Higher education in Switzerland: Predictors of becoming engaged in higher vocational or higher academic education - the role of workplace factors

Nägele, Christof; Neuenschwander, Markus P.; Rodcharoen, Patsawee Article Higher education in Switzerland: Predictors of becoming engaged in higher vocational or higher academic education - the role of workplace factors International Journal for Research in Vocational Education and Training (IJRVET) Provided in Cooperation with: European Research Network in Vocational Education and Training (VETNET), European Educational Research Association Suggested Citation: Nägele, Christof; Neuenschwander, Markus P.; Rodcharoen, Patsawee (2018) : Higher education in Switzerland: Predictors of becoming engaged in higher vocational or higher academic education - the role of workplace factors, International Journal for Research in Vocational Education and Training (IJRVET), ISSN 2197-8646, European Research Network in Vocational Education and Training (VETNET), European Educational Research Association, Bremen, Vol. 5, Iss. 4, pp. 264-284, https://doi.org/10.13152/IJRVET.5.4.2 This Version is available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/191240 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. 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If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ International Journal for Research in Vocational Education and Training (IJRVET) Vol. 5, Issue 4, December 2018, 264-284 DOI: 10.13152/IJRVET.5.4.2 Higher Education in Switzerland: Predictors of Becoming Engaged in Higher Vocational or Academic Education – the Role of Workplace Factors Christof N¨agele∗, Markus P. Neuenschwander, and Patsawee Rodcharoen University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, School of Education, Institute Research and Development, Centre for Learning and Socialisation, Obere Sternengasse 7, 4502 Solothurn, Switzerland Received: 25.06.2018; Accepted: 07.11.2018; Published: 17.12.2018 Abstract Context: Vocational education and training enables young people to quickly and effectively enter the labour market. To advance their careers and to develop their professional expertise even more, they must then further their education through higher vocational or higher academic education. In this study, we looked at young people at work: What motivates them to move on towards higher education? As they are engaged in their jobs, their work situations will affect their further educational engagement. We hypothesised that individuals will more likely move towards higher education if their workplaces offer learning opportunities and social support. Human capacities, attitudes, and goals at work develop mainly in informal or non-formal learning situations and in their interactions with their teams. We tested the effect of these workplace factors by taking into account additional important predictors of educational pathways, such as sociodemographic factors (social background, nationality, gender) and motivational factors (values). ∗ Corresponding author: [email protected] ISSN: 2197-8646 http://www.ijrvet.net Higher Education in Switzerland 265 Methods: Data stemmed from a multi-cohort longitudinal survey on educational decisions and educational pathways in the German part of Switzerland (BEN), running from 2012 to 2016. The selected sample consisted of 601 working individuals who were not engaged in higher education in 2014. Multinomial logistic regressions were run to test the hypothesis. Findings: First, we found that only 35% of the individuals who wanted to become engaged in higher vocational education in 2012 became engaged up to 2016 compared with those intending to become involved in higher academic education, where the rate varied by age—from younger to older—between 45% and 70%. Second, we found distinctive predictors for becoming engaged in higher vocational or academic education. Workplace factors predict engagement in higher vocational education but not sociodemographic factors, whereas sociodemographic and not workplace factors predict engagement in higher academic education. A significant predictor for both groups is the value attributed to higher education. Conclusions: The unique contribution of this paper is to show that distinct patterns of becoming engaged in higher vocational or higher academic education exist. These results confirmed the persistent effect of sociodemographic factors that shape the pathway to higher academic education. Moreover, the results indicated that an individual’s value and workplace factors contribute to enabling paths to higher vocational education, as this depends not on sociodemographic factors but on shaping the work environment that supports learning at work. Keywords: VET, Vocational Education and Training, Lifelong Career, Professional Development, Learning Culture, Social Inequality 1 Introduction Further education and training is important for individuals as well as for companies and society (Noe, Clarke, & Klein, 2014), and it is an essential aspect of developing a meaningful work career (Duffy, Blustein, Diemer, & Autin, 2016). Although vocational education and training enables young people to quickly and effectively