Exploring Congruency between Engineering students’ Professional Role Preference, Competences and Career Choice

Self and professional awareness are important factors when choosing a profession that is congruent with one’s interest and competences. This study investigated the quality of professional role choice of 55 Belgian final-year engineering students. We examined congruency between vocational interest, self-perceived strengths and weaknesses and career aspirations. Through mixed methods, three professional role outcomes were measured: role preference (job interview), role competence (questionnaire) and job role (job vacancy selection). We used the Professional Roles Model for Future Engineers (Craps et al. 2018) as theoretical framework and evaluated (1) the alignment between the role preference and competency profile (aligned, fluid, unaligned) and (2) the consistency with the chosen job vacancy (consistent, inconsistent). The results indicated that the role preference could be aligned with the self-perceived competency profile for 43% of the students (N=23). However, the difference with the Unaligned was small (N=20). Almost a fifth (N=11) did not have an outspoken competency profile and could be aligned to all roles. Remarkably, most of the Unaligned preferred to work in an innovative role. The majority of the students (87%) preferred a job vacancy consistently with the role preference or competency profile. Interestingly, only 8 students (15%) obtained a one-to-one congruency between the role preference, competences and job role. Unaligned students seemed to select a job vacancy in accordance with their competency profile, rather than with their role preference. Further research is required to investigate the contribution of professional awareness, the alignment with the actual career behaviour and the correlation with background variables.

ISBN:978-2-87352-018-2

Publication year:2019

Accessibility:Open