| In Saudi Arabia, there is a clear, and general, shortage of technical and vocational manpower. The shortage in the country's manpower indicates that there is a gap between workforce needs and trained personnel. Lately, however, many Saudi students are interested in vocational higher education. The recent interest in vocational-technical education suggests a promising shift in students' attitudes toward vocational-technical education. The purpose of this study is to examine the freshmen, in Saudi Technical Colleges, attitudes toward vocational-technical education. Other variables studied are students' traditions and customs, religious beliefs, parents', teachers', and friends' attitudes toward vocational-technical education.;The dependent variable for this study is: Saudi freshmen in technical colleges attitudes toward vocational-technical education. The independent variables are in the following categories: Freshmen's religious beliefs; freshmen's traditions and customs; freshmen's perceptions of vocations; parent's occupations and education; freshmen's perceptions of people around them (friends, teachers and parents) attitudes toward vocational-technical education; type of high school attended (academic or technical high school), birthplace size, socioeconomic status, and age.;Out of 15,592 students, a 375 sample was drawn. This study's questionnaire consists of three parts. (a) Student religious beliefs and social customs and traditions. (b) The freshmen and the people around them perceptions of vocations and vocational-technical education. (c) Students' demographic characteristics.;In general, all the independent variables included in this study did not participate, convincingly, in shaping students attitudes toward vocational-technical education. At the same time, this study contradicts with almost all the prior similar studies. Not even a single independent variable in the study shows a moderate or strong relationship with the dependent variable. Nevertheless, this study indicates that fathers' preference of vocational-technical education was the only important reason that might participate in the student decision to enroll in technical colleges. Although multiple regression model shows a small percentage (R square = 13.3), customs and traditions were the strongest variable that contributed to the variance in the attitude of student toward vocational-technical education. |
