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Reasons & Learnings from Student Dropouts

Grantee Gazette SeriesVolume 4 • MARCH 2019

JOBA is the skills for employment programme funded by the UK Government. We contribute to a more robust labour market in Mozambique through a better prepared workforce, ready for Mozambique’s evolving economy. We do this by: 1) delivering skills development opportunities, which are relevant and high quality; 2) building voice, accountability and capacity; 3) supporting capacity to drive quality improvements in the sector.

Introduction

Study Design

This volume of the Grantee Gazette presents the findings and key recommendations from a small study on dropouts from the 2018 cohort of JOBA trainees. The study was implemented to help both the JOBA programme and grantees to learn and adjust strategies to identify students that are at risk. The learning will also provide opportunity for relevant support to achieve higher retention rates, so that as many young people as possible can benefit fully from their skills development opportunity.

We define a ‘dropout’ as a trainee who has abandoned a JOBA-funded training course before achieving course completion (measured by completion of final exams and received a final mark/score). Understanding why JOBA-

During our grant project planning and contracting processes, JOBA considered an estimated rate of dropout, as this has direct implications for JOBA reaching the project’s overall targets (5700 graduates). We estimate a flat rate of 10% dropouts for all grantees. In 2018, 1240 trainees were enrolled on JOBA courses. Through monthly and quarterly reporting, grantees have reported 98 trainees did not complete training and had ‘dropped out’. This is 8% of the total enrolment, and so JOBA’s overall dropout rate was close to the rate assumed during the planning phase.

JOBA designed this dropout study as a pragmatic research endeavor focused on gathering student insights and experiences of dropouts to be analyzed and used for programme improvement. Our team used specific selection criteria to select a 50% sample of the 98 dropouts which included the reason provided to institution for dropout and gender (equal split). We also weighted the sampling so that institutions with higher proportions of dropouts matched the proportions in the sample (see Figure 3). For instance, Young Africa constitutes a large portion of the dropouts overall and also a high percentage of our sample.

supported students are dropping out of courses is an important endeavor for JOBA in understanding which of the barriers students face while attending courses that contribute to drop out. Our hope is to help institutions build stronger systems and appropriate processes to identify trainees at risk and support students before they dropout and/or once they are able to come back to finish their courses. Different strategies might be needed for students exposed to the risk of dropping out for different reasons. From a JOBA perspective, it is also important to reduce dropout rates in order to maintain the ‘Value for Money’ of every JOBA grant.

Figure 1. JOBA Dropout Study Sampling & Difficulty in Reaching Students

1, 4% 1, 4%

2, 7%

2, 7%

4, 15%

3, 11%

14, 52%

Enrolled, Still Studying Went to military service

Finished course Never Enrolled in a course (FUNDE)

Still attending course Number Belongs to Another Person

Number Not Available

1240 Enrolled Students(2018 Cohort)

98 Students Dropped Out(2018 Cohort)

50 Sampled Student Dropouts

24 Interviewed Dropouts

Why only 24 students of the 50 sampled? 50% of selected sample population (which was based on weighted percentages) were not available for a myriad of reasons:

Sampling

DID YOU KNOW?More men than women shy away from seeking financial help to pay for professional education, leading them to drop out.

WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT STUDENT DROPOUTS? START HERE

FUNDE Nampula

13%

FUNDE Tete 17%

Nacuxa 33%

Mission Educate

8%

Young Africa 29%

12 Females

13Females

2.7 months on average

Attendance of Sample

Sample, by Grantee Sample, by Gender

Ranging from 0.25 months-6 months

Figure 1.b Sample of JOBA Dropouts, by Grantee (As of January 31, 2019)

Figure 2.(Part II) JOBA Dropouts, by Grantee (As of January 31, 2019)

Table 1. Summary of Key Challenges During Data Collection

Grantees, through JOBA’s monitoring and evaluation activities, we intend to learn more about how well we support young people onto their pathways to work. We do encourage grantees to share their experiences of trainees’ pathways, and how they are providing support to them.

We conducted calls from 9-10am and 12-1pm, which proved to be difficult times to talk for some of the respondents;

Having the proper contacts and referrals on-hand for enumerators to provide to students who called back or requested information on how to re-enroll;

Two grantees provided information too late for the sampled students to be included in this study;

Phone numbers provided by the trainee on Form 1 were unreachable (15% prevalence).

Key challenges for data collection included the timing, referring student to the proper contacts at the school to handle re-enrolment and non-functional phone numbers.

Our team mobilized two internal enumerators to conduct the interviews with dropout students over the phone. We pre-tested a tool that included specific probes on the reasons for dropouts provided by the student. Interestingly, the reason for dropout recorded by grant partners in quarterly reports and those reasons provided by dropout students during our interviews matched only 34% of the time. This means that when students are exiting from the school the reasons they provide to their institutions may not be entirely accurate.

It’s not clear whether this is a social bias (the students are providing reasons that don’t offend the school) or that the reasons for dropout are multi-dimensional and cumulative, so that the reason for dropout at the time of exit may be something acute, but there may be multiple issues and barriers that have built up over time.

Although we aimed to reach 50 trainees who had dropped out, in the end we were only able to make contact with 24 of them.

