000076847 THE IMPACTS OF CURRENT ECONOMIC CRISIS ON CAREER CHOICES OF THIRD-YEAR STUDENTS AT THE FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT AND TOURISM, HANOI UNIVERSITY (TÁC ĐỘNG CỦA KHỦNG HOẢNG KINH TẾ HIỆN NAY ĐẾN LỰA CHỌN NGHỀ NGHIỆP CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ BA KHOA QUẢN LÝ

000076847 THE IMPACTS OF CURRENT ECONOMIC CRISIS ON CAREER CHOICES OF THIRD-YEAR STUDENTS AT THE FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT AND TOURISM, HANOI UNIVERSITY (TÁC ĐỘNG CỦA KHỦNG HOẢNG KINH TẾ HIỆN NAY ĐẾN LỰA CHỌN NGHỀ NGHIỆP CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ BA KHOA QUẢN LÝ VÀ DU LỊCH, TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HÀ NỘI)

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| HÀNOI | |

HANOI UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT AND TOURISM

Bachelor of Business Administration

THƯ VIỆN ĐẠI HỌC HANOI | HANOI UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

ce OO

Supervisor: Ms NGUYEN THI THANH HANG Student: NGUYEN TRA MY

Student ID: 0904000058

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The impacts of current economic crisis on career choices of third-year students at | 2013

the Faculty of Management and Tourism, Hanoi University

1⁄3 Research significance 12

2.1 Overview of economic crisis 13 2.1.1 Definition and cause of economic crisis 13 2.1.2 Implications of economic crisis 14 2.2 Career choice and the model of career decision making 18

2.2.2 Theory on career management ⁄ 20

3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 26 3.1 Research questions 26 3.2 Primary data research methodology 26 3.2.1 Conceptual framework and research hypotheses 26

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4.1 The current situation in Vietnam 34 4.1.1 The current situation of Vietnamese labor market # 34 4.1.2 Expected trends , 38 4.2 Students’ response to the economic crisis 41 4.2.1 Students’ perception about the crisis and its effects 41 4.2.2 Students’ career choices over time È 43 4.5 Research limitations 60

5 DISCUSSIONS ON FINDINGS 61 5.1 Answers to the research questions 61 5.2 Implication of the research 65 5.2.1 Students’ criteria in choosing jobs 65 5.2.2 Application of career management in Vietnam 67

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The impa cts of current economic crisis on career choices of third-year students at | 2013

Figure 1: Conceptual framework for tracing the impacts of economic crisis on young people 16

Figure 2: Stages of career pÏanning and adVAHC€I€HI cccccctttcttcrrttrrtrrrrrrrrrrrrrrier 19

Figure 3: The Greenhaus et al model of career MANAQEMENE 0.2 cac cccccececrrrerrrrrrer 20 Figure 4: Career planning model

Figure 5: The Holland hexagon

Figure 6: Fishbein and Ajzen mode

Figure 7: Research model .28 Figure 8: Key indicators of the labor market from 2007 — 2009 35 Figure 9: Unemployment rate by age groups and areas, 2007 - 2009 36 Figure 10: Structure of employment in Vietnam and other countries in 2008 37 Figure 11: Industries’ demand 39 Figure 12: Top jobs organizations are likely to hire more in headcounts 40 Figure 13: Assessment of the current economic situation 41 Figure 14: Assessment about whether the economic situation affects students’ career plan 42

Figure 15: Industries chosen by students

Figure 16: Students` choices about job

Figure 17: Changes in students' wor/studW deciSÌOfS - cà Săctinieetriereererrererree 48 Figure 18: Students’ preparations for the ƒÙ[FE St th tr tre 58 Figure 19: Respondents’ plans by major

Figure 20: Responses about negative €ff@CfS O@ƒ CFSỈS chien 61 Figure 21: Frequency of responses regarding the importance oƒvaÏue - :- 63 Figure 22: Students’ responses when being asked to rate the item: “I change my decisions

because the market trendis Ch4f€ ”” tình nh HH ghtườn 66

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the Faculty of Management and Tourism, Hanoi University LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Sample oƒ students majoring in Economies in Hanoi University 30

Table 2: Crosstabulation between Major and Job change cccccccccccec 44

Table 3: Crosstabutation between majors and job Change co se 47

Table 4: Crosstabulation between Major and the decision of work/study «0.1.0.0 49

Table 5: Reliability test for all variables choi 50

Table 6: Hypotheses test results and decisions ccccsccssvssesvseesssvssiesvessenseteneateas 53

Table 7: Correlation matrix among variables .cccccccssessessisssecseesnseseesssentesteeneesses 34

