ABSTRACT
Career aspirations are crucial for long-term professional success for these provide directions, motivations and a clear vision of the future. This study seeks to explore the career aspirations of criminology students in the public educational institutions in the National Capital Region offering Bachelor of Science in Criminology examining their personal, influence, motivation factors and challenges they encountered towards the profession they dreamt to be. It provides valuable insights into how educational institutions can better support students in career planning and development with a descriptive quantitative research design employed for the systematic collection and analysis of numerical data, facilitating a comprehensive understanding of the factors. Factors like personal, influence and motivation were found out to very important influence while the challenges factors were most challenging. All relationships tested are statistically significant, emphasizing the complexity of the factors. The demographic attributes such as Age have a moderate negative correlation, gender shows a strong negative correlation, and civil status reveals that students with family responsibilities, such as married students experience more challenges and have different career goals compared to those without family obligations. Family Income is the most significant factor influencing career aspirations, with students from higher-income families facing fewer challenges and having greater opportunities to pursue ambitious careers in criminology. Educational management is crucial in shaping criminology students' career aspirations and by addressing diverse factors and implementing inclusive policies, financial aids, mentorship, and flexible learning options, institutions can empower students to achieve their aspirations and contribute to the growth of skilled professionals in the field.
Keywords: career aspirations, career preparedness, challenges, criminology students, influence, challenges, and motivations