Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) career mentoring for secondary school students in Bhutan

Mentors meet with students four times to discuss career path and share information about the importance of TVET education, student life, labor market information and job prospects of TVET students, as well as the entry requirements and application process to TVET institutes.

Mentors recruited are TVET students or domestic/overseas workers who graduated from six institutes: TTI Khuruthang, TTI Samthang, IZC Thimphu, TTI Thimphu, and IZC Trashiyangste

Mentors will be provided training on by trained counselors on communication and facilitation skills. All mentors are provided with standardized information about labor market and job conditions of 28-34 year old, which is based on the Labor Force Surveys in 2018 and 2019; as well as entry requirements and application process to Science stream at upper secondary school. The employment information is disaggregated by the gender and the following education qualifications: Bachelors in Science, Math, Computer Science, and Agriculture; Bachelors in Engineering; Bachelors in Medicine, Health, and Nursing; Bachelors in Education; Bachelors in Business, Management, Economics, and Law; Bachelors in Arts, Humanities, and Social Studies; Technical Degrees (National Certificate II, III, Diploma) from Technical Training Institute (TTI) and Institute of Zorig Chusum (IZC); High school diploma. Other component of the treatment such as student life sharing is based on mentor-own experience.

Students from all upper secondary schools are invited to take an online survey that asks about demographics and other baseline information including academic performance, whether or not they have taken any TVET courses, preferences and beliefs about tertiary education and future employment, as well as subjective assessment on their knowledge about different aspects of tertiary education.

The mentoring program are introduced to randomly selected schools from the list of secondary schools that complete the baseline survey and are within proximity to six above-mentioned TVET institutes (35 schools). From these treatment schools, students are randomly selected as potential mentees. Potential mentees are randomly paired with a mentor. At most 5 mentees are paired with one mentor. Students can refuse to join the program.

Mentors and students meet four times on one-to-one basis. These meetings can be in person or online, depending on the travel distance between the mentors and mentees, as well as other travel restrictions related to COVID-19. In each meeting, mentors and students discuss career path, the importance of TVET education, student life, labor market information and job prospects of TVET students, as well as the entry requirements and application process to TVET institutes.

At the end of each meeting with each mentee, mentors are required to submit a report on their mentoring progress on six topics: identifying career issues, understanding the importance of TVET education, understanding the courses/study options, understanding the life of a typical student, understanding the career path of graduates, and the entry requirements and admission process to TVET institutes. Mentors are also asked to provide other information on communication and relationship with the mentees.

After the fourth meeting, all students from 35 schools will take an online baseline survey, which is largely based on the baseline survey, with additional questions on entry requirements and application process to TVET institutes.

2021-11-01

2021-11-30

Actual educational choice after graduating from upper secondary school
Preference on educational choices

We will create a single index of each outcome.

Test score in the upper secondary school graduation exam “Bhutan Higher Secondary Education Certificate” (BHSEC)
Preparation for the graduation exam

[Intermediary outcomes]
Attitude to science and technology
Attitude to TVET
Subjective knowledge on TVET and university education regarding application, admission, curriculum, students' life, tuition and scholarship, graduation rate, and job prospects
Objective knowledge on TVET regarding entry requirements and application process
Subjective Knowledge on TVET, university, and secondary school graduates regarding salary, employment rate of secondary school graduates, university graduates, and TVET graduates
Expected satisfaction on TVET and university education
Beliefs about approval of parents, peers, and society if enrolling in TVET
Beliefs about peers’ preferences on education
Subjective assessment of ability to enroll and complete TVET education
Beliefs about future employment outcomes
Preference on employment

We will create a single index of each outcome.

Our study subjects are grade 12 students from 35 secondary schools in Bhutan. The mentoring program is provided through two-stage randomization. The first-stage randomization is school level: 17 schools are randomly selected as treatment schools; 19 schools as control schools. The second stage is student level: in treatment schools, randomly selected students, referred to as treatment students, are offered the mentoring program. Treatment students are randomly chosen to pair with mentors, who are currently TVET students or domestic/overseas workers who graduated from TVET.

We conduct a census survey of students at the baseline and endline.

The selection of our study subjects, mentors, randomization, and data collection are conducted as follows:

Study Subjects
Our study subjects are all the grade 12 students (equivalent to upper secondary school seniors) who satisfy the following criteria:
(i) The student should go to one of the 35 secondary schools that are in proximity to six TVET institutes: TTI Khuruthang, TTI Samthang, IZC Thimphu, TTI Thimphu, and IZC Trashiyangste. We consider proximity as less than 3-hour drive distance, which is based on Google Map.
(ii) The student should complete the baseline survey.

Mentor recruitment
We recruit about 140 mentors who satisfy the following criteria:
(i) The mentor should be TVET students or domestic/overseas workers who graduated from TVET program in the following institutes: TTI Khuruthang, TTI Samthang, IZC Thimphu, TTI Thimphu, and IZC Trashiyangste
(ii) The mentor should have secured a minimum of 45% in overall academic performance in grade 12.

Randomization
(i) We randomly choose 17 schools from the list of 35 secondary schools, stratified by geographic area, school size (total students), and public/private status.
(ii) From these schools, we randomly choose 700 students (potential mentees). The number of mentees chosen from each school depends on mentor availability in the same geographic area.
(iii) Potential mentees are randomly paired with mentors in the same geographic area. Each mentor has at most five mentees.
Data collection
(i) The baseline survey: We collect the information about students (e.g., demographics and other baseline information including academic performance, whether or not they have taken any TVET courses, preferences and beliefs about tertiary education and future employment, as well as subjective assessment on their knowledge about different aspects of tertiary education) in the online survey. It is a census survey, although it is expected that some students will not take the survey.
(ii) The endline survey: We collect similar information about students in the online survey, with additional questions on knowledge about entry requirements and application process to TVET institutes. It is a census survey, although it is expected that some students will not take the survey.
(iii) The mentor report form: We collect information on the mentoring progress on identifying career issues, understanding the importance of TVET education, understanding the courses/study options, understanding the life of a typical student, understanding the career path of graduates, and the entry requirements and admission process to TVET.
(iv) Administrative data on test score in the lower secondary school graduation exam “Bhutan Higher Secondary Education Certificate” (BHSEC) will be shared by the Ministry of Education in Spring 2022.
(v) We will collect the data about their actual educational choices from the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Labor and Human Resources in Summer-Fall 2022.

Randomization done in Stata.

school (first stage randomization) and Individual (second stage randomization)

Yes

35 schools

4,800 students (grade 12)

18 schools control (total 2000 students), 17 schools (2800 students) with students chosen to be participating in the mentoring program. In 17 treated schools, 700 students are selected for the treatment, and 2,100 are not.