A needs assessment of guidance and counseling services as perceived by trades students of the district vocational schools of Newfoundland and Labrador

Bonnell, Frederick G. (1982) A needs assessment of guidance and counseling services as perceived by trades students of the district vocational schools of Newfoundland and Labrador. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

This study was designed to examine the need for guidance and counseling services in the district vocational schools of Newfoundland and Labrador, as perceived by trades students. -- A needs assessment instrument was developed for this purpose, and its validity and generalizability established. The instrument was designed to measure, in addition to a total overall level of perceived need, levels of perceived need in each of the following five need categories: vocational, educational, personal, financial and social. -- During the period of this study (1981-82), there were sixteen district vocational schools in the Province, with a trade student population of two thousand eight hundred seventy. A stratified sample of five hundred trade students were randomly selected within school clusters and program clusters. School clusters each consisted of several schools which were similar with respect to the size of community in which they were located and the resulting availability of guidance and/or counseling services in that community. Program clusters consisted of trade programs which were grouped according to the recommendations of the Division of Technical and Vocational Education, Department of Education, Newfoundland and Labrador. Beyond the basic sample of five hundred trade students, a number of other trade students were randomly selected from several program clusters in order to facilitate inferential analysis. -- Data for the study were collected through the needs assessment instrument which was administered by the researcher, to groups of trade students in the sample. A small proportion of the sample was administered the instrument under the supervision of a district vocational school principal. -- The data was analyzed by means of descriptive statistics as well as distributions and appropriate inferential procedures, such as T-distributions and analysis of variance. -- A large proportion of the trade students sampled indicated a moderate to high level of need for guidance and counseling services both from a total need point of view and from the point of view of categories of need. Significant differences were found between the level of perceived need by need categories. Data also showed significant differences between program clusters on several of the need categories. No significant differences were found between school clusters. Data analysis was also conducted on several demographic characteristics of trade students and results revealed significant differences between groups for several of these characteristics. -- Major recommendations resulting from this study were as follows: 1) guidance and counseling services be provided to each of the district vocational schools of Newfoundland and Labrador by assigning a qualified guidance counselor to each school and 2) a provincial guidance and counseling coordinator be appointed to the central office of the Division of Technical and Vocational Education, Department of Education, Newfoundland and Labrador.

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