enter the labour market, a drawback of this early specialisation is the reduced adaptability to changing occupational environments later (Hampf & Woessmann, 2016). Completing further education after completing initial vocational education and training is therefore important, as this helps an individual to advance his or her career, gain access to employment, and sustain and develop the skills needed for innovation and sustainability in a changing and competitive labour market. After graduating from vocational education, not all individuals pursue further education. Engagement in further education during a person’s early professional career depends on a multitude of factors. Sometimes further education is seen as being concurrent with productive work. It is the organisational learning culture that enables incidental and non-formal learning at work (Marsick & Watkins, 2003), which also paves the way for formal education. Learning at work contributes to an individual’s achievement and performance as well as to his or her future development 266 N¨agele, Neuenschwander, Rodcharoen (Janssens, Smet, Onghena, & Kyndt, 2017), as the boundaries between these modes of learning overlap (Manuti, Pastore, Scardigno, Giancaspro, & Morciano, 2015). Individual planning for further education depends on more than merely organisational factors, such as the learning opportunities available at work. Rather, planning also depends on educational opportunities within a specific educational system, as well as on the social expectations and the particular context as reflected by an individual’s origin, nationality, or gender (Becker, 2016). Furthermore, planning also depends on an individual’s motivation to pursue higher education1(Neuenschwander, Gerber, Frank, & Rottermann, 2012; Wigfield, Rosenzweig, & Eccles, 2017). Irrespective of the question of the educational system, the underlying question is, why do some individuals continue their tertiary education on the vocational pathway whereas others choose the academic pathway? Knowing why individuals follow either the vocational or the academic track to higher education helps companies and counsellors to better advise and coach individuals and to develop measures for upskilling and retaining their workforces by allocating them to higher vocational education. 2 Predicting Participation in Higher Education Here, we discuss how workplace-related factors, sociodemographic factors, and an individual’s value towards further education shapes becoming engaged in higher vocational or higher academic education. 2.1 Workplace Factors The effects of the workplace on becoming engaged in formal education is complex (Vanthournout, Kyndt, Gijbels, & Van den Bossche, 2015). Workplace factors affect an individual’s personality, identity, and goals (Parker, 2014) and can offer opportunities for growth and positive development. This eventually leads to a more self-directed orientation, autonomy, and openness to experiences (Frese, Garst, & Fay, 2007), including an orientation towards higher education. Overall, workplace learning has the power to expand human capacities (Evans, Guile, & Harris, 2011). The organisational learning culture is the background against which learning in a company is organised (Janssens et al., 2017; Kyndt & Baert, 2013; Messmann & Mulder, 2015) and whether the job design enables learning (Hackman & Oldham, 1975; Raemdonck, Gijbels, & van Groen, 2014). Work offers incidental, informal, non-formal, or formal learning opportunities that should be seen as interacting modes of learning and not as discrete entities (La Belle, 1982). A company’s learning culture and an individual’s abitlity to pro-actively take advantage of planned and emerging learning opportunities (Billett, 2004; Illeris, 2003) help the individual to develop the knowledge and skills needed 1Higher education on the tertiary level is divided into higher vocational education and higher academic education in Switzerland. See chapter on higher education in Switzerland in this paper. Higher Education in Switzerland 267 to perform his or her job, and they also motivate individuals to develop future perspectives with respect to their competence development and educational plans (Janssens et al., 2017; Kraiger, Ford, & Salas, 1993). Positive learning experiences strengthen self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 2002), and they eventually nourish an individual’s desire and readiness to invest in further education. In sum, work and task immanent learning opportunities allow an individual to advance the knowledge and skills and the career (Dehnbostel, Elsholz, & Gillen, 2007; Stalder & Carigiet Reinhard, 2014). Hypothesis 1: Individuals are more likely to engage in higher education if they perceive their learning opportunities at the workplace positively compared with those who work without further formal education. Learning in the workplace is embedded in a social situation. Colleagues and team members play a crucial role in shaping an individual’s view of what has to be done and also on how things are done, through the development of a shared understanding of career prospects within the team. In addition, learning at work depends on the colleagues’ social support (Eraut, 2007; Lave, Chaiklin, & Lave, 1993), and impacts the reflection and definition of career goals and activities (Lent, Ezeofor, Morrison, Penn, & Ireland, 2016; Wang & Fu, 2015). Social support helps people to achieve their self-imposed career goals. On the one hand, social support can foster career aspirations and development (Hofmann, Stalder, Tschan, & H¨afeli, 2014). On the other hand, it can hurt an individual’s career planning. As individuals become members of a team (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 2008), they also develop a mutual feeling of belongingness and identify with the team and with their specific roles within the team. Teams can develop an unwillingness to change the composition and role distribution even if a change may be needed (Rafferty & Jimmieson, 2010). A team member who is planning to complete higher education may spark conflict within the team, as the team might not want to endanger its quality by allowing a team member to move away to complete higher education. Social support is a valuable resource that helps individuals to cope with workplace affordances (Frese, 1989). Taking into account that individuals have a strong need of belongingness (Deci & Ryan, 2008), strong social support could also hinder further higher education, primarily if it results in having to leave the workgroup. Hypothesis 2: Strong social support causes individuals to become less engaged in higher education. Strong social support is like glue that binds the team members together. 2.2 Sociodemographic Factors Much research shows that educational pathways depend on social origin, nationality, or gender (Becker, 2016; Ion, Nye, & Iliescu, 2017; Lamamra, 2017). The social origin of a family, as represented by the family’s socioeconomic status, was found to be one of the major explanatory variables of educational pathways, whereby a higher socioeconomic status is associated with higher educational expectations (Johnson & Reynolds, 2013; Neuenschwander et al., 2012). Social origin affects the transition from school to education as well as the transition to higher education (Swiss Coordination Centre 268 N¨agele, Neuenschwander, Rodcharoen for Research in Education [SKBF CSRE], 2014). However, some evidence also indicates that socioeconomic status does not affect a person’s decision to follow a higher vocational pathway (Trede, 2016). Hypothesis 3a: The higher a family’s socioeconomic status, the greater the chance that a person in that family will complete higher academic education. We expected no effect of socioeconomic status on completing higher vocational education. It has been found that it is harder for individuals with migrant backgrounds to access higher education. A significant effect of migration status is found in the transition to upper-secondary education (Hupka-Brunner, Sacchi, & Stalder, 2010; Wolter & Zumbuehl, 2017) and in the transition to tertiary education (Picot & Hou, 2013). Hypothesis 3b. Swiss citizens are more likely to become engaged in higher education compared with individuals with migrant backgrounds who are not Swiss citizens. Gender stereotypes, gendered career expectations, and the socialisation process at home, during compulsory school, during career orientation, and in initial vocational education and training result in very persistent gender differences and inequalities in the Swiss labour market (Hadjar & Aeschlimann, 2014; Lamamra, 2017). We see that many young men choose vocational education and training at the upper secondary level even if their school records would allow them to pursue general academic education.2We expect these young men to proceed towards higher education more often after graduating from initial vocational education and training. Hypothesis 3c: Men are more likely to participate in higher education than women are after graduating from initial vocational education and training. 2.3 Value of Further Education Motivational theories on career choices propose that educational values (attainment, interest, utility) and expectations predict educational choices (Wigfield & Cambria, 2010; Wigfield et al., 2017). Values represent the relative importance given to a specific educational choice (Brown & Crace, 1996). If a person does not attribute high value to higher education, little chance exists that this option will be chosen. We expected that only individuals wanting to become engaged in higher education would become engaged in higher education. Hypothesis 4: The higher the value given to higher education, the more likely that individuals be in higher education within two years. The hypotheses are summarised in Figure 1. 2.4 Higher Education in Switzerland As the hypotheses were tested based on a sample of young Swiss workers, it would be helpful to describe higher education in Switzerland briefly. Tertiary education in Switzerland features a two-tier structure: Higher vocational education is called professional education, and higher academic education is called university-based education. 