Journal on Efficiency and Responsibility in Education and Science (Dec 2010)
A REFLECTION ON UNIVERSITY STUDIES AND FURTHER CAREER DEVELOPMENT OF CHOSEN CULS FACULTIES’ GRADUATES
Abstract
The article is focused on professional orientation and direction of the careers of graduates of Faculty of Economics and Management (FEM) and Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources (FAFNR) at Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CULS). The general information and theoretical part is devoted to the topic of career, its concept and definition, and it deals with chosen determinants of career orientation and career development. The concept of career is considered within the sphere of specialized terminology mainly used in humanities disciplines, it defines subjective and objective career. Moreover, the concepts of life developmental tasks and career maturity are being mapped. The existence of typical stages of development is also discussed, for which there are typical qualitative differences on the level of information, in relation to a given profession and in motivation towards the profession (with regard to the stage that includes university studies). Significant influence of objective and situational factors, which interfere with career orientation and the choice of a profession, is further included. A look at a person’s personality with respect to the determinants of career orientation and career development also forms a part of the general information part. In its first part of the empirical section, the article is focused on the concept and definition of career from the beginning of the 1990s. This includes the views of Czech as well as foreign authors. In the second part, the article tries to present practical consequences of students’ career orientation and it deals with processing an estimate whether the observed faculties’ graduates remain working in the field related to what they studied within five years from graduation. A part of the study is also formed by a description of the main motives leading to choosing a profession during university studies. The chosen attributes were monitored among a selected group of students, which was formed by graduates of the daily Masters programmes at Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, specifically at Faculty of Economics and Management – Operations and Economics programme and Business and Administration programme, and at the Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources regardless of studied programmes. The students graduated at least a year and maximum five years prior to the conducted research. The data were collected with the help of a survey. The survey included 17 items and was sent out electronically. The respondents marked which facts and to what extent distinctly influenced their professional direction given by the studied programme during their studies at the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague. They also answered an inquiry whether they remain working in the profession that they prepared for during their studies, or (if applicable) the survey tried to find out why their career took a different direction.
