The Impact of Employer Partnership Quality on CTAE Programs in Georgia as Perceived by CTAE Directors

Abstract

Career and technical education (CTE) is a system of instructional activities that provide students with academic and technical skills to succeed in future careers. It is believed that partnerships with employers enable CTE programs to produce successful outcomes for students and employers. However, there is a research gap regarding whether administrators support this practice. This quantitative research study was conducted to address this gap by investigating the perceptions of the administrators responsible for CTE programs, the directors. This study sought to discover (1) directors’ perceptions of the quality of their employer partnerships, (2) directors’ perceptions of the quality of their programs, (3) whether there was a relationship between the perceptions of the quality of employer partnerships and programs, (4) whether the demographics of the directors impacted those perceptions, and (5) whether the demographics of the of the school districts impacted those perceptions.

A survey was developed and administered to directors. Descriptive statistics were calculated to summarize the demographics of the respondents. Because the assumption of normality was violated, nonparametric methods were employed. Spearman’s rank correlation, multinomial logistic regression, and Pearson chi-square were used. The results indicated that directors had a positive perception of the quality of their employer partnerships and their programs. A statistically significant positive correlation was found between the perceptions of the quality of employer partnerships and program quality. No statistically significant relationships were found between the demographics of the directors and the perception of the quality of employer partnerships, nor the perception of program quality. One statistically significant relationship was found between one of the stated demographics (total enrollment) of the school districts and the perception of the quality of employer partnerships. No statistically significant relationships were found between the demographics of the school districts and the perception of program quality.

The researcher determined that future research should be conducted for the perceptions of individual CTE programs, rather than considering them wholistically. Given the one significant relationship between the perception of the quality of partnerships with employers and the enrollment, it may be worthy to investigate the challenges that smaller school districts face. Additionally, it would be prudent to conduct this study with CTE directors across multiple states to increase the sample size and improve statistical analysis capabilities.