2Numbers from the Federal Statistical Office, https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/de/home/statistiken/bildungwissenschaft/bildungsindikatoren/bildungssystem-schweiz/themen/abschluesse/maturitaetsquote.html, last accessed 16 February 2018. Higher Education in Switzerland 269 Higher vocational education and higher academic education are at International Standard Classification of Education Level 6. In this paper, we focus on those who hold a Federal VET Diploma after having completed initial vocational education and training. Holders of Federal VET Diplomas have three pathways to proceed with their work and educational pathways after graduation: 1) They can work and eventually attend some non-formal, often short-term courses in continuing education and training, 2) they can attend higher vocational education, or 3) they can attend higher academic education on the condition of having baccalaureate degrees. The vocational track is for most young people the standard pathway to a diploma at the upper secondary level (Stalder & N¨agele, 2011). According to data from the Federal Statistical Office, in 2016, 63%3of the diplomas issued were Federal VET Diplomas, and 15% acquired professional baccalaureates4typically obtained during initial vocational education and training or shortly afterwards. Holders of VET diplomas acquire diplomas in higher vocational education either by passing a federal examination, based on selfreliant preparation for the examination, by attending preparatory courses, leading to a Federal Professional Education and Training (PET) diploma, or by enrolling in study programs at colleges of higher education (N¨agele & Bierschenk, 2014; State Secretariat for Education Research and Innovation [SERI], 2016). Higher academic education is accessible via a baccalaureate or after having completed a study program at a college of higher education, and it is delivered via cantonal universities, federal institutes of technology, cantonal or regional universities of applied sciences and arts, and universities of teacher education. Higher vocational education and higher academic education are positioned as different educational pathways of equal value. Higher academic education is primarily financed by the state, higher vocational education is primarily privately financed by the participants and the employers.5According to the Federal Act on Vocational and Professional Education and Training 6and the State Secretary of Research and Innovation (SERI), the aim of higher vocational education is to develop the competences needed to handle challenging technical or managerial activities and to provide the labour market with highly skilled workers (State Secretariat for Education Research and Innovation [SERI], 2016). An individual with a Federal VET Diploma as a carpenter, for example, can complete higher vocational education to specialise in project management, the trade-specific business economy, wood technology, etc. In higher academic education, the options for the same individual are a bachelor’s and master’s degree in architecture or wood technology, a master’s degree in engineering, or many other bachelor’s and master’s courses (Verband Schweizerischer Schreinermeister und M¨obelfabrikanten [VSSM], 2017). 3https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/education-science/diploma/upper-secondary.html, last accessed 9 February 2018 4https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/de/home/statistiken/bildung-wissenschaft/bildungsindikatoren/bild ungssystem-schweiz/themen/abschluesse/maturitaetsquote.assetdetail.4282892.html, last accessed 9 February 2018 5Since January 2018 participants in higher vocational education can apply to get a refund from the state for the preparatory courses, but not for the examination fee. 6https://www.admin.ch/opc/en/classified-compilation/20001860/index.html 270 N¨agele, Neuenschwander, Rodcharoen 3 Method 3.1 Participants Our data stemmed from two waves of a multi-cohort longitudinal questionnaire-based survey on educational decisions and educational pathways (BEN), running from 2012 to 2016 in the German part of Switzerland (Neuenschwander, D¨uggeli, N¨agele, & Frey, 2017). The selected sample for the analysis consisted of individuals who took part in the second and third waves of the study in 2014 and 2016. Participants were either recruited through vocational schools (cohort one) or by sending out letters to employers and directly to potential participants (cohort two). A stratified random sample was obtained taking into account occupations and cantons. Individuals from cohort one were close to the end of their initial vocational education and training in 2014, whereas individuals from cohort two had been employed for a few years after graduating from initial vocational education and training. Participants were employed in various sectors, representing the most frequently chosen apprenticeships; for example, they were commercial employees, retail clerks, healthcare workers, social care workers, electricians, information technicians, cooks, logisticians, mechanical engineers, painters, bricklayers, and carpenters. Individuals were selected for the analyses in this paper only if they had not acquired diplomas in higher vocational or higher academic education before 2014 and if they were not completing higher education in 2014. The final sample consisted of 601 individuals. 