carries the unique history and this history, created in part by the students environment, personality, and opportunity, will determine how students make career choices. To prove this we will do a research based on cross-sectional research design .The population for the study will be the students from across the country and from different strata. Both Purposive and simple random sampling techniques are used to sample the respondents for the study. Questionnaires are used as instruments for data collection. We think that the socioeconomic condition has a positive relationship with the choice of career objective. We will do a hypothesis testing where alternate hypothesis is that socio-economic factors affect career choices and the null hypothesis will affirm that it is not so.

3. Research Design
3.1 Research design and its justification
We preferably choose a cross sectional research design. In such a design, samples are drawn from the population at a specific point of time. An experimental or a longitudinal design is not preferred due to time constraints. As the size of the population is large, a case study design is not feasible. Therefore, a cross sectional research design is preferred.

3.2 Research method and its justification

To work upon the stated problem, an exploratory survey method is used to assess socio-demographic characteristics such as age, sex, parents occupation and educational qualification, size of family income, caste etc. The survey focuses on various relevant questions pertaining to career options. Also, focus group discussions are also suggested as a tool to collect qualitative information which may not be possible from the survey research.

The questionnaire is an effective tool for collecting data when the population size is quite large. The structured questionnaire is preferred to other data collection instruments like interview because it is less expensive. Also, it reduces response bias and gives the students a greater feeling of anonymity.

3.3 Sampling data

3.3.1 Study population The study population consists of the final year students in various universities and institutes across India. We are administering the survey only to the final year students, considering the fact that they must be the ones with the most ideas about career and future objectives. 3.3.2 Sampling strategy We want to study the variation in career objectives of students across various socioeconomic factors. We employ a stratified random sampling approach to collect necessary data for our research. Firstly, we randomly pick universities (or institutes) from different regions of the country divided into five zones, viz. North, South, East West and Central. The second stratification of the colleges based on fees charged i.e. private (higher fees, above certain fixed level, say Rs 30,000 per annum) and government (lower fees, say below 30,000 per annum). After stratification we can use random sampling to select, say 20 colleges from each quota (assuming that proportion of colleges is the same, otherwise proportional number of colleges can be selected). This makes a total of 40 colleges. We want to survey 20 students from each college. So, the sample size is 800. From each college, 20 samples are divided into two more strata, one representing reserved category and the other representing general category. 3.3.3 Data Collection Strategies We can obtain a student listing from college authorities, if possible, otherwise local contact points can be used to get the listings. Once, we have the listing students can be selected using simple random sampling technique. The students thus selected will be administered the survey. The student placement committees of the colleges can also be involved. The questionnaire can be circulated either in print form or in digital form. Several online services like Google form, social media forums like Facebook can be used. However, printed questionnaire will also be used to collect response where online reach is not possible.

3.4 Scheme of analysis

Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) will be used to analyze the quantitative data. Different nominal and ordinal variables used for data collection will be coded accordingly so as to make them ready for quantitative analysis. Hypothesis testing will be used to verify our hypothesis. The chi - square test will be conducted to further probe the relationship between different socioeconomic indicators and career objectives of students. Then effort will be made to fit a multiple regression model to establish a causal relationship between them; treating different career preference indicators as the dependent variables and

different socioeconomic indicators like class, caste, gender, family income and location as the independent variables. As per the p-value of the regression, the accuracy of the model can be ascertained.

3.5 Limitations of the design

The scope of the study is limited to final year students only. As our research is a cross-sectional design, the trend in career choices could not be captured.

4. Tools, techniques and instruments:

To conduct the research, two important tools are recommended. The main instrument is a questionnaire to gather the needed data from the respondents. Also, focus group discussions are also suggested as another tool.

4.1 The questionnaire

The questionnaire consists of two parts. The first part collects demographic information like age, gender, income etc. The respondents can remain anonymous. The second part contains specific questions regarding career choices of the respondents. Closed questions are provided to provided to ensure that the students find it easier to answer and also data analysis becomes easy. Some open-ended questions are also provided to facilitate free views from students on sensitive issues. The questionnaire is prepared to cover several aspects of the problem. Much care is taken to ensure that the questions are reliable and valid. The questionnaire is attached in the appendix.

4.2 Focus Group discussions

Focus groups are useful in obtaining information that would be difficult to obtain using other methodologies outlined above. A focus group can be defined as a group of people who possess certain characteristics and provide information of a qualitative nature in a focused discussion. Some universities from different sectors should be shortlisted and focus group discussions should be organized in each of them. The participants should be chosen carefully to make it more representative. A theme should be decided for each discussion e.g. Private sector is more attractive than public sector?

5. Conclusion
We have presented a research design for studying the career preferences in a socio economically diverse student community. The work is based on cross sectional design. Further research can be carried out to find the trends in career preferences in a volatile economy using longitudinal research methods.

Appendix: Questionnaire

Survey Questionnaire for Student Career Preferences

A. Personal Information

1. Age:

2. Sex o Male o Female

4. Parents occupation o Farmer o Services o Businessman o Wage worker o Others B. Educational Information

5. Parents education ( maximum of either parent) o Masters degree o Graduate o Intermediate o High school o Illiterate

3. Category o General o OBC o SC o ST 6. Family annual income o <60000 o 60001-200000 o 200001-500000 o 500000-1000000 o >1000000

7. Educational Institution: o Government o Private o Government aided o Any other

8. Approximate annual fees(in Rs.) :

10. Medium of education(in school): o English o Hindi o Any other language(Specify)

11. Have you taken any educational loan o Yes o No

9. Place of School Education: o Rural o Census Town o District Headquarter o Metro City 12. Any scholarship availed o Yes o No

C. Survey Questions

1. What are you going to do after graduation

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

2. What sector jobs do you prefer

Go for higher studies Seek a job Become an entrepreneur Start a family Not decided Government sector Private sector <10000 per month 10000-30000 per month 30000-100000 per month >100000 per month Do not know Within a year Within 2 years Immediately Not concerned, whenever it comes Need to repay loan Support family Gain experience Others doing same thing Do not know

3. How much salary do you expect in the beginning?

4. When do you want the first promotion?

5. What makes you join a job?

o 6. What are the problems faced by you deciding a career?(Write a few lines)