Perceptions of Teachers and Vocational Trainers on the Importance of Pre-Vocational Skills for Transitioning Intellectually Disabled Students from School to Employment

Abstract

In the area of pre-vocational skills which play a key role in the transition of students with intellectual impairments from school to work this research sets out to compare the views of main stream instructors and vocational trainers. We did a sequential explanatory design study which looked at points of view, attitudes and insights of both groups to determine what they do agree and what they differ on in order to better facilitate the transition of students with intellectual disabilities into the work place. We aimed to see what the differences are between the thoughts of curriculum/class teachers and vocational instructors. We looked at a sample of 109 class teachers and 39 vocational instructors who work with Intellectually disabled students in special education schools. For in depth look at the issues we did semi structured interviews and also we used questionnaires to collect data. To get in depth info on what each group of teachers think we did interview them. For the large scale data we used questionnaires. We did thematic analysis of the interview data and statistical analysis of the questionnaire data which we then compared to draw out what we could. It is known that vocational education is very important but because this service is not present at the centers it is very hard for them to achieve financial independence and self sufficiency. The results of this can prove to be very useful in the improvement of the success of vocational training programs which are put in place to help students with intellectual disabilities to do well in the work force.