How people choose vocational education and training programs: Social, educational and personal influences on aspiration

Design

This project investigated the reasons why people choose to enrol in vocational education and training (VET) programs. There were three components to the study: an analysis of existing research reports and publications; a questionnaire survey of a national sample of students in VET programs; and site visits to selected VET institutions for in-depth discussions with personnel and students.

The analysis of existing research and publications guided the identification of issues for the questionnaire and the site interviews. This study verified some of the existing research findings and extended the discussion of pertinent issues. Previous studies covered students in schools and universities, whereas this study focussed on post-secondary students in VET.

The questionnaire survey yielded responses from 1501 VET students from a target sample of 3000 students equally representative of four fields of study: business; engineering; health and community welfare; and tourism and hospitality. For each field of study, the target and response samples were proportionately representative of the VET enrolment across the five States, location (urban or country), provider type (public or private), program level (certificate 1, certificate 2, certificate 3, certificate 4 and diploma), and enrolment mode (full-time or part-time). The survey can be accepted as providing valid data on student opinions.

The site visits involved 11 institutions covering both public and private providers across the three eastern States, with balanced representation of the four fields of study as well as institutional types, regions and contexts. The target groups for interviews were: institute management; department heads and teachers; information officers and counsellors; and students. Some representative employers were also included. The data from these site visits can be accepted as providing good coverage of issues concerning student choice of VET.

Findings

It was found that work experience or employment is substantially influential for more people than any other factor in their choice of VET program, followed in order by parental or guardian influence, performance in school subjects, advertising booklets or handbooks, personal experience of study at college or university, personal friends and employers. However, no factor has better than slight influence for more than about one-third of enrolments. There is no overwhelming single influence for everyone, rather a combination of influences, each contributory but not conclusive in itself. The central message is that choice of course of study is a personal decision linked to basic human aspirations and that it is important to recognise, understand and satisfy those aspirations.

Factors influencing choice of a particular VET institution, rather than some other institution, are: its course offerings; convenience factors such as proximity to home and course timetable; program affordability; opportunity for practical experiences; quality factors such as reputation of the institution and its qualifications; and institutional ambience, especially whether it is friendly and caring.

Three different types of reasons for enrolling in VET were discovered (in order of prevalence): to obtain a job; to realise personal aspirations; and to acquire or upgrade skills for current employment. It would appear that immediate employer requirements are of very low importance in the overall training market and previously have been given too much attention in national policy. Employers determine directly only about one-tenth of VET enrolments. Most enrolments involve people seeking a job or a better job or broadening their skills for future job possibilities in a changing job market. Employment opportunities in the field of study therefore rate highly as a reason for choice of program, although personal interest can be more important for some. Perceptions that the field of study also suits their personality and interests also play a role. However, people tend to be poorly informed about VET and unaware of their course options and pathways and need much better information and guidance to assist their making better choices.

Conclusions and recommendations

For a changing job market, personal and societal needs are served best by training which develops flexibility, allowing for a range of options and better preparedness for an uncertain future. This has been described as training for ?anticipated? labour market transactions in contrast to ?completed? labour market transactions as in the case of apprentices and trainees who are training as part of their employment. Anticipation of this kind is to be encouraged. Students can make more rapid and sensitive adjustments to the needs of the market through enlightened self-interest than is likely by either governments or employers, provided that training providers have similar flexibility of response. Future-oriented training requires greater emphasis on generic competencies, transferable skills, flexibility and adaptability, enquiry and problem-solving skills and capacity to continue learning. Training programs must adapt quickly to this demand.

Flexibility

There is therefore a need to remove or lessen inflexibilities in the training market, to recognise the primary agency of student interests and needs, to put more emphasis on long-term future-oriented training needs, to recognise the broader role played by training institutions in assisting personal development, to provide more extensive and more pertinent opportunities for experiences and understandings of work, to link these opportunities to long-term, systematic, school-based programs of career guidance, and to establish stronger relationships and innovative programs linking schools and training institutions. These initiatives would revitalise VET. They would also contribute to an improvement in its status.

Status

Currently, VET has low status. Deliberate attempts need to be made to raise its status. More positive images of the value of vocational training qualifications and of the jobs to which they lead need to be generated. Better information strategies need to be devised to raise awareness of different and changing forms of employment opportunities and their training needs. School teachers need to be co-opted as ambassadors for VET so that they promote positive attitudes towards choice of VET and encourage more sensitive matching of personal interests and capabilities and training opportunities and challenges.

Of course, positive images must be honest to be successful. The VET sector has to prove itself to be relevant, worthwhile and engaging. It must demonstrate that its programs lead to rewarding work opportunities. However, scenarios of work opportunities can be constructed that go beyond immediate employment to suggest pathways to personal advancement within business and industry. Such scenarios need to counter the self-destructive notion that the only pathway to personal fulfilment, status and wealth in the society is through university degree studies. Other visions of opportunities need to be constructed emphasising multiple avenues to personal advancement, expanding the horizons of those in training so that they can aspire to more distant possibilities in their future. Raising the status of VET in this way will require a concerted effort of research and development. Resources need to be devoted to this urgently.

Training providers

Diversity among training providers should continue to be encouraged. Diversity allows the value and quality of different approaches to be tested in a competitive environment where the choices made by individual enrollees ultimately favour those programs that are seen to be of highest value and greatest quality. The encouragement of diversity also supports a culture of deliberate attention to individual student need, especially involving attention to future study and work opportunities. It is also recommended that all institutions develop deliberate policies and strategies for teacher involvement in the promotion of their programs, contacts with schools and contacts with employers.

Information dissemination strategies

Information dissemination and advertising needs to involve a mix of strategies. Personal outreach is most important. It is recommended that VET providers be encouraged to develop innovative ways of providing students, both before and during training, with experiences of work situations and with understandings of the expectations of employers. In addition, making wise decisions about training options requires high-level personal decision-making skills, including skills in obtaining and systematising information on providers and courses as well as skills in considering the match to personal needs, interests, capabilities and aspirations. New strategies are also needed for career guidance in schools and training institutions, involving long-term development of vocational understandings, decision-making strategies and strategic visions of the future. A national program of research and development on this is urgently needed.

Career development for students

The evidence of this study is that students in VET programs are generally limited in their vision of where their training program may lead apart from an immediate anticipated job. Some see obtaining that job as more important than completion of the training program. Giving students a vision of future possibilities is not the same as making sure they are well informed about their training options and not the same as equipping them with decision-making strategies. Helping students to develop a vision of their future is about extending their horizons beyond the end of their training program. This needs to be a third component of career development along with acquiring information on training options and developing decision-making strategies. As with the other two components of career development, this needs to infuse the whole of their education and training experience. It is not something that can be left to be dealt with at the end of the training period, as they enter the work force, but must be developed over time.