The study examined whether a structured programme in career exploration skills produced different post-intervention outcomes for male and female senior secondary students in Cape Coast, Ghana. Using the original quasi-experimental dataset, gender-disaggregated post-test analyses compared experimental and control groups on five competence-based career maturity subscales: knowledge of the world of work, résumé writing, application letters, interviewing, and rules for success. Female experimental students outperformed female controls on three subscales (application letters, résumé writing, rules for success), while male experimental students showed gains notably in world-of-work knowledge and interviewing. No significant gender differences were observed within the experimental group at post-test, whereas two subscales differed by gender in the control group. These findings suggest gender-specific response patterns coupled with overall gender equity in treatment effects. Implications for targeted, gender-sensitive delivery are discussed.
Keywords: Bifactor-ESEM Modeling, Career Maturity, Ghanaian senior high schools, competence-based education, psychometric validation
