The Professional Bachelor Programs
by Torben Pilegaard Jensen, Anne Katrine Kamstrup and Søren Haselmann
Summary
The Danish Institute of Governmental Research (AKF) has previously conducted two investigations of student evaluations of their Professional Bachelor Programs. These are the investigation concerning the nursing program, c.f. Jensen et al 2006, and the investigation concerning the IT program, c.f. Jensen et al 2008. In extension of this, the Ministry of Education has asked AKF to study the remaining Professional Bachelor Programs, with a focus on four in particular: the teaching, education, social work, and bio-analyst programs.
The investigation includes questionnaires for 2nd semester students on all the Professional Bachelor Programs (with the exception of students on the IT and nursing programs), analyses of registry data of intake, drop-out rates, completion times and patterns of education after dropping out of programs etc. as well as interviews with rectors/those responsible for the programs, supervisors, teachers and students. The investigation focuses on course content and organization, study environments, including student-teacher relationships, study forms, interchange of theory and practice and the importance of these aspects in the students’ interest and motivation for completing their Professional Bachelor Programs. The study aimed to contribute analyses and results that can help to reduce the drop-out rate from our Professional Bachelor Programs.
Background
The Danish labor market is characterized by a shortage of employees in a wide range of areas, both in the private and public sectors. The public-sector labor market has problems recruiting e.g. nurses, teachers, pre-school and leisure-time teachers, social workers, bio analysts etc. to varying degrees, depending on the conditions in the local or regional labor markets. Areas such as engineering are also experiencing problems attracting experienced employees. Some of these recruitment problems can be expected to be reinforced in the future, amongst other things by the demographical wastage from the labor market, and shifts in the composition of the population in terms of age, due in particular to the growing number of senior citizens. Our Professional Programs are vital suppliers of future workforce for these job functions, but unfortunately the drop-out rate on these programs is significant. The Ministry for Education has therefore asked AKF to investigate all the Professional Programs, with the exception of the nursing program and selected IT programs, which AKF has investigated earlier.
The results of the investigation in perspective
Drop-out rates can only to a limited extent be explained by the students’ formal background characteristics such as age and education. The student body comprises many levels. If drop-out rates are to be reduced, a focus must therefore be maintained on the grounds for program selection and on the program structure and content – both in school and work experience – as well as on the teaching framework, e.g. in the form of the study environment. In the light of this investigation and AKF’s previous investigations concerning the nursing and IT Professional Bachelor Programs, a number of initiatives can be identified that could help motivate more students to complete their Professional Bachelor Programs:
- Many young people today change programs, but on the Professional Bachelor Programs, 15 months after dropping out, only a limited number had started on another program. It is therefore important that the program and business guidance ensures to a larger extent that the students’ expectations and prerequisites more closely resemble the demands and content of the theoretical and practical elements of the programs. Otherwise, the consequences could be that relatively many students risk dropping out of a medium or long-duration higher education program with no vocational qualifications.
- If the drop-out rate is to be reduced and more students are to be motivated to complete the Professional Bachelor Programs they have begun, initiatives should be based on the differentiated nature of the student body. The Professional Bachelor Programs are characterized by a student body that spans many ages, with many different kinds of life experiences and very different prerequisites for completing the programs they begin. This must be assumed to be an important starting point for organizing the teaching and for establishing an inclusive professional social environment.
- Student-teacher relationships are considered to be important learning and inclusion mechanisms. The teachers’ ability to create a dialogue in class, give personal feedback, ensure that the students participate in the teaching, give the students support when needed etc. are aspects of such relationships. For a number of students, the student-teacher relationship is substandard, and the question is therefore how to safeguard that more of those requiring personal feedback actually receive it.
- Receiving professional help from the teachers outside class is not easy. That is expressed by relatively many of those who have considered dropping out. For students who have no opportunity to receive feedback in class, and who perhaps both professionally and personally are in danger of terminating their programs it must be considered important that the teachers have the opportunity to support such students.
- Student-student relationships in the form of the common professional and social communities built up on some programs are very important in determining whether or not the study environment as a whole is inclusive. For many students, social groups that involve a certain commitment therefore play a vital role in whether the students complete their Professional Bachelor Programs. Forming common professional and social communities can be difficult on many Professional Bachelor Programs, however, where age differences are large and the students’ life experiences, educational prerequisites and private family situations differ a great deal. However, it must be seen as important that the individual educational institutions are working on and have strategies in place to promote group-forming processes that include everyone and keep the students studying. They can achieve this by e.g. giving higher priority to the “study products” that have been created through cooperation, e.g. written assignments and presentations, e.g. with allocation of ECTS points.
- Creating better student-student relationships and student-teacher relationships seems to depend a great deal on the students having a stable affiliation with a class rather than many changes that can result from e.g. individualization, modification and responsibility for one’s own learning. There appears to be a need for well-defined teaching spaces, both in terms of participants and content. The question is therefore whether “home” classes should be the starting point for most teaching activities.
- “Professional interests” are very important motifs for the choice of Professional Program, and that the programs contain both theory and practice. The program selected has great importance for how the students form their identities and is a personal development project – not only an investment. This indicates that, first and foremost, the educational institutions should profile themselves in terms of their subjects and professions. The question here is whether e.g. individualization and modular structures weaken the identity of the programs in terms of subjects and professions and thereby weaken the importance of the professional program as a means of creating an identity for the individual student. The students’ motivation for completing their Professional Programs must be expected to increase if it contributes to the young person’s identity development.
- The cohesion between theory and practice is inadequate in a number of the Professional Bachelor Programs investigated. In addition, many have chosen the Professional Bachelor Programs because they include both theory and practice. The lack of cohesion does not motivate students to complete the programs they have started. To ensure better cohesion between theory and practice, the following could be considered:
exchange of teaching talent between education institutions and workplaces
practical content in the theoretical teaching (termed the realistic approach), which includes the reality/practical challenges of the profession in the general subjects to ensure that theory is based on professional practices
closer cooperation and coordination between the educational institutions and host companies
development of new forms of working with practical experience in the educational institutions
recognition of learning through practice and less emphasis on scholastic learning
- Personal problems and general wellbeing play a relatively large role when considering terminating an education and for study satisfaction in general. Another factor could be that some have trouble coping with the demands of the program for subject-related reasons and therefore need various kinds of help, e.g. study cafés, extra lesson in e.g. reading, math or the core aspects of the program in question. Very few of those who have considered terminating their programs discussed the matter with their supervisors, who were therefore unable to help the potential drop-outs. This underlines that it is important for the individual program strategies to reduce drop-out rates by including initiatives that can encourage general wellbeing, and for personal help to be offered to those who need it, e.g. in the form of psychological help.
- Many students attended the host company they requested and were generally satisfied in terms of goals for the vocational trainee, guidance during the work experience, supervisors’ knowledge of the theory covered by the teaching at the educational establishment etc. Overall, however, those considering dropping out tended to have a less positive opinion of the work experience. In relation to this group of students, a special need therefore exists to ensure close cooperation between the person at the school who is in charge of work experience and the person/people responsible for work experience guidance at the host company. These students appear to have a special need for initiatives that can promote links between work experience and the school-based teaching.
- In relation to the group of students that is critical of work experience at a workplace, there is a special need to ensure close cooperation between the school, including the person responsible for work experience at the school, and the host company, including the people/person responsible for work experience guidance. In addition, more types of initiatives should be prepared for this group to encourage cohesion between periods of work experience, the experience it yields and the school-based teaching.
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