FACTORS INFLUENCING STUDENTS' DECISION TO CHOOSE TWO AND/OR FOUR YEAR TECHNICAL PROGRAM

The primary purpose of this descriptive study was to gather and analyze information on factors that influenced students' decision to enroll in technical programs or technical fields. A second purpose was to help educational institutions meet the needs of students who anticipate employment in future labor markets.;The sample for this study consisted of 109 technical students at Pittsburg State University, and 129 technical students from Kansas Technical Institute. Survey questionnaires were distributed to six technical classes at Pittsburg State University, and to seven classes at Kansas Technical Institute at the beginning of class periods and were collected from the students upon completion.;Thirty-three influencing factors were grouped under eight major headings; family, peer, faculty/staff, media, employment, interest(s), personal, and others. Additional information (demographic data) such as students' age, sex, marital status, size of community from which they came, employment, classification, choice of school, and other post-secondary program attendance were also elicited.;Pearson Correlation Coefficients were used to measure the relationship of age and community size with the eight influencing factors. A two-way repeated measure analysis of variance was used to determine possible significant differences between schools (Pittsburg State University and Kansas Technical Institute), between the eight influencing factor groups for both schools, and between the interacting cell means. When significant differences were found, Tukey HSD Post-Hocs were run to determine which means of factors were significantly different from the others for both schools as well as each school.;The means of faculty/staff influence and personal factors influence which influenced the students' choice in enrolling in technical programs/fields were found to be significant to the community size of students for the entire sample.;Two way analysis of variance showed that the marginal means of Pittsburg State University and Kansas Technical Institute did not significantly differ. These marginal means considered the overall differences between the two schools without a breakdown by the eight influencing factors. However, there were significant differences between the eight groups of influencing factors for the entire sample as well as for each school.