Base de données de recherche des TNO

étiquettes: social sciences, adult education, students

Objectif(s): To identify the various personal, academic, and professional factors that can help students succeed, both at the human and professional level, in their transition into the workforce after completing vocational, technical or university training programs.

Description du projet: This study, funded by the Canadian Humanities Research Council and piloted at Concordia University, seeks to identify the various personal, academic, and professional factors that can help students succeed, both at the human and professional level, in their transition into the workforce after completing vocational, technical or university training programs. Completing one's education and starting a new career is a major transition. The success of this transition can have positive effects on the functioning of the individual throughout life, while the problems occurring during this period can cause many difficulties for the individuals concerned. The purpose of this study is to help understand the personal, academic, and professional mechanisms that can facilitate this transition to the labor market both on the human (e.g., psychological, distress) and professional (e.g. motivation, satisfaction, socialization). The research team will target a total of a thousand students enrolled in “terminal” education programs (leading directly into the workforce). No inclusion or exclusion criteria will be imposed, apart from being at least 18 years old. A variety of educational institutions will be contacted and offered the opportunity to participate in this study. Each potential participant from within these institutions will receive an invitation email including information about the study, and a link to access the consent form and provide their email address. Participants will need to identify themselves using their email address to access the online questionnaire. Upon consenting and providing their email addresses, participants will receive a new email including the link complete the questionnaire. This two-step process will validate email addresses. This invitation email would, ideally, be sent by the institutions themselves but would specify that the research is independently conducted by Concordia University. For institutions in which email communications are not routinely used, the same message would be communicated to participants in letter format. All participants will then be contacted again for the following measurement points using these email addresses directly by the research team. These follow up emails will include a link taken participants directly to the consent form and the questionnaire in a single step. Students will be recruited, and assessed twice over the last 6 months of their programs, to obtain an estimate of pre-transition trajectories. After the end of their training, participants will be assessed every 6 months, for a period of three years. Assessments will involve self-reported questionnaires. Participants will complete the measures listed below, most of which have been selected for their demonstrated validity in both of the official Canadian languages. This will extend the recruitment to any Canadian, irrespective of language. To maximally simplify the process of responding to the questionnaire while maintaining the underlying continuity of the responses, 6-point response scales will be used for all instruments. In addition to about twenty demographics questions (age, tenure, gender, etc. A series of 3 validation questions will be added to the online questionnaires to ensure response quality. Work-related measures will be administered to the student sample after the end of their degree. Based on prior experiences of online data collection in organizations and among students, participants should be able to complete the full questionnaire (especially based on identical response scales) within thirty minutes. The full questionnaires in both languages are joined to this application. Self-Concept. Participants’ global self-concept, physical appearance physical competence, social and professional self-concepts will be assessed using scales from the Self-Description Questionnaire. Year 1 data will be used to develop a short (6 item) measure of participants’ global social self-concepts. Global professional self-concept will be assessed using a 6-item scale taken from Cowin. Global (Non-Work) Constructs. Autonomy, competence, and relatedness need satisfaction will be assessed with the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale. Harmonious and obsessive passions (for the activity participants are most passionate about) will be assessed with the Passion Scale. Neuroticism will be assessed with Mini International Personality Item Pool. Five items (out of 15) will be selected (based on Year 1 data) from the Contingent Self-Esteem Scale to assess contingent self-esteem. Following the process used for the WACMQ, three-item measures of commitment to family, peers, and leisure activities will be developed and validated using year 1 data. Work-Related Constructs. The Multidimensional Work Motivation Scale will be used to assess: motivation, autonomous motivation (intrinsic and identified), and controlled motivation (introjected, external- regulation, and external-material). The Interpersonal Behaviours Questionnaire will be used to assess the autonomy, competence, and relatedness supportive and thwarting behaviors present in participants’ workplaces. The Short Workplace Affective Commitment Multidimensional Questionnaire will be used to assess affective commitment to the organization, tasks, profession, coworkers, supervisor, customers, and career. Organizational socialisation questionnaire will also be used to assess the extent to which participants have been socialized to their new workplaces. Hedonic (i.e., emotional) well-being will be assessed with measures of general psychological distress and emotional exhaustion at work. Eudemonic (i.e., functioning) well-being will be assessed with measures of work engagement and general vitality. Physical health will be assessed with measures of symptoms related to digestion, headaches, sleep disturbances, and respiratory difficulties. Participants in role and extra role performance related to the tasks, workgroup, and organization will also be measured. Participants will report on their intentions to remain in their organization. This project is not specific to NWT, but is currently conducted across Canada to understand the drivers of success and well-being across the post-education transition into the workforce. The whole study is conducted online, with minimal investment from local institutions (who only have to forward an invitation email to possible participants, and possibly encourage them to participate). Participants themselves will only have to complete a series of 8 questionnaires (taking about 30 minutes each) over time (twice during their last semester of study, and then once a year for three years). However, beyond the methodological and theoretical implications of this project, the results will support the design of improved interventions to facilitate the transition to adulthood and entry into the workforce for Canadian youth, which is consistent with the mission of the majority of Canadian educational institutions. The development and testing of such interventions will be the next step in the research agenda. The research reports, as well as all the publications emerging from this project, will be available online on the main researcher's web page (this is mentioned to the participants in the communications to them). The research reports, as well as all the publications emerging from this project, will be available online on the main researcher's web page. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from May 8, 2019 to December 31, 2019.