Vocational education's potential contribution to the future development of Belize: a Delphi study

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine vocational education's potential contribution to the future economic development of Belize. To achieve this objective, a panel of experts was involved in the formulation of statements and the determination of each statement's value as a contributor to future economic development.

The design of the study included use of the Delphi technique. A panel of experts was chosen with four selected from each of four groups: (a) government (public service), (b) non-governmental organizations, (c) entrepreneurship and small business development, and (d) manufacturing and export-oriented production.

Each of the experts was asked to identify statements that vocational education should emphasize in the future so that it would contribute to future economic development in Belize. Frequency distribution, mean, and variance were calculated for each statement. The criterion to determine whether consensus was achieved was defined as item variance being equal to or less than 0.75 on a 4-point scale. Panel members identified a list of 85 statements of which 71 met the criterion for consensus. The 71 statements on which the panel of experts reached consensus were rank ordered according to their means.

The statements on which consensus were not achieved did not fall below the important category; however, the group ratings were widely dispersed. A content analysis of the ranked statements revealed that some statements clustered around common themes. These themes included planning, productivity, linkages, values and work ethics, and program and institutional development.