The effectiveness of Business Week

Abstract

The major purpose of this study was to determine to what extent, if any, Business Week had on career choices and college selections of high school sophomores and juniors that previously attended the week long program. The population selected included students that attended Business Week during the 1988, 1989, and 1990 sessions. The sample size was 200 students selected from the population. Data were gathered through a literature review and a survey instrument. A 43% response rate was received on the survey instrument, which was carried out via parcel post. The main conclusions of this study were: (1) Business Week is successful in reaching those students that plan on attending college following graduation from high school (88.1% of those surveyed went on to post secondary schools); (2) Business Week positively influenced 55.9% of the students in regards to career choice; (3) Business Week had only a 30.5% positive influence on students choice of college; (4) Students that attended Business Week attended to learn more about business and economic issues (87.2% positive responses), as well as to spend a week on a college campus (77.6% positive responses); (5) Business Week has a good reputation of delivering information in regards to business and economic issues (95.3% positive responses); and (6) students would attend Business Week again if given the opportunity (89.5% positive responses). Recommendations would be to: (1) maintain the present size of classes and companies at Business Week; (2) continue to hold Business Week on the campus of Montana State University; (3) allow high school seniors the opportunity to participate in Business Week; (4) make sure high school teachers are receiving and sharing information concerning Business Week with their students.