KEY# of dropouts

% who have dropped out

Forty percent of dropouts in the sample reported financial hardship as the key reason for dropping out. When probed on which course costs were the most difficult, overwhelmingly students reported that paying tuition was the key barrier. Given that JOBA-supported schools vary considerably in the amount of tuition charged to students for each course (ranging from 800-1000Mts per month at Young Africa to 3750Mts per month at FUNDE (lowered from 4100Mt per month at FUNDE)) we analyzed whether there were differences in financial hardship reported by institution (Figure 3). While it’s a limited sample, there were no notable differences in financial hardship as a barrier for students across institutions.

Interestingly, the key difference was gender. Of the 10 dropouts, nine were male (90%). When probed on reasons why men did not seek financial help the main reason was that they didn’t know who to ask, second was that they felt less comfortable asking about financial help from either the school or from family/friends. This could be due to the social norms and role of men as ‘providers’ for their families.

Grantees, are there specific things that students or your professors can do to better communicate financial hardship with your administation teams?

Number of dropouts which reported financial hardships, by grantee

Financial Hardship ‘Enabling effective work placement requires dedicated staff members who have an understanding of the ways in which the young person can signal that they meet these needs.’

In this section we present the findings according to the trainees’ explanations. At the end of each finding, we present a short list of recommendations for grantees that emerged from our analysis of the trainees’ experiences. 9 Males

1 Female

Mission Educate

2

2

2

1

3FUNDE Tete

FUNDE Nampula

Nacuxa

Young Africa

SAMPLE STATS

Findings Our final sample was 25 student phone interviews. We talked with 12 females and 13 males who spent an average of 2.7 months enrolled before dropping out.

Interestingly, the reason for dropout recorded by grant partners in quarterly reports and those reasons provide by dropout students during our interviews matched only 34% of the time.

Our final sample was 25 student phone interviews. We talked with 11 females and 13 males who had spent an average of 2.7 months enrolled before dropping out. This means that for most students we spoke with, they didn’t drop out of the courses right away and were committed to completing the course.

We had a weighted distribution of students from each institution (except Beluluane Industrial Park which reported three dropouts but did not provide contact information, and Mezope which as of January 31 reported no dropouts). However, we were not always able to achieve the weighted distribution, for example the sampling from FUNDE Nampula included seven students, but we were not able to reach five of them.

Interesting Finding

Photo credit: Belulane Industrial Park

For those that did seek help for paying, they asked their family members, parents or aunts/uncles to help pay for their courses. Half of the students stated that transport cost was a huge barrier for those students who did not live ‘on-campus’. We also probed on whether students discussed financial difficulties with the school, and all reported that they had not.

The reason is they did not know who to talk to about these issues and there was generalized confusion and uncertainty about scholarship processes, or other opportunities for financial support. Dropout students did not understand how scholarships were awarded, at what amount, and for how long.

“There are some misunderstandings from students about who gets scholarships” -Institution 1

“I wasn’t able to pay for tuition and transport as it was far, but I really enjoyed studying and would consider going back if I could get information on how to get help paying” -Institution 2

Quotes:

Former Trainee Quote

Job Opportunities/Employed‘Six of 25 (24%) reported that they were currently employed’

Clearly communicate the scholarship process during mobilization campaigns and registration events. Students should be made aware of scholarship amounts and standardized selection criteria. There should be emphasis on transparency of the selection and award size for JOBA-supported students, through paperwork posted in public bulletins within institutions and included as part of their introductory course materials. Offer financial aid information to all students so that those who experience financial difficulties during courses know where to get more information. There should be a designated liaison or contact person who can provide counseling and more information on opportunities for overcoming financial hardship. Institutions could also provide a written form that students could fill out in order to record their financial difficulties and provide to institutional administrators as documentation on the financial requirements requested per student.

RECOMMENDATIONS

“We are here (at internship) – and then don’t go back to the school – the school told us that it is their priority to see you (‘us’) working” -Institution 1

Six of 25 (24%) reported that they were currently employed and that’s why they discontinued their coursework. Of the six, the gender split was 50% male and female, and similarly, 50% of those employed were invited through their internships by a supervisor or mentor and the other 50% through opportunities external to the training. Those who remained in the same employers as the internship reported that they were invited by the supervisor or mentor and that they were not sure whether they would finish their course. Although they expressed desire to do so, none of them had spoken with their employer to figure out whether they could. The others obtained work in professions not in their area of study (not using skills that had gained in their TVET coursework).

All of the dropouts employed reported full-time employment, however the tenure of that employment was uncertain.

Sometimes, it seems that having a job to go to made dropping out easier; so, it was a pull factor that was combined with a ‘push factor’:

If students get hired on internship, clearly communicate with them on course finalization and whether they are able to get a certificate for what they have already completed.

Communicate with employers about the benefit for students to finish the course and go back to work for them. For example, institutions should inform both students and employers of the modular system of the coursework so they better understand what they can get credit/certification for if they return once employed.

RECOMMENDATIONS

“I was hired to be a temporary computer science teacher, it’s a course I had already finished” -Institution 3

“I didn’t have suitable accommodation at the school and so I returned to my old work instead” -Institution 1

Nine of 25 dropouts (36%) reported personal illness or sickness of a parent or guardian (two of nine) that needed to be care for, as the primary reason for course termination. Lack of communication between students and schools was reported as a significant barrier to re-entry to training. Most illnesses were not reported by students and none of the schools proactively reached out to students during their extended absences.

Three of the nine students tried to get in contact with the school by contacting the administrative staff, but they needed to talk to some other “Director’ in order to re-enroll. All respondents couldn’t name