3.2 Measures Engagement in Further Formal Education In 2014 and 2016, individuals were asked to denote all formal education programs they had completed or in which they were actively engaged at the time of the survey. Participants were asked to provide the name of the education alongside with the starting and ending date, respectively, and whether they were still engaged in this education. In higher vocational education examples include technical commercial employees, foreman in the construction business, marketing experts, or food technologists. In higher academic education examples are, a bachelor’s degree in business administration or training for a curative teacher and social workers. This information was coded according to the educational level as apprenticeship, baccalaureate, higher vocational education, or higher academic education. Based on this information, a variable with three levels was constructed: 1 ‘no graduation from higher education and not in higher education in 2016’, N = 356, 59%; 2 ‘having graduated from higher vocational education after 2014 or being actively engaged in higher vocational education’, N = 126, 21%; and 3 ‘having graduated from higher vocational education after 2014 or being actively engaged in higher academic education’, N = 119, 20%. Workplace Factors Task immanent learning opportunities and social support were taken from a Short Questionnaire for Job Analysis (Pr¨umper, Hartmannsgruber, & Frese, 1995). This questionnaire is based on the job diagnostic survey (Hackman & Oldham, 1975), an instrument Higher Education in Switzerland 271 to assess social support (Frese & Zapf, 1987) and an instrument for stress-related work analyses (Semmer, 1984). These sub-scales are relevant for learning at work (Kammermann, Stalder, & H¨attich, 2011; Keller, Meier, Gross, & Semmer, 2015; N¨agele, 2013; Stalder & Carigiet Reinhard, 2014). Learning opportunities at work were assessed with three items (Pr¨umper et al., 1995), for example, ‘I can learn a lot of new things at work’ based on the skill variety at work. The response scale ranged from 1 ‘not at all’ to 5 ‘completely’, Cronbach’s alpha = .77, mean = 3.8; standard deviation = .83, N = 601, min = 1, max = 5, and median = 4. Social support was assessed with three items (Pr¨umper et al., 1995), for example, ‘I can count on my colleagues when it gets difficult at work’. The response scale ranged from 1 ‘not at all’ to 5 ‘completely’, Cronbach’s alpha = .77, mean = 4.1, standard deviation = .76, N = 597, min = 1, max = 5, and median = 4. Sociodemographic Factors 0pt The socioeconomic status of the parents was used as a proxy for the social origin. The family’s international socioeconomic index was calculated as the highest value of the fathers’ and mothers’ socioeconomic statuses. This information was based on the parents’ occupations, coded according to the classification scheme of the Federal Institute of Statistics. Mean = 51.7; standard deviation = 20.9; N = 601, min = 14.2, max = 88.7, median = 56. The individuals were asked to name their citizenship according to their passport or identity card. Individuals holding a Swiss and individuals holding a Swiss and any other national passport or identity card were categorised as Swiss citizens. Non-Swiss citizens were those without a Swiss passport or identity card. N = 601, Swiss citizenship N = 550, 91%, non-Swiss citizenship N = 51, 9%. Gender was assessed with two categories, female and male. N = 601, female N = 371, 62%, male N = 230, 38%. Value of Higher Education The value given to further formal education was measured according to Wigfield et al. (2017) with three items. ‘I consider further education and training for me as. . . a) useful, b) important, c) attractive’. The response scale ranged from 1 ‘not at all true’ to 6 ‘completely true’, Cronbach’s alpha = .84. Mean = 5.1, standard deviation = .83, N = 600, min = 1, max = 6, and median = 5. Cohort/Age The cohort was included in the analyses, as individuals within the two cohorts represented two different career situations. Cohort one had finished initial vocational education and training between 2012 and 2014, whereas individuals from cohort two had been working for several years on their jobs. The cohort corresponded with the age of the individual, as the participants were younger in cohort one than in cohort two. Cohort one N = 350, 57%, age (in 2014) = 21.84 years, standard deviation = 1.,7 Cohort two N = 251, 43%, age (in 2014) = 27.7 years, standard deviation 2.5, t(646) = -21.95, p<.01. 278 N¨agele, Neuenschwander, Rodcharoen 6 Limitations Although the study achieved its aim and the hypotheses could be tested, some limitations should be pointed out. It would be interesting and necessary to replicate these findings for specific trades. Despite the large sample size, these analyses would result in even more cells with zero frequencies. Replications should be done with a focus on specific trades to reduce the variance in the sample selected. Workplace factors were measured as self-reports in this study. To achieve a more in-depth understanding, we suggest that a more detailed measurement of workplace learning, social support, and satisfaction, moreover from different perspectives and as repeated measures over a more extended period, could provide valuable insights into how workplace factors shape motivation for engagement in higher education. 