Factors Predicting Students’ Decision to Choose the Apprenticeship-Based Pre-Diploma Program

Abstract

Program choice is a big dilemma for students. After the Secondary Education Examination (SEE), students have options in the general and technical streams for further study. Moreover, in technical education, SEE appeared students can pursue an 18-month pre-diploma and apprenticeship-based pre-diploma program. The apprenticeship-based pre-diploma program caters to free courses in different occupations in workplace-based learning with an earning approach. As for its features, it is likely to be of great attraction to the program. However, there is a skill mismatch between technical schools and workplace industries; thus, there is a dropout issue in apprenticeship-based pre-diploma programs. There are few articles and working papers on the Nepal program in terms of choice of apprenticeship-based pre diploma program. Thus, this study explored the factors predicting students' decision to choose the apprenticeship-based pre-diploma program. This study included a quantitative approach with an exploratory design. Constructing questionnaires from literature, vocational choice theory, and item analysis, 240 first-year students were surveyed. Statistical tools - Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), descriptive statistics, t-test, and ANOVA- were applied for data analysis. Similarly, reliability, validity, and ethical considerations were ensured respectively. The study revealed three dimensions predicting students' decision to choose the apprenticeship-based pre-diploma program as a study result - personal interest, economic outcome, and subjective norm. Among them, the most influencing factor in students' choice of the apprenticeship-based pre-diploma program was their interest in the workplace learning, followed by the economic outcome as its central feature and student benefit. Likewise, the subjective norm was found to be less influential for the program choice. The study's findings revealed that only subjective norm significantly differed across the students' previous school types, public and private. This means that family members, friends, school staff, advertisements, and relatives influenced public and private school students differently. Besides, other factors - personal interest and economic outcome- did not differ between their school types, and all three associated factors did not differ across different demographic variables, i.e., gender, ethnicity, locale, and family. The findings and conclusion of this study can be helpful for prospective students and their parents to assess if the program meets their interests and objectives. Similarly, the result of this study can be a good resource for technical schools to market mix and attract suitable students so that there won't be issues like absenteeism and dropout. The findings can provide insights and support policymakers in formulating viable policies for institution-industry - CTEVT linkage and address economically poor, marginalized, and academically weak students. Furthermore, future researchers in apprenticeship-based pre-diploma programs or technical education can use this study as an excellent reference to explore other content in the broader area and different methods.