OCCUPATIONAL ASPIRATION OF UNDERGRADUATES IN MEGHALAYA.

Nikme S. C Momin 1 and Geetam Chetry 2 . 1. Professor & Head, Department of Education, NEHU, Tura Campus. 2. Research Scholar, Department of Education, NEHU, Tura Campus. ...................................................................................................................... Manuscript Info Abstract ......................... ........................................................................ Manuscript History Received: 14 November 2018 Final Accepted: 16 December 2018 Published: January 2019

Since higher levels of education are important predictors of a nation's economic success (Mau as cited in Wahl and Blackhurst, 2000), the unemployment of the graduates and the low LFPR of females are serious issues which need to be addressed for future success and growth of India's knowledge economy. It, therefore, becomes necessary to understand all underlying factors, one such being the Occupational Aspiration of the undergraduates.
Occupational Aspirations are useful predictors of later educational and occupational choices (Mau and Bikos as cited in Patton and Creed, 2007). They refer to the assimilation of an individual's assessment of the compatibility and accessibility of an occupation (Gottfredson as cited in Marshall, 2010). They are an individual's expressed career related goals or choices that provide important motivational momentum for career-related behaviours and future educational and career success (Rojewski as cited in Creed, Yin and Hood, 2009).

Review of Related Literature:-
A perusal of related literature showed that most studies on Occupational Aspiration were done on adolescents in secondary and higher secondary schools. Very few research works examined the Occupational Aspiration of the undergraduates in degree colleges. Available studies conducted on the undergraduates revealed inconsistent findings with regards to Gender. Lyngdoh (1975) found that the undergraduate girls' aspirations for occupation were higher than that of the boys. Kumar (2014) and Gjerustad (2016) found no gender differences in occupational aspiration. Passah (2014) and Mistry (2015) found the male undergraduates to have higher level of occupational aspirations as compared to females. Hence, the present research work aims to fill this research gap and add to the repertoire of findings so as to help in reaching a definite conclusion pertaining to the influence Gender has on Occupational Aspiration.

Objective:-
The sole objective of the research work was to compare the Mean scores of Occupational Aspiration of Male and Female Undergraduates. Statistical Technique:-After ensuring that the collected data does not violate the assumptions of Independence of Observations, Normality (Shapiro-Wilk Statistic = .98; df= 160; p = .07) and Homogeneity of Variance (F Levene = .27; df= 1/158; p = .60), analysis was done with the help of t-test.

Result of the Study:-
The objective was to compare the Mean scores of Occupational Aspiration of Male and Female Undergraduates. The data was analysed with the help of SPSS (Version 20) and the result is presented in Table 1.

Discussion:-
The finding of the study is in conformity to the findings by Passah (2014) and Mistry (2015) who reported the undergraduate males to have higher Occupational Aspiration than the females. A possible explanation for this could be as noted by Lee and Rojewski (2009) that after high school, females were more likely to lower their Occupational Aspiration than males. Several factors may account for the low Occupational Aspiration of Females. These factors could be personal, such as lack of motivation, interest, aptitude, skills, awareness and encouragement; or it could be societal, such as lack of available career opportunities, barriers to attain the occupation of choice, restrictions pertaining to social mobility, increasing pressure of social expectations, and instinctively conforming to stereotypical social roles of child-bearing and home-making.
Though the males were found to have higher Occupational Aspiration than the females in terms of Mean Scores, however, in terms of Percentile scores, maximum Undergraduates, both Males and Females, were found to have Average Level of Occupational Aspiration. Considering the fact that these undergraduates are in the threshold of assuming adult roles, they may feel increasing pressure to determine immediate and long-term future goals related to education, work and family life (Lee and Rojewski, 2009). This may further be compounded by other factors like lack of career awareness and employability skills, increasing competition for prestigious government jobs, and lack of alternative career opportunities. This could possibly explain why the Undergraduates have Average level of Occupational Aspiration.

Suggestions:-
The major limitation of the study is that it was conducted only on a sample of undergraduates in Arts Stream. Therefore, the finding cannot be generalised to all undergraduates in various streams. Hence, further research needs to be done on Occupational Aspiration of undergraduates in different streams of study to be able to make significant inferences. Further research also needs to be done on the underlying factors accounting for low Occupational Aspiration of female undergraduates in Meghalaya on the ground that the LFPR of women in Meghalaya (46.7%) exceeds the national average of 23.7% (EUS, 2015-16). The career guidance needs of the undergraduates must also be addressed through various initiatives such as career counselling, career talks and integration of skill oriented courses in the curriculum. A database of the student's skills, career interests, preferences, and aspirations should be maintained by the colleges in order to understand their career related behaviour and to help them make better career decisions. And lastly, since unemployment can lead to lowered future aspirations and can have aggravating consequences for the well-being of both the individual and the society (Borrero, 1980;Galadima, 2014;Jakimovski, 2010;Saunders, 2002), more job opportunities must be created by the government in the knowledge sector to cater to the varied aspirations of the students and to ensure maximum employment of the graduates.