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Impact of Career Guidance on Professional Career Awareness among Accounting Education Students in Nigerian Polytechnics

Abstract

Career guidance is an important component of accounting education because students require adequate information about professional career opportunities, occupational requirements, career pathways, and emerging roles within the accounting and finance profession. Accounting education students in Nigerian polytechnics may pursue careers in areas such as financial accounting, auditing, taxation, management accounting, public-sector accounting, banking, financial analysis, accounting information systems, and other finance-related occupations. However, limited access to structured career guidance, inadequate information about professional opportunities, weak interaction with industry practitioners, and insufficient awareness of emerging accounting roles may affect students' understanding of available career pathways and professional requirements. Career Guidance provides students with relevant information, counselling, professional exposure, and opportunities to explore career options and develop informed career plans. Against this background, this study investigates the impact of career guidance on professional career awareness among accounting education students in Nigerian polytechnics. The study will be anchored on Social Cognitive Career Theory, Holland's Theory of Career Choice, and Super's Life-Span, Life-Space Theory. Social Cognitive Career Theory explains how self-efficacy, outcome expectations, personal goals, and environmental factors influence students' career interests, choices, and development. Holland's Theory of Career Choice emphasizes the relationship between individuals' interests, personality characteristics, and occupational environments in shaping career preferences. Super's Life-Span, Life-Space Theory views career development as a continuing process involving self-concept, career exploration, decision-making, and development across different life stages. Collectively, these theoretical perspectives provide a suitable framework for explaining how career guidance may influence professional career awareness among accounting education students. The study will adopt a quantitative quasi-experimental or analytical cross-sectional research design. The study population will comprise accounting education students enrolled in selected federal, state, and private polytechnics across Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique will be used to select geopolitical zones, states, polytechnics, schools or departments, levels of study, and eligible accounting education students. Career guidance will be assessed using indicators such as availability of structured career guidance programmes, frequency of career counselling sessions, career information provision, career talks, professional mentorship, interaction with practising accountants, career seminars, professional accounting-body orientation, internship and workplace information, information on accounting specializations, exposure to emerging accounting careers, professional certification guidance, employability information, CV and interview guidance, job-search information, career planning activities, individual counselling, career assessment activities, and opportunities for students to ask career-related questions. Students' professional career awareness will be assessed using indicators such as knowledge of accounting career pathways, awareness of professional accounting roles, understanding of occupational requirements, awareness of professional accounting certifications, knowledge of employment opportunities, awareness of emerging accounting roles, understanding of industry expectations, knowledge of required technical and soft skills, awareness of workplace opportunities in public and private sectors, knowledge of career progression pathways, awareness of professional ethics and responsibilities, understanding of internship and work-experience requirements, knowledge of relevant accounting technologies, ability to identify suitable career options, and ability to develop informed professional career plans. Data will be collected using structured questionnaires, standardized professional career awareness scales, career knowledge tests, career scenario tasks, competency-based assessment instruments, observation checklists, career guidance attendance records, and pre-test and post-test assessments where a quasi-experimental design is adopted. Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize students' demographic and academic characteristics, career guidance experiences, sources of career information, and levels of professional career awareness. Inferential statistical techniques, including chi-square tests, paired and independent t-tests, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis where appropriate, will be used to determine the impact of career guidance on students' professional career awareness. Where a quasi-experimental design is adopted, professional career awareness scores before and after exposure to career guidance activities may be compared with those of a comparison group receiving conventional academic instruction without structured career guidance to determine changes associated with the intervention. Diagnostic tests will also be conducted to assess the reliability, validity, and robustness of the findings. The study is expected to find that career guidance has a significant positive impact on professional career awareness among accounting education students in Nigerian polytechnics. Students who participate in structured career guidance programmes are expected to demonstrate greater knowledge of accounting career pathways, professional requirements, certification opportunities, employment options, emerging accounting roles, and workplace expectations than students with limited access to career guidance. Career counselling and interaction with practising accountants may help students understand the differences between various accounting specializations and identify the competencies required for specific professional roles. Career seminars, mentorship programmes, professional-body orientation, internship guidance, and exposure to emerging areas such as accounting information systems, financial technology, accounting data analytics, digital reporting, forensic accounting, and sustainability-related accounting may broaden students' understanding of contemporary career opportunities. Career guidance may also strengthen students' ability to develop realistic career plans, identify relevant professional certifications, recognize required employability skills, and make informed decisions about further education and professional development. However, limited availability of qualified career counsellors, weak industry–polytechnic relationships, inadequate career information resources, irregular guidance programmes, insufficient funding, limited practitioner participation, and students' low participation in career activities may reduce the effectiveness of career guidance. The study therefore expects regular, structured, industry-informed, and student-centred career guidance to contribute significantly to improved professional career awareness among accounting education students in Nigerian polytechnics. The study is expected to contribute to the literature on career guidance, professional career awareness, accounting education, career development, career counselling, employability skills, professional accounting careers, vocational education, polytechnic education, Social Cognitive Career Theory, Holland's Theory of Career Choice, Super's Career Development Theory, and higher education in Nigeria. The findings will provide useful information to the National Board for Technical Education, polytechnics, accounting education departments, career guidance units, accounting educators, professional accounting bodies, accounting firms, financial institutions, employers, curriculum developers, and policymakers regarding strategies for strengthening career development in accounting education. The study will also provide evidence-based recommendations for strengthening structured career guidance programmes in Nigerian polytechnics, increasing interaction between students and accounting professionals, providing current information on accounting career pathways and professional certifications, expanding industry mentorship and workplace exposure, integrating emerging accounting careers into career guidance activities, improving access to career counselling resources, strengthening internship and employability guidance, and creating sustainable university–industry and polytechnic–industry partnerships that can improve students' awareness of professional career opportunities.

Keywords: Career guidance, professional career awareness, accounting education students, Nigerian polytechnics, career development, career counselling, professional accounting careers, employability skills, career pathways, accounting profession, vocational education, Nigeria.