Table 8: Final resuÏts oƒ hypotÏeS€s ch vn H HH ghen 35

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AC : Accounting ACCA : Association of chartered certified accountants ASEAN : Association of Southeast Asia Nations

BA : Business Administration

C :Economic crisis

CDO : Collateralized debt obligations

CFA : Chartered Public Accountant CPA : Certified Public Accountant

FB :Finance and Banking

FMT : The Faculty of Management and Tourism GDP : Gross Domestic Product

GSO : General Statistics Office of Vietnam

ILO : International Labor Organization

LFS : Labor force surveys

MOLISA _ : Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs ODI : Oversea Development Institute

PA : Career’s perceived attractiveness

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ABSTRACT

In recent years, the word “crisis” has become a common term toward everybody as its

effects can be found in every walk of life Researches show that among all victims, it is the youth that is affected the most, especially in terms of employment Therefore, this

paper is conducted aiming at explaining how the current economic crisis can influence third-year students’ career choices and finding out their plans to increase the

employability in today’s fierce labor market The data collected through survey and other

secondary sources are processed using descriptive analysis and correlation technique, which produces three major findings Firstly, about 50% of target students express their

wish to change their intended career plans through three years studying at university

Secondly, the majority of students (95%) agree that economic crisis do have influence on their career plans Specifically, statistical evidence shows that economic crisis has a medium relationship with career’s perceived attractiveness and weakly related to students’ self-efficacy, which in turn affect students’ career choices Last but not least, in order to cope with the situation, about half of students participating in the survey choose

to continue their study with the hope of a better economic condition when they finish The

volatility of students regarding their own future careers show a need for better and more thorough consultancy as well as career management

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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

“Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contains no material

published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis or any other degree or diploma

No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgment in the main text of the thesis

This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution”

Student signature

Da; đĩ | 05/2043

et

Nguyễn Trà My Page 7

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devotion I also will be eternally grateful for her patience and support in the most crucial

—==

point of my study ——

es

=

I wish to express my special thank to Ms Tran Thi Thu Lan for her timely and valuable

advices regarding hypothesis testing — a very important part in my research

I would like to thank all teachers in the Faculty of Management and Tourism, who have provided me with knowledge, methods and skills in four year so that I can complete this thesis smoothly

My deepest appreciation goes to my family who has always been the sources of my motivation and inspirations Especially, my sincere thanks go to Ms Nguyen Thi Thanh

Thuy, my aunt, whose constant and unfailing support has aided me in every way possible

I must say a big thank to Bui Ha Phuong, FB09 and Vu Thi Thuy Duong, BA09 for their assistants in the statistical as well as technical part of my research, along with the rest of

my friends in our special group Last but not least, to all students from BA, FB and AC

10 who have participated in my survey, thank you very much!

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1.1 Background of the study

Vietnam is currently on its way to achieve international economic integration, which is marked by several bilateral and multilateral agreements as well as membership of World

Trade Organization (WTO) in 2007 These efforts has been recognized globally and greatly contributed to Vietnam’s booming period with around 7.6 % growth in Gross

Domestic Product (GDP) per annufi during 2000-2008) However, hardships also come along with advantages The fact that Vietnamese economy is tightly tied with others in

the world makes it vulnerable with changes occurring in other countries

As a result, Vietnamese economy cannot be oblivious to the worldwide depression starting in the US in 2007 It began with cheap housing loans offered by banks Instead of

holding on those lợn banks passed them on to other agencies under the name of collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) Over time, interest rates started to rise while

many borrowers remained oblivious to the needed information, which then led to

defaults Many major banks had to announce write down at the end of 2007 The crisis

reached its peak with the collapse of the well-known, powerful Lehman Brothers, only to follow by AIG — the giant in insurance industry (Wing, 2009) The situation quickly led

to banking disorder, the lack of credit and decrease in stock value Inevitably, not only

the US’s but also the whole world’s economy fell into recess with one common disease —

public debt (Nguyen, 2012)

_——_———

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Although Vietnam was not hit directly in 2007, from 2008 onwards, the impacts of crisis

on Vietnamese economy cannot go unnoticed The sign of the economic in Vietnam has appeared in not only newspapers with information about bad debts, frozen real estate

market, stock market’s downturn, bankruptcy or economic reforms but it also can be

found in every corner of everyday lives On Lunar New Year in 2013, several companies

failed to make payments for their staff, resulting in the tight budget and consequently, the

poor spending of citizens More than 55,000 small and medium enterprises ceased operating last year according to official statistics, and unemployment is creeping up

(Tran, 2013) It is estimated that around one million people have lost their jobs within

