The career-related challenges and needs of Japanese female university students at a U.S. study center of a Japanese university

This study examined the perceptions of Japanese female college students regarding their career-related challenges and support needs while studying abroad. One-time semi-structured interviews with 10 Japanese female college students were analyzed qualitatively. This study drew upon Krumboltz’s learning theory of career decision-making as the conceptual framework. The participants reported their needs of direct learning experiences (e.g., internships and volunteering) as instrumental learning experiences, and indirect career exploration opportunities (e.g., observation of company offices abroad or interactions with workers) as associative learning experiences. These study abroad experiences aided in their career decision-making processes. Among the participants, environmental factors (e.g., lack of career-development opportunities at the study center and U.S. visa regulations) and genetic endowment (e.g., gender and nationality) affected all participants without much variation. However, the implementation of individual task approach skills (e.g., activeness and open-mindedness) influenced students to access instrumental and associative learning experiences, which further allowed them to enhance their self-observation and world-view generalization while developing the task approach skills. As an implication, institutional assistance for students, especially those who lack task approach skills, is important in order to enhance the career-related learning experiences of students who study abroad by helping them find direct and indirect career exploration opportunities.

国立大学留学生指導研究協議会

2015-03

English(eng)

journal article

VoR

1343-4683

AA12756655

留学生交流・指導研究

17

73

92

010a Journal Articles　=　雑誌掲載論文

https://hdl.handle.net/10086/28770