Career Decision-making Process of Secondary School Students in Maldives: Recommendations for Integrating Career Education into Secondary Schools Curriculum

Abstract While the career choice process has been extensively studied, research on the career decision-making process has yet to be done in the context of the Maldives. This qualitative study addresses this gap in understanding the career decision-making process of adolescents in Maldives. The paper focuses on first-generation students' reflections on encounters with occupational information and experiences that raised their self-awareness during their adolescent/secondary school years and their challenges and unmet decision-making needs with the aim of identifying revenues for incorporating career education into the secondary school curriculum. Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis and semi-structured interviews were used to explore the experiences of college/university students studying in career-relevant undergraduate degree programmes. Findings highlighted the need for a broad generalist secondary school curriculum, increased young people's occupational knowledge, and kept interests alive through extracurricular activities. Policy implications include addressing equity issues between schools and incorporating occupational information into teacher training programmes for secondary school subject teachers