2011 and 2012 (Ebbighausen, 2012) Even though government has introduced many solutions to the economic problems, people remain skeptical about their effectiveness

Therefore, it cannot be denied that Vietnam economic crisis has heavily influenced the society, especially the labor forces Bankruptcy, lay off are not uncommon in today’s situation and they take heavy toll on families who rely on one person’s salary to make

ends meet This, in turn, affects fresh graduates who are struggling to find just any job,

not to mention jobs that fit with their majors or even high-paid jobs Moreover, the

existing imbalance in the labor market also worsens the situation Students who rush into

“popular” majors such as business or finance and banking are now staying in a very hard position as banks are having serious problems that need a total reform Consequently,

several students are shaken by the potential of being jobless and thus, starting to consider other alternatives or, in other words, to change their career plans Regardless of the methods, almost all students now are trying their hardest to increase their future employability

Overall, the economic crisis is affecting Vietnamese society in many ways and unemployment is an inevitable problem At the most recent meeting of the Parliament, it

is reported that the situation has become worse and worse as several indicators are at a

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low level, some even hit the lowest level recorded in the last four year (Thanh, 2013)

Therefore, how the labor forces will turn out in the following years remains to be

questionable Therefore, during crisis, several people’s careers are affected; some change

their jobs, some try to avoid job hunting by prolonging their study time while others do

whatever it takes to make them more desirable in employers’ eyes

1.2 Statement of the problems

The current situation in the job market proves to be very confusing Due to the current

crisis, the number of job creation is reducing, making it even harder for fresh graduates

than it was before, especially students majoring in Business Therefore, understanding

about the real situation in labor market and how students intend to cope with it can be a great source of reference for students who are in the decision making process to

determine their future majors in universities

Because almost all fourth year students have already taken part in the job-hunting process

as part of the requirements for graduation, third-year students are chosen as the research’s

subjects instead As the latter still have one more year left in the university, they are said

to have more time to carry out their plans than their senior does

This leads to the questions about “What are the thought of third-year students majoring in Business about crisis and its consequences?”, “Is it true that students are starting to change their career plans to adapt with reality’ hat are the factors that influence their

decision making process?”, “Do they have any intention of changing or adding more major?”, “Do they want to pursue higher education to avoid working in crisis or they rather start working immediately?”, “If they want to work, what are they doing to prepare

for their job hunts?”

eee

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As indicated in the questions above, the purposes of this thesis are firstly, to address the relationship between economic crisis and students’ career choices; secondly, to explore students’ action plan to prepare themselves for the future and finally, to suggest some methods to improve students’ quality of career choices

® An overview of the current situation in the job market

e A statistical analysis about effect of crisis on students’ career choices and the underlying reasons

¢ Suggestions and alternatives for how to raise their employability

To educators:

e A reference about issues that students are facing

¢ Suggestions for career management and consultancy

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2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This section provides insight into the cause of economic crisis and the effects it poses

with the focus on the youth After that, the review of literature on career and career

choices are presented The section ends with theories on career management, which

suggests some factors affecting people’s career choices

2.1 Overview of economic crisis

2.1.1 Definition and cause of economic crisis

According to Oxford dictionary 4" edn, 2008 crisis is a time of difficulty, danger when problems must be solved or important decisions must be made Although there is no definite answer to what an economic crisis is, most people agree with the explanation of a situation in which an economy of a country experience a downturn, with appalling economic indicators such as a falling GDP, export, import, liquidity

While it is possible for economic crisis to be brought on by many different causes, the

most serious one is identified to be financial crisis because “crises are, at a certain level,

extreme manifestation of the interactions between the financial sector and the real economy” (Claessens and Kose, 2013, pp.3) A financial crisis is often an amalgam of events, which includes dramatic changes in credit volume and asset prices, severe disruptions in financial intermediation, the supply of external financing, large scale

balance sheet problems, and the need for large scale government support (Claessens and Kose, 2013) Financial crises are classified into four groups, namely: currency crises,

sudden stop crises, debt crises and banking crises Although having different kinds of

causes and determinants, crises are said to share one common theme: the excessive debt

accumulation as suggested by Reinhart and Rogoff in 2009

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2.1.2 Implications of economic crisis

Once a crisis occurs; it also triggers the changes of several issues although most remains negative Those issues can be divided into two sets of implications: financial implications and social implications

Firstly, in terms of financial implications, it is said that financial crises have large economic costs and are very likely to be followed by recessions (Claessens and Kose,

