Dropout in Professional and Technological Education

dropout motivations of the Construction Degree Program students, enrolled in the first semester of the Pandemics – Instituto Federal Sul-rio-grandense – Campus Pelotas

Abstract

The article presents the results of a research which aims to identify the motivations that led students to quit from the Construction Program of the Sul-rio-grandense Federal Institute (IFSul), Pelotas Campus. These students enrolled during the first semestre of the Pandemic year. Dropout is assumed as a complex factor, which comprehends a group of institutional and individual factors. Considering these factors, students who dropped out answered a questionnaire/survey, done by phone contact. Nine students from a target of eighteen subjects answered the suryey. The main motivations for dropping out were as follows: the need to work, the lack of flexibility on the program course schedule, the distance from school to work or home, moving to another neighborhood or town, the chance of going to college (university), not finding the program attractive or interesting, not feeling connected to the area or profession. The research doesn’t identify direct effects from the pandemics as a reason for dropping out, however some changes during the educational process might have affected the students’ perception of their drop out process.