A follow-up study to determine the relationship between high school supervised occupational experience programs in agriculture and establishment in occupations

Abstract

The primary objectives of this study were to answer the following questions: Do the high school supervised occupational experience programs of vocational agriculture students contribute to establishment in an occupation? Do the perceptions of the supervised occupational experience programs held by former students relate to their supervised occupational experience programs?

The population selected for this study consisted of former Virginia production agriculture students who participated in a 1976 study conducted by Martin McMillion and Martin Auville. A total of 185 former students constituted the population.

A two-part questionnaire was used to collect data. Part I solicited information concerning establishment in occupations of the former students. Part II obtained the perceptions of the supervised occupational experience program held by the former students. One hundred fifty-three of the 185 former students were located. One hundred and three of the former students responded to the questionnaire.

The independent variable, Farming Program Score, was derived in the McMillion and Auville study. The score consisted of a numerical value derived from several factors which indicated the quantity in supervised farming programs. Hypotheses concerning six measures of establishment in an occupation, the dependent variable, were tested. The statistical analyses used were chi-square and the Product-Moment Correlation.

The major conclusions of this study were: (1) Over 93 percent of the former students were employed full time. (2) As the scope of the farming programs of the former students increased, the likelihood of their first and present job being in agriculture. (3) The yearly income of the former students who had farming programs that were large in scope were higher than the yearly incomes of those who had farming programs small in scope. (4) No relationships were found between the scope of the farming programs and the job stability nor between the scope of the farming programs and years of education. (5) Nearly 100 percent of the former students had positive perceptions of the supervised occupational experience program.

Vocational agriculture students should be encouraged to increase the scopes of their supervised occupational experience programs each year of their enrollment.