2012) Not to mention, in most cases, the recessions elicited by financial crises often

cause much deeper and more long-lasting impacts on the economy than the normal ones

as of business cycles The financial results of a crisis can be observed in four particular

areas:

e Both credit and asset prices (exchange rates, equity and house prices) have the

tendency to diminish or possess a very low growth rate in the time of crises This problem, in turn, may raise the cost of equity and consequently, discourage consumption (Issing, 2009)

e Banks and other financial institutions may have to face with the shortage of credit

It is normal to see the banking sector struggle to get external financing after

banking crises due to their impairment in lending capacity (Klingebiel, Laeven and Kroszner, 2007)

e The likelihood of "creditless recoveries" is also a threatening situation toward both developed and developing countries In a creditless recovery, GDP growth rate is

about a third lower than during “normal” recoveries As a result, it takes much longer time for output to return to trend (Abiad, Dell'Ariccia, Bin Li, 2011)

e As the market contains various disruptions and problems during crises, they often suggest the need for financial reform as a wake up call for strengthening regional

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monitoring of financial markets and regional coordination of financial factor policies (Winkler, 2012)

It is easily seen that the financial effects of a crisis are incredibly severe, which is able to

disrupt an economy’s financial system However, financial impacts hardly ever go alone

but are often accompanied by numerous social problems Thus, the second set of implications - social implications, will be reviewed next

Impacts of crisis on society are diverse as they appear in every corner of every day’s lives Social impacts are often measured by a wide range of macroeconomic indicators,

especially GDP, consumption, investment, industrial production, employment, exports and imports In the time of crises, it is typical to see that most macroeconomic variables witness significant decline (Claessens and Kose, 2012) As a result, there often exist decline in production, job loss; the decline of income as well as wages and purchasing power; the change in social spending; the increase in hunger and poverty rate; housing

problems; new investment deferral; the decrease in international trade and countless other issues which pose a huge and long term impact on the whole society (Somavia, 2008)

Furthermore, the youth is said to be amidst those that have been hit the hardest during

crises as their sufferings are so severe and long lasting (Marcus and Gavrilovic, 2010) Figure 1 shows the conceptual framework developed by Marcus and Gavrilovic to prove the effect of economic crisis on young people

—ễễỀ—ỂễỂỂễŸễỂ_ễỂEễễỂEễỄẰỄẰỄẰỄễ

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Effects on household livelihoods and responses: management of sssets,

‘consumption of goods and services, household isbour allocation, housshold

‘composition, nurture, care and protection

Duration, breadth and depth of crisis Vulnerability of household (based on poverty, livelinood source, household composition, social exchision)

‘Age, gander, position in household and stage in life-course

Public policy responses and civil society provision ~ both crisis specific and longer term

Figure 1: Conceptual framework for tracing the impacts of economic crisis on

young people

Source: Oversea Development Institute (ODI, 2010)

As easily seen in the figure, five aspects are identified to be the consequences of economic crises on the youth Aside from poverty that can be easily explained, the other four are discussed below

e Firstly, the greatest and most popular concern to young people is employment In

the time of crisis, the risk of unemployment increases dramatically as companies themselves are struggling not to dismiss too many employees At this time, young people’s access to decent employment is not so promising Along with enterprises’ cutting down on production, it is expected that many job attributes such as salary, benefit and recruitment opportunities will not be the same as before

crisis, which might affect the attractiveness of a career plan toward young people

Believing that crisis may makes certain careers less attractive, this research will test a hypothesis:

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H1: There exists a relationship between economic_crisis and career’s perceived

attractiveness

Ƒ Secondly, the changes in family income, together with the changes in health care

services budget and quality, greatly affect young people’s health conditions In

this period, although young people’s physical health can be of great concern, the

\ state of people’s mental health cannot be ignored by any means as it directly links

with their decision-making

e Thirdly, about well-being and citizenship, Marcus and Gavrilovic (2010)

discussed that crisis can play an important role in increasing domestic violence as

well as crime rate in general, which poses great threat to young people’s overall

v

well beings and citizenship

i MRS đáp

e Finally, in terms of education, it is obvious that the enrolment rate will reduce and be V )

the dropout rate of students is most likely to increase in the time of crises when

many families have to cope with financially unstable conditions =

In short, all aspects mentioned above prove that crisis has a direct impact on young

people’s future and seem to play a crucial role in their career path if arise While crisis

poses a great threat to the whole society, it is the youth that seems to have to face more

serious and lasting effects, which may affect their whole lives In fact, economic crisis

can be considered as a stressful life event to student in particular and people in general

