The Psychology of Dual Vocational Education (DVE) Influencing Factors and Student Dropout Problem Identification: Guidelines from Thailand

Abstract

Multiple studies have reported that in Thailand as elsewhere, Dual Vocational Education (DVE) programs are plagued with high student dropout rates. Therefore, this study investigated the causes and reported on the possible solutions. The research was divided into two phases. In the first phase, 40 DVE experts were interviewed, from which content analysis was undertaken to determine which factors contributed to Thai DVE dropout rates. After this, a 93-item questionnaire was developed, which was responded to by 350 individuals selected by multistage random sampling. The data was then analyzed using a second-order confirmatory factors analysis (CFA) with LISREL 9.10 software. Results revealed six main factors contributing to DVE student dropout rates. When ranked in importance, these were 1) enterprise factors (0.98), 2) dual vocational student factors (0.95), 3) parental factors (0.93), 4) vocational schools factors (0.92), 5) workplace trainer factors (0.85), and 6) supervising teacher factors (0.83), with all factors having statistical significance ≤ 0.05. This study comprehensively analyzes a broad spectrum of educators within Thailand’s dual-vocation education system. It represents a fundamental analysis of 93 factors and their importance in solving the costly and non-sustainable DVE student dropout rate, both domestically and internationally.