Role of Work Motivation and Expectations on Female Students’ Choice of Study Programmes in TEVET Institutions in Lusaka Province, Zambia

This paper is an extract from an ongoing doctoral study aimed at exploring how work motivation and work expectation played a role on the choices of study programmes by Female students in Institutions under TEVETA in Lusaka province, Zambia. The study used an intrinsic case study research design. The population of the study was all first-year female students at one of the TEVETA accredited institutions in Lusaka province. Typical case purposive sampling was used to select one institution out of the four in the province. A sample of 20 first year female students was used in the study and was selected using the typical case purposive sampling procedure. Semi structured interview and non-participant observation guides were used to collect data. Trustworthiness of the data collected was assured through rigorous adherence to credibility, transferability, dependability, confirm ability, and flexibility quality criteria of qualitative study. The findings indicate that motivation and work expectation played a huge role in the choices of study programmes by female students at the TEVETA accredited institution. The female students were convinced that through the chosen study programmes, they would acquire property, attain stability and survive as they would be earning enough money as salaries. The female students indicated that through the chosen study programmes they were going to acquire property, be stable, perform some social responsibility duties and be able to survive. This was attributed to the fact that work is important as it is a means to fulfilling basic needs such as survival, pleasure and contribution. The results imply that work motivation and work expectation play a huge role in career decision making by female students as they strive to fully fulfil the basic needs. It is therefore recommended that work motivation and expectations should be considered as constructs that interact to influence career decision making by female students in addition to family, peers and school career guidance.