(Wetzer et al, 201 1), which can provoke changes in people’s psychological state and their

personal habit (Anderson, 2010) Due to the unfavorable event occurrence, people’s

priorities are subjected to change to adapt with the environment For instance, to avoid

unemployment, people may choose to work in areas that are unrelated to their majors of

study or even any jobs that they can manage to find Furthermore, often in this state,

“stability” is placed as the most important factors in choosing a career even though it may

not be in other circumstances Therefore, it is believed that economic crisis can have

eee

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influence over people’s priorities, or what they consider important A hypothesis is

H2: There exists a relationship between economic crisis ana students’ value! IVa Wes

Furthermore, economic crisis is expected to affect people’s self-efficacy Self-efficacy is defined as an individual’s level of confidence in and beliefs about his/her abilities to

successfully carry out courses of action, perform given behaviors, accomplish given

tasks, and attain desired performance outcome (Bandura, 1997) There are four sources

from which self-efficacy can develop including’ past performance, learning experiences,

lí verbal persuasion and emotional arousal Among these four, economic crisis can be placed under the cag scan ava, it produces anxiety, uncertainty, insecurity and some other negative psychological states for people These emotional

arousal can lead to fear and cause people to have doubt about their competency (Bandura,

1997) Therefore, in order to test the relationship between crisis and students’ level of

H3: There exists a relationship between economic crisis and students’ level of self

efficacy

2.2 Career choice and the model of career decision making

management

Career is always considered as one of the most important aspects in one’s life According

to Arnold (1997), career is defined as “the sequence of employment-related positions, roles, activities and experiences encountered by a person” Many authors have agreed on

this point when viewing career as a sequencing of an individual’s life, work roles and experience The concept of career has evolved greatly over time If in the past, a lifelong career was often perceived as ideal and somehow became a norm, in today’s society, the

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idea of a stable career does not seem so aspiring anymore due to the change in both

individual and organization’s perspectives (Baruch, 2004) As such, career choice becomes a constant decision that cannot be taken lightly The model in Figure 2 show when a person need to make the decision of changing career

A Career entry

employment within same

D Career advancement

Figure 2: Stages of career planning and advancement Source: Eastern Washington University (2010)

As suggested in the model, amidst six steps in career planning and development, a change

in career can occur in stage one and two, which means while people assess their internal

and external environment (Grinder, 2010) Career choices are not necessary about job in particular It can be the decision to work or not to work, to be in this industry or another,

to be in what kinds of company or working environment In other words, career choices

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refer to all decisions related to career that people have to make Therefore, career choices can be said to occur in many different forms and stages

Career choices is a part of career management which is the reason why when people

make decisions about their careers, it is important to have a thorough and comprehensive |

view about their whole career Path While it is impossible to predict events that will

happen in the future, career management has been emphasized as one of the most useful \

tools for individuals as well as organizations to prepare for the future

2.2.2 Theory on career management

In 2000, Greenhaus et al introduced a model (Figure 3) of career management in which

individuals are seen as the ones who have to make a decision and thus, go to a process of researching and establishing goals and strategies in order to achieve their needs

Information, opportunities, and support from educational, family, work, and societal institutions

Need to make decision

| exploration and environment | setting

|

Progress rm Strategy eae Strategy

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To elaborate on this point, Blitzer (2009) clarified factors that influence one’s career

decision-making process through Figure 4:

THE CAREER PLANNING MODEL

SELF-ASSESSMENT

+ Personality

+Values

«Interests + Skills

+ Evaluate career options

« Set career objectives + Research employers

+ Interview

NY

Figure 4: Career planning model

Source: Blitzer, Florida Atlantic University (2009)

It can be inferred from the previous two models that there are many factors influencing

one’s career decisions, which will be discussed further in the next section

———-—— -———————————————

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Firstly, career decisions are driven by both internal and external factors in which environment plays a crucial role One is expected to do research about career and job market, which is called career exploration, to have a thorough understanding about a

particular career When researching, several factors have to be taken into consideration for people to work out a suitable career plan Given, each individual has his/her own expectations and requirement toward career such as jobs, recruitment opportunities,

working environment, salary, benefits, promotion opportunities, all of which act as

criteria for him/her to decide on what to do Therefore, it can be said that people’s interest

is of great importance to their decision-making, or in other words, in this particular

situation, a career’s perceived attractiveness to a person contributes to his/her final

decisions To test this relationship, a hypothesis is established:

H4: There exists a relationship between career’s perceived attractiveness and students’

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characteristics RIASEC stands for six categories of people as well as six working

environments, including Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising and

Conventional, as clarified in the model Through this model, Holland shows an

undeniable relationship between people’s personalities and their career choices, claiming that personality is one important factor that affects people’s career decisi success

