Project

Career decisions of students upon completion of their VET programme in health care

This project focuses on the second transition of holders of non-academic health care qualifications, i.e. the transition from upper-secondary level VET programmes to working life or to tertiary level. A longitudinal analysis is being conducted for the entire population of students in the third year of VET programmes in health care in Switzerland. The aim is to determine the intended and actual career decisions of this population on the basis of institutional and personal factors. This transition to professional education and training at tertiary level is a major concern in nursing and health care because of current and anticipated shortages of qualified workforce in these fields.

Rido / Fotolia

Intended and actual career decisions of learners will be considered from both a sociological and social psychological perspective. The aim is to conduct a comparative analysis of the short- and medium-term intentions and/or decisions of learners in different regions and working structures.

Emphasis is also placed on the analysis of the various factors that influence the intended and actual career decisions, to determine what conditions and accompanying factors encourage a learner to remain in the occupation or seek tertiary-level training. The following influencing factors are considered:

  • Social background of parental home as well as gender, age and education/training background of the learner;
  • Learner satisfaction with training and occupational socialisation, in relation to different working structures and training conditions;
  • Occupational status and learner expectations.
Method

A longitudinal study is being conducted in two phases. In all regions of Switzerland, a cross-sectional survey was first conducted of all learners who entered the third year of their initial VET programme in health care in 2009/2010 (n=2089, exhaustive survey). This survey was conducted between September 2010 and January 2011 at industry courses and/or VET schools. The survey sought to determine the intended career decisions of learners at that point in time.

One year after completion of their VET programme (June 2012), the same learners will be contacted for a second time to determine their current occupational situation. Both data sets will be matched and then subjected to cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis. 

The data will be analysed in a descriptive and inferential manner. Using binary and multinomial logistic regression, the probability of a given career decision will be estimated on the basis of the above-mentioned influencing factors.