Changing Occupations or Changing Companies—Predictors of Different Types of Premature Contract Terminations in Dual Vocational Education and Training Programs

IF 1.9 2区教育学 Q2 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Vocations and Learning Pub Date : 2023-10-04 DOI:10.1007/s12186-023-09338-7

Stefanie Findeisen, Lukas Ramseier, Markus P. Neuenschwander

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Abstract

Abstract In Switzerland, access to non-academic occupations requires the completion of a vocational education and training (VET) program. Over two-thirds of adolescents choose to start a dual VET program after compulsory education. However, this path from school to work is not always linear, and changes can be a means of adjusting wrong career choices. In the context of dual VET, two types of adjustments that occur frequently can be distinguished: (1) change of occupations and (2) change of companies. The present study aims to examine the predictors of each of those two types of changes. First, we are interested in the link between individuals’ intentions to change their career paths and actual changes. When changes are intended by the trainee and aimed at correcting wrong career choices, actual changes can generally be expected to be predicted by change intentions. Second, we are interested in the role of person-job fit (P-J fit) as well as trainees’ socialization and performance indicators. Third, we examine to what extent trainees’ decisions to change occupations or companies can be predicted by pre-entry factors (perceived P-J fit and effort during compulsory education before the transition to VET). We used a longitudinal sample of adolescents at the end of compulsory school and at the end of their first year in a dual VET program in Switzerland. This data set is combined with government data on actual changes regarding individuals’ training companies and their occupations. The two types of adjustments were examined in separate structural equation models that compared trainees without any types of adjustments during their training program (1) to those who changed occupations ( N = 417) and (2) to those who changed training companies ( N = 378). The results show that actual occupational changes and actual company changes of trainees are affected by the same work-context predictors (negative effect of trainees’ self-perceived work performance) and pre-entry predictors (negative effect of effort during compulsory education). However, in contrast to changes of training companies, changes of occupations are significantly predicted by trainees’ intentions to change. Moreover, while P-J fit during the VET program is the only direct predictor of trainees’ intentions to change occupations, intentions to change companies are not significantly predicted by P-J fit. Intentions to change companies are negatively affected by companies’ socialization tactics and positively affected by adolescents’ pre-entry effort. Overall, the results call for a more differentiated assessment of changes/ premature contract terminations in future studies. Whether change intentions are a valid proxy for actual change behavior seems to depend on the type of changes that trainees decide to make.

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职业变化或公司变化——双重职业教育和培训项目中不同类型合同过早终止的预测因素

在瑞士，获得非学术性职业需要完成职业教育和培训(VET)计划。超过三分之二的青少年选择在义务教育后开始双重职业教育培训计划。然而，从学校到工作的这条道路并不总是线性的，改变可能是调整错误职业选择的一种手段。在双重职业教育背景下，经常发生的两种类型的调整可以区分:(1)职业的变化和(2)公司的变化。本研究旨在研究这两种变化的预测因素。首先，我们感兴趣的是个人改变职业道路的意图与实际变化之间的联系。当学员有意改变，目的是纠正错误的职业选择时，实际的改变通常可以通过改变意图来预测。其次，我们感兴趣的是人职契合度(P-J契合度)的作用，以及学员的社会化和绩效指标。第三，我们考察了受训者改变职业或公司的决定在多大程度上可以通过入职前因素(在过渡到VET之前的义务教育期间感知到的P-J契合度和努力程度)来预测。我们使用了一个纵向样本，样本是瑞士义务教育结束时的青少年，以及他们在双重职业教育培训项目的第一年结束时的青少年。该数据集结合了有关个人培训公司及其职业实际变化的政府数据。这两种类型的调整是在单独的结构方程模型中进行检验的，该模型比较了在培训计划中没有任何类型调整的受训者(1)与改变职业的受训者(N = 417)和(2)与改变培训公司的受训者(N = 378)。结果表明，实习人员的实际职业变化和实际公司变化受到相同的工作环境预测因子(实习人员自我感知工作绩效的负向影响)和入职前预测因子(义务教育期间努力的负向影响)的影响。然而，与培训公司的变化相比，受训者的改变意愿对职业的变化有显著的预测作用。此外，虽然职业技能培训计划期间的职业技能契合度是学员换职业意愿的唯一直接预测因子，但职业技能契合度对换公司意愿的预测并不显著。换公司意向受公司社会化策略的负向影响，受青少年入职前努力的正向影响。总的来说，结果要求在未来的研究中对变更/过早终止合同进行更有区别的评估。变更意图是否是实际变更行为的有效代理似乎取决于受训者决定进行的变更的类型。

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来源期刊

Vocations and Learning EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH-

CiteScore

5.30

自引率

17.90%

发文量

期刊介绍： Vocations and Learning: Studies in Vocational and Professional Education is an international peer-reviewed journal that provides a forum for strongly conceptual and carefully prepared manuscripts that inform the broad field of vocational learning. The scope of the journal and its focus on vocational learning is inclusive of vocational and professional learning albeit through the very diverse range of settings (e.g. vocational colleges, schools, universities, workplaces, domestic environments, voluntary bodies etc) in which it occurs. It stands to be the only truly international journal that focuses on vocational learning, as encompassing the activities that comprise vocational education and professional education in their diverse forms internationally. Vocations and Learning aims to: enhance the contribution of research and scholarship to vocational and professional education policy; support the development of conceptualisation(s) of vocational and professional learning and education; improve the quality of practice within vocational and professional learning and education; and enhance and support the standing of these fields as a sectors with its own significant purposes, pedagogies and curriculums. Vocations and Learning: Studies in Vocational and Professional Education encourages the submission of high-quality contributions from a broad range of disciplines, as well as those that cross disciplinary boundaries, in addressing issues associated with vocational and professional education. It is intended that contributions will represent those from major disciplines (i.e. psychology, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, history, cultural studies, labour studies, industrial relations and economics) as cross overs within and hybrids with and amongst these disciplinary traditions. These contributions can comprise papers that provide either empirically-based accounts, discussions of theoretical perspectives or reviews of literature about vocational learning. In addition, books, reports and policies associated with vocational learning will also be reviewed. Topics addressed through contributions within the proposed journal might include, but will not be restricted to: curriculum and pedagogy practices for vocational learning the role and nature of knowledge in vocational learning the nature of vocations, professional practice and learning the relationship between context and learning in vocational settings the nature and role of vocational education the nature of goals for vocational learning different manifestations and comparative analyses of vocational education, their purposes and formation organisational pedagogics transformations in vocational learning and education over time and space analyses of instructional practice within vocational learning and education analyses of vocational learning and education policies international comparisons of vocational learning and education critical appraisal of contemporary policies, practices and initiatives studies of teaching and learning in vocational education approaches to vocational learning in non-work settings and in unpaid work learning throughout working lives relationships between vocational learning and economic imperatives and conceptions and national and trans-national agencies and their policies.