A DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR CAREER PATH SELECTION USING A SOFT COMPUTING APPROACH

ABSTRACT
Making the right decision is a major challenge faced by all humans especially in today’s global economy where there is vast amount of information available to the decision maker. The situation is more challenging to secondary school students who may lack enough knowledge about the possible options but are obligated to decide on a career path early in life amidst several driving and inhibiting factors. The choice made has a lasting effect on an individual; a wrong choice can affect the student’s career negatively beginning with poor performance or other demerits. Making a career decision involves several uncertainties in which several variables are considered. It is therefore important to carefully guide these students rather than impose a choice on them while making such decision. This study adopted a soft computing approach to design a Decision Support System to assist secondary school students in making better career decisions. Both Primary and secondary data (variables) that usually influence a student’s career choice were considered as inputs into the fuzzy inference system and the resulting output is a course which we believe the student will be comfortable with. This system will immensely benefit the students and the Nigerian educational system in general by recommending careers that represent the students’ actual choice.