A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF OCCUPATIONAL ASPIRATION AND CAREER MATURITY OF SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN RELATION TO GENDER

The occupational aspiration of the individual at young age has a definite impact on choice of occupation at later years. Career decisions are generally made at secondary school stage. It is a critical period for the development of career maturity, when students are faced with academic and occupational decisions over the course of their study. Their future career decisions depend upon their current level of occupational aspirations and career maturity. The appropriate decision making depends upon the level of career maturity and occupational aspirations of students. The present paper is an attempt to study the levels of occupational aspiration and career maturity of secondary school students of Delhi. The paper studies what relationship exists between occupational aspiration and career maturity of secondary school students. This study also compares the occupational aspiration and career maturity of senior secondary school male and female students. This study was conducted on 50 male and 50 female students of class XIth of 2 government senior secondary schools of Delhi.