Another worth-considering theory is Brown’s value — based theory In 1996, Brown argued that “value is cognized representation of needs that, when developed, provide

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HS: There exists a relationship between students’ value and their career choices

An additional aspect that receives great attention from researchers is the relationship

between self-efficacy and career choices Apparently, people believe that one’s attitude

toward himself can affect his/her career choices In 1997, Bandura stated his opinion in this matter, claiming that perceived self-efficacy acted as people’s core belief of their

ability and the foundation of human motivation, performance accomplishments, and emotional well-being Especially in the occasion of difficulty, self-efficacy can play a decisive role in changing one’s directions This applies for many different decisions in life, not just only career A hypothesis can be deprived from this theory:

H6: There exists a relationship between self-efficacy and students’ career choices

On a different note, Krumboltz (1999) introduced the concept of “unplanned

happenstance” The theory stresses on the existence of unexpected events that will most definitely affect one’s career path and suggests some methods to help people tackle such events According to him, any unexpected occurrence can be of great benefit if people know how to take advantage of the situation and through that create their own chances In order to perform such tasks, five key traits are identified:

¢ Curiosity: The need to explore new opportunities in any circumstances v

e Persistence: Exert efforts despite obstacles in the way V

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e Flexibility: Keep an open mind, be ready to adapt with the changing ideas and

environment

¢ Optimism: Keep a positive attitude, be open with any changes

e Risk taking: There is no certainty that taking risk would bring opportunities But

on the other hand, the lack of action would most definitely result in no potential

event

This theory acknowledged the effects of external environment on career while at the

same time, present valuable suggestions for people in order to cope with any unexpected events that may occur and economic crisis can be a good example in reality

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3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This section presents the explanation of all scientific methodologies used to carry out the

research In the thesis, both primary data and secondary data were employed for the

analysis Therefore, the section is divided into two parts: primary research methodology,

which includes the conceptual framework and the survey in detail, and secondary research methodology

3.1 Research questions

In order to give an overall view about crisis and career, the following questions need to

be answered:

e How does the current economic crisis affect students’ choices of career?

e Are there any relationships among economic crisis, career’s perceived attractiveness, students’ value and self-efficacy?

e Are there any relationships among career’s perceived attractiveness, students’

value, self-efficacy and career choices?

e How do student perceive their future employability?

e What do students intend to do to raise their future employability?

3.2 Primary data research methodology

3.2.1 Conceptual framework and research hypotheses

Based on the literature and similar works, three factors, which have been proved to directly affect career decision making, are chosen to test the relationships with the economic crisis namely perceived at iveness, value and self-efficacy

Se

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¢ Perceived attractiveness: this factor describes the attractiveness of a career

choice when external environment changes An economic crisis can be regarded as an unexpected event, which possesses great power over the whole society, making several aspects change along its way In this particular issue,

a crisis can shake an entire economy, force numerous companies to go

bankrupt and create thousands of jobless people Consequently, some certain

careers will be more affected than others in terms of salary, benefits, working

hours; which may cause people to lose interest in them In that particular case,

©

people might want to consider other alternatives

e Value: As stated in the previous section, a person’s values-are-seen as the

determining factor of decision making process as it shapes one’s behavior and attitudes Under difficult time, a person’s value can change as they can view things differently from before

e Self-efficacy: Self-efficacy can be defined as ốpe's belief in himself) This

factor serves as one’s motivation and incentive to take action Unless a person believes that he can produce desired outcome from performing an action, the likelihood of that action happening is low Undoubtedly, one’s self-efficacy is

From all the argument stated above, it is rational to say that crisis has relationships

with all three factors

The Fishbein and Ajzen model in Figure 6 can illustrate this point

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Culture and environment

Values, (inclinations Behaviours

Figure 6: Fishbein and Ajzen model

Source: Fishbein, Ajzen (1975)

External environment can directly affect a person’s values, norms, beliefs and

interest, which in turn have influence over one’s behaviors or decisions

Overall, the conceptual framework of the research’s part is as follow:

Career’s perceived

attractiveness

nomic crisis 5 Degree of changes in _ —>| Students’ satisfaction

eee : about career choices students’ values

Figure 7: Research model

Summary of the hypotheses:

Hạ: There is no relationship between economic crisis and career’s perceived

attractiveness

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H1;: There exists a relationship between economic crisis and career’s perceived attractiveness

2): There is no relationship between economic crisis and students’ values

H2,: There exists a relationship between economic crisis and students’ values

H3): There is no relationship between economic crisis and students’ self-efficacy

H3,: There exists a relationship between economic crisis and students’ self-efficacy

