INFLUENCE OF GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING ON VOCATIONAL VALUE ORIENTATION AND SOCIAL NETWORKING AMONG IN-SCHOOL ADOLESCENTS IN ENUGU STATE

ABSTRACT

The study was carried out to determine the influence of guidance and counselling on vocational value orientation and social networking among in-school Adolescents in Enugu State, Nigeria. the Ex-post facto design was adopted, and the study was carried out in the three major municipalities in the three senatorial districts of Enugu State. The population for the study comprised of all the 162,651 secondary schools students in Enugu State. The sample for this study is  645 in-school adolescents, which comprises 427 males and 218 females. The sampling technique adopted is multistage sampling technique, which involved both purposive and  stratified random sampling technique. A structured questionnaire titled: guidance and counselling influence on vocational value orientation and social networking questionnaire (GCIVVOSNQ) was used to collect data for the study. The questionnaire was subjected to face – validation by three experts in University of Nigeria Nsukka. The instrument was  pilot tested on 60  selected SSII secondary school students of the  Orokam Community Secondary School Adimoko Benue State. And the data collected were analysed using the Cronbach Alfa method on the SPSS platform, and a reliability coefficient of 0.89 was obtained.  The data collected for the study were analyzed using Mean and Standard deviation for answering each of the five research questions. The t-test statistic was used to test the four hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed that The in-school adolescents in Enugu State receive educational counselling while choosing subjects, and they receive occupational information on  different occupations, and equally they receive information about the requirements for the  available occupational choices, the study equally revealed that the in-school adolescents in Enugu State are guided to develop good study habits and study patterns, and theyare shown that there is dignity in honest labour, and are guided to choose occupations that  are in lirne with the needs of the 21st century world of work. Equally they are made to know that social network sites are not totally bad and should not be avoided totally, and are made to apply moderation in the way they visit social network sites the study equally revealed that female in-school adolescents are more adversely affected in their choice of vocation because of social networking, and that female in-school adolescents spends more time on social network sites, and finally that  female in-school adolescents are more vulnerable to the negative effects of social networking. It was recommended that the school principals in Enugu State should look into the social networking activities of their students especially the female students and make sure that the students are properly guided to avoid the negative impacts of social networking. Equally that parents should take a very critical look into the social networking activities of their teenage children  and make sure that the children are properly supervised, to avoid the negative impacts of social networking. It was equally recommended that counsellors should work together with the principals to organize workshops and seminars designed to educate the in-school adolescents and the public on the negative impacts of social networking and how to properly manage their time.and that counsellors should work together with the principals to organize workshops and seminars designed to educate the parents and their teenage children on the importance of guidance counselling and the need to release their wards for counselling activities. And that Parents and school counsellors should improve on their listening skills. Finally it was recommended that the Enugu State Post Primary School Management Board (PPSMB), should employ and inject more professional counsellors into the secondary schools in Enugu state.