Exploring factors influencing upper secondary school students’ intention towards TVET: insights from Peninsular Malaysia

This study aimed to examine career-related (CR) views and attitudes in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and determine factors that influence (TVET knowledge, social norms (SN), and self-efficacy (SE)) TVET intention. This cross-sectional study employed a survey as a data collection approach. Responses were gathered from 480 respondents from eight schools in eight districts across Peninsular Malaysia. The study used convenient sampling based on voluntary participation from eight schools, with data distribution and collection assisted by the school administration. SPSS version 21 was used to examine the data, and descriptive, correlation, and regression findings were explained. The overall findings indicated that the respondents’ Realistic, Investigative, and Conventional (RIC) perspectives are more conventional than realistic. Significant differences were found in every perception among the RIC’s three ranked scores (low, moderate, and high). The Kruskal-Wallis H Test only shows the difference as a whole and does not specify the two respondent groups that are responsible for the significant difference; hence the Mann-Whitney U Test was employed as a follow-up test. TVET knowledge (r = .32, p = .000) with moderate strength and SE (r = .536, p = .000) with strong strength were found to have correlations. The study results indicate that RIC are the three personality traits (PT) associated with TVET careers, as those with a high RIC are assumed to be interested in industrial and engineering technology career paths. The study suggests that vocational SE is critical to nurturing students’ interest and intention in TVET; both SE and attitude affect each other.