Háạ: There is no relationship between career’s perceived attractiveness and students’ career choices

H4,: There exists a relationship between career’s perceived attractiveness and students’

career choices

H5o: There is no relationship between students’ value and their career choices

H5,: There exists a relationship between students’ value and their career choices

H65: There is no relationship between self-efficacy and students’ career choices

H6;: There exists a relationship between self-efficacy and students’ career choices

3.2.2 The survey

A primary source of information has been collected to support the research for this topic

A survey was conducted with the sample size of about 200 participants who are third- year students majoring in Business, including Business Administration (BA), Finance and

Banking (FB) and Accounting (AC) at Ha Noi University through both paper and online survey in two week’s time

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3.2.2.1The survey objectives

The survey’s objectives are: :

e To detect any changes in students’ career decisions before and after crisis >

se To examine the relationship among students’ value, self-efficacy and career’s

perceived attractiveness toward crisis and their career choices

e To explore students’ attitude and response toward the current economic crisis

3.2.2.2 The sampling

200 survey questionnaires were distributed to students in the Faculty of Management and

Tourism (FMT), Hanoi University, using personal administration method and there were

165 surveys returned Of the returned questionnaires, 150 were usable while the

remaining 16 either were left unanswered or had the same answer for all item This

presents a response rate of 82.5% and an effective response rate of 75%, which is

regarded as acceptable in doing research (Baruch, 1999) The convenience-sampling

method was applied in this situation in order to approach the participants because it is

considered an easy, flexible and cost effective approach Moreover, the subjects are

readily available Due to the limited time and budget, this sampling technique is

Table 1: Sample of students majoring in Business in Hanoi University

Source: Primary data

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3.2.2.3 The questionnaire design

A copy of the questionnaire is provided in Appendix 1 The questionnaire was designed

to include three sections The first section asks about respondent’s evaluation of the

current economic crisis and_its effects The second section contains questions related to students’ career intentions_over time and students’ attitude regarding five variables (the

vz

severity of the current economic crisis, career’s perceived attractiveness, the degree to

which students’ values change, students’ level of self-efficacy and the extent to whic! students’ career choices change) Those five variables are measured by a five point Likert scale 1 e ‘third section consists of questions relating to students’ preparations for the

future and their assessment on whether they can achieve it A pilot study was also

conducted to evaluate the validity of the questionnaire and relevant changes were made to reflect the suggestions made by participants in the pilot study

3.2.3 Data collection

In the first two week of April 2013, questionnaires were delivered to participants through

both online (e-mail, Facebook) and face-to-face methods Primary data were collected using a survey based on self-administered approach in which the researcher, together with the help of assistants, distributed and collected the questionnaires from the

respondents This questionnaire administration approach was chosen because it is less expensive to monitor and respondents are assured of anonymity and privacy; thus, the

quality of the survey is improved (Bowling, 2005)

3.2.4 Data analysis

The data derived from the questionnaire are processed using Statistical Package for

Social Science (SPSS) version 16, which is a very popular system for analyzing data Firstly, the collected data was edited, coded and treated for missing values in numerical

re

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order in SPSS In the coding process, reverse coding was applied for some particular

variables to ensure the consistency and validity of data Then, reliability test (which will

be discussed in detail in the next section) was utilized, followed by descriptive statistical

analysis and Spearman’s correlation test

3.2.5 Reliability

Measurement reliability represents the extent to which measurements are repeatable, or in

other words, measurements of individuals produce the same or similar results on different

occasions, or by different observers, or by similar and parallel test (Nunnally, 1978) When measuring any particular attribute, there might be several sources of error

including both systematic bias problems and random errors A measurement scale is considered “reliable” only if the measurement error is small (Nunnally, 1978), or if the

scale’s reliability equals or surpasses a given level Among several existing methods to test for reliability, one of the most common one is internal consistency estimates The

reason for their popularity is that they are readily calculated from a single administration

of a test (Henson, 2001) Coefficient alpha (Cronbach’s a) is identified as the basic formula for determining the reliability based on internal consistency and has been widely used by many researchers using multiple scale items The acceptable cutoff point is said

to be 0.7, which means that all attributes are internally consistent In this research, a five

point measurement scale ranging from “Strongly disagree” to “Strongly agree” is applied for the variables Reliability analysis from SPSS software indicates that all items either equaled or exceeded the point of 0.7 for scale reliability, thus ensuring the reliability of the tool used as displayed in Table 5

3.3 Secondary data research methodology

Apart from the data and information acquired from the primary method, this research paper also derived materials from relevant, reliable articles, e-journals, research working

eee

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papers, books, e-books and websites These sources of data were applied to describe the current situation of economic crisis, its causes and effects, as well as the conditions of labor market in Vietnam, its current trends and government support

