Quality of Vocational Trainings as a Factor for the Employment of the Individual in the Labor Market

Abstract

The question that this research aims to answer is whether short-term vocational trainings are a significant determinant in changing the position of the individual in the labor market, i.e. if there is a correlation between the quality of short-term vocational trainings and the employment of an individual in the labor market. For the purpose of this research, the quality of the realization of short-term vocational trainings was analyzed through four broad sets of organization and realization of short-term vocational trainings: quality of the realization of short-term vocational trainings, quality of career guidance and counselling services, characteristics of short-term vocational trainings and andragogical characteristics of the trainees. The research uses a non-experimental method, where the basic measuring instrument consists of a battery of instruments made up of several types of scales and questionnaires. The research was conducted on a sample of 306 participants. The results show that the quality of the realization of vocational trainings represent a significant determinant in changing the position of an individual in the labor market, that is, it can be understood as an important factor that is in the function of the employment of the trainees upon the completion of a vocational training. Additionally, the employment of the trainees is determined by the characteristics of the trainees themselves and vocational trainings. Better position in the labor market have the trainees with work experience relevant to the attended vocational training, or the trainees attending vocational trainings based on the needs of the local labor market. If we analyze the employment of trainees on the jobs for which they were trained, it is interesting that the research recognizes the importance of some other factors such as the quality of connecting the individual to the needs of the local labor market, the relevance of formal education to the attended vocational training and the motivation of trainees to attend the training. Observed in this context, the participants who found employment on the jobs they had been trained for, compared to those who did not, have better assessed the quality of career guidance and counselling services, their formal qualifications were more related to the attended vocational training and as a motive for participation in training in a greater degree they had the desire for personal development.