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Vocational Education Students’ Generic Working Life Competencies: Developing a Self-Assessment Instrument

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Abstract

The current study reports on the process of developing a self-assessment instrument for vocational education students’ generic working life competencies. The instrument was developed based on a competence framework and in close collaboration with several vocational education teachers and intermediary organisations offering various human resource services. A first version of the questionnaire was presented to 26 students and 5 recent graduates who were asked to comment on the items. The pilot version of the questionnaire was completed by 826 students. Half of the data were used to explore the structure of the questionnaire (n = 413) and the other half were used to confirm the structure (n = 413). The results showed that 8 factors could be distinguished. Further analysis reduced this to 7 usable factors: empathy, listening, assertiveness, professional attitude, problem solving, cooperation ability and, planning and prioritising. The revised questionnaire containing 44 items was tested a second time to determine the stability and measurement invariance of the instrument. In total, 456 students from the first sample completed the questionnaire. The structure was confirmed and measurement invariance across students with and without working experience was established.

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Notes

  1. The scale of Britton and Tesser (1991) was not taken up as a whole due to the considerable overlap with the scale of Fox and Grams (2007). The measure for assertiveness was also reduced because the original instrument was too extensive to maintain feasibility.

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Acknowledgments

The development of this self-assessment instrument was part of the ‘Kickstart’ project funded by the European Social Fund. The authors of this manuscript wish to express their gratitude to all project partners, teachers and students for their collaboration in the development of the questionnaire. The ‘Kickstart’ project partners are Artesis Plantijn University College Antwerp, DBO Beroepsopleiding (Vlaamse Overheid), VDAB, Randstad, Levanto, and the University of Antwerp.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for research on Professional Learning & Development, and Lifelong Learning, KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Eva Kyndt

  2. Institute for Education and Information Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

    Liesje Coertjens, David Gijbels, Vincent Donche & Peter Van Petegem

  3. Artesis Plantijn University College, Antwerp, Belgium

    Ine Janssens

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  1. Eva Kyndt
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  2. Ine Janssens
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  5. Vincent Donche
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Correspondence to Eva Kyndt.

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Kyndt, E., Janssens, I., Coertjens, L. et al. Vocational Education Students’ Generic Working Life Competencies: Developing a Self-Assessment Instrument. Vocations and Learning 7, 365–392 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12186-014-9119-7

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