Nguyén Tra My : Page 33

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4 RESULTS AND FINDINGS

This section presents all the findings drawn from both primary and secondary data The first issue is a deep look in the current situation of Vietnamese labor market and its expected trends in the future The second part is dedicated for the analysis of

students’ career plans in response to the current economic crisis with the effect of major; their attitude and preparations for the future will be also clearly stated The hypothesis testing part will confirm the validity of factors affecting students’ career

choices

4.1 The current situation in Vietnam

4.1.1 The current situation of Vietnamese labor market

During the period of 2000 to 2007, the employment growth rate of Vietnam increased steadily at the rate of approximately 2.5% per year, or equivalent to 1.06 million people each year (MOLISA) Furthermore, the unemployment rate is reported at only around (2%, \indicating a quite stable working environment

However, fro: 07 to 2009, in other words, when the global crisis started to take

effects on Vie €conomy, many indicators of Vietnamese labor force increased significantly, | càŠ 4 un |

.” \ sở wi?

ye

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Labour force participation rate (15+)

Figure 8: Key indicators of the labor market from 2007 — 2009

Source: General Statistics Office (GSO, 2010)

It can be clearly seen that the unemployment rate reached 2.6% in 2009, indicating a

6% increase in two years Among all age group, the youth (aged 15-24) is said to

have suffered the most

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The impacts of current economic crisis on career choices of third-year students at

The significant increase in unemployment rate is resulted from the slowdown of the

national economy due to the global crisis Several enterprises in general and

especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in particular had to cut down on

production and reduce the number of employees, creating a widespread job loss Moreover, it hindered the creation of new jobs as the figure fell from 1.68 million in

2007 to 1.51 million in 2009 (GSO)

In terms of employment quality, Pierre (2012) has considered four factors:

Stability

Pierre argued that in Vietnam’s employment structure, the percentage of

jobs that are generally considered as secure, wage employment is relatively low in comparison with other ASEAN countries

Nguyén Tra My Page 36

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Indonesia Philippines Thaml — Vigtam! Wage employment 1ú ĐÀ) 4) 34 Employers 19 42 16 43

In the time of crisis, even the security of wage employment decreased, as

employers prefer temporary workers and free lancers to reduce the cost of

employment

employment, the benefits offered are few, especially when the whole

| economy is still struggling to recover In Tet Holiday 2013, several banks

in Vietnam, which previously are among the most generous employers, had to announce that they could not offer any bonus for employees due to

bad situation (Thanh, 2013)

se Working hours Not only unemployment rate is increased during the time of crisis but also

the underemployment rate According to ILO, the underemployed is defined as “all employed persons who during a specified period work less than 35 hours a week and who wish to work additional hours” The underemployment is even worse than unemployment as the statistics

reported a 2% increase from 3.5% in 2007 to 5.5% in 2009 (GSO) Among

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the most popular reasons for underemployment, job related (job loss, factory closure, lack of working hour) ranked third with 12.6%

® Income Obviously, when enterprises are trying to survive in the time of crisis, all the expenses are subjects to be cut down, and employees’ salary is not an exception There are announcement of salary reduction from banks, SMEs and even state owned companies (Duy, 2012)

In short, during crisis not only is the number of job scare but the quality of employment is

also badly affected This makes several careers become less attractive and at the same

time, cause the competition for a decent job to be even harsher than before

4.1.2 Expected trends

Many organizations have published studies to reflect on the current situation in 2012 and

give predictions for the coming years According to a study conducted by Tower

Swatson in 2012, a number of changes are expected to take place, which may pose as

opportunities and challenges for students who are planned to graduate next year The trends in three aspects are considered, including industry, job and level of employment

e Industry

Among pmpanies surveyed, 37% are positive about their business prospect

this year despite the current economic uncertainties However, 27% expect that they will be impacted negatively this year Among those 27%, most belong to the manufacturing industry

In another survey conducted by Anphabe, it is revealed that the promising

industries in 2013 would be Fast Moving Consumer Good and Pharmaceuticals

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Tiêu đề	The impacts of current economic crisis on career choices of third-year students at the Faculty of Management and Tourism, Hanoi University
Tác giả	Nguyen Tra My
Người hướng dẫn	Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Hang
Trường học	Hanoi University
Chuyên ngành	Business Administration
Thể loại	Graduation thesis
Năm xuất bản	2013
Thành phố	Hanoi

Định dạng
Số trang	89
Dung lượng	18,41 MB