Career Oriented? Life Orientation of the Youth from Vocational School

Abstract

In this article, considerations have been made about life orientations adopted by young people participating in contemporary reality in the context of their professional choices. In an attempt to answer the question: “What personality and social variables affect the kind and quality of the life orientation manifested by the studied youth?”, the text presents the results of empirical analyses of a section of an extensive exploration concerning the professional orientation of youth from vocational schools. It was a diagnostic survey conducted among 697 students of selected vocational schools and technical schools located in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian and Greater Poland regions. Apparently, it would seem that a significant position among the existential orientations of this group of young people who, after becoming qualified to perform the chosen occupation, become active participants in the labor market, will be taken up by career. It turns out, however, that dominant life orientations of respondents are family and hedonistic lifestyles, thus an attempt was made to explain that regularity.