ICT Interest and ICT Self-concept as Determinants of Adolescents’ Vocational Choices. Implications for Gender Segregation in the Labor Market

The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) is now an integral part of many occupational task profiles. Therefore, like mathematics and science, ICT represent an important content domain that adolescents may consider in their early vocational choices. Drawing on Eccles’ situated expectancy value theory and related theories, we hypothesize that adolescents’ ICT interest and self-concept should influence their vocational choices with respect to the intensity of ICT use in future occupations. Using longitudinal data from 1,964 Swiss adolescents transitioning into firm-based vocational education and training, we find strongly gendered patterns. Higher ICT interest predicts selection into occupations involving greater intensity of both basic and advanced ICT use, but only for girls. A more positive ICT self-concept is a significant predictor of greater occupational ICT use in future occupations only for boys, and this association is driven mainly by boys choosing careers as ICT specialists. Girls’ lower average ICT interest and their less positive ICT self-concepts explain almost half of the gender differences in the intensity of advanced ICT use. These findings emphasize that ICT are an important content domain of adolescents’ vocational choices today and highlight how gendered interests and self-concepts towards ICT perpetuate occupational gender segregation.