7 Conclusion The examination of the realisation of plans for higher education over time and relating individual and workplace factors have pointed out considerable differences between individuals in higher vocational education and higher academic education. Individuals are engaged in higher academic education due to their social origins and nationalities. This finding adds to the existing knowledge that native people from families with better access to education have a higher likelihood of attending higher academic education. These processes of social exclusion and social selection processes seem to be very persistent. On the other hand, we see that higher vocational education seems to offer socially nondiscriminating access to higher vocational education, even if higher vocational education is financed primarily privately by the participants and the employers. Higher vocational education is positioned as a provider of highly skilled workers for the labour market. We find that the chance to become involved in higher vocational education increases if individuals have learning opportunities in the workplace and if their colleagues do not hinder them if their social integration is too tight. Instead, it is the work environment, namely the perception of learning opportunities and social support, that promote higher vocational education. Individuals wanting to complete higher vocational education should try to find or craft a workplace that allows them to learn. In addition, companies that want their employees to move towards higher vocational education should support them by designing workplaces as learning places. The unique contribution of this paper is to compare these two distinct patterns of becoming engaged in higher vocational or higher academic education. From a theoretical point of view, we need to look at predictors of educational pathways besides sociodemographic variables. We should integrate variables related to workplace factors in our theories and empirical models. From a policy perspective, this study described an example where higher vocational education was designed as a parallel strand to higher academic education, which is chosen by individuals with a distinct profile. It is noticeable that some people seem to be motivated by the work environment to continue their education in higher education, whereas others are motivated by heritage, which is linked to status. Higher Education in Switzerland 279 Overall, we still need to find answers to deal with the finding that social origin and, in our results especially, nationality are important factors that steer access to higher academic education but not to higher vocational education. It might be worth looking at selection and socialisation processes during vocational education and training more closely to understand the discriminative processes that contribute to the discrimination of individuals from a motivational perspective. Most importantly, a closer look at factors that hinder individuals at work from becoming engaged in higher vocational education is necessary. We have seen that many individuals who wish to complete higher vocational education do not do this. These individuals start their higher education as a result of an appropriate job design. Learning opportunities in the workplace trigger their engagement, factors that can be shaped by both individuals and companies. 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Crafting a job: Revisioning employees as active crafters of their work. The Academy of Management Review, 26(2), 179–201. https://doi.org/10.2307/259118 284 N¨agele, Neuenschwander, Rodcharoen Biographical Notes Dr Christof N¨agele is a senior researcher at the Centre for Learning and Socialisation, Institute for Research and Development, School of Education at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland. His research interests focus on vocational orientation, career choice of young people, learning and career development of adults workers, individual, group level and structural resources in vocational education and training. Dr Markus P. Neuenschwander is a Professor at the Centre for Learning and Socialization, Institute for Research and Development, School of Teacher Education at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland. His research focuses on the school-to-work transition, socialisation in the family, school, and vocational education and training. M Sc Patsawee Rodcharoen is a junior researcher at Centre for Learning and Socialisation, Institute for Research and Development, School of Education at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland. Her interests focus on developmental and social aspects of vocational education and training, vocational integration, learning, and at-risk trajectories. Acknowledgement The State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation (SERI) supported this study (contract number 13100028). The interpretations, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the SERI.