Choosing IT as a Career: Exploring the Role of Self-Efficacy and Perceived Importance of IT Skills

Understanding the factors which shape students’ IT career choices will allow educators to design recruitment and retention strategies to tackle the enrolment challenges. The objective of this researchin-progress is to explore the effects of two such factors, i.e., IT skills Self-efficacy(SE) and IT Skills Importance, on students’ attraction to IT careers. A survey methodology was used to achieve the aforementioned objective. Undergraduate students enrolled in IT courses at two large U.S. public universities were surveyed. This study makes a contribution to the field of IT education in multiple ways. First it develops scales for two beliefs which are crucial in capturing students’ attraction to IT careers. Second, it provides insights into students’ perceptions regarding the importance of various IT skills. Third, it posits a preliminary model which helps in our understanding of how students’ personal perceptions regarding the importance of IT skills affect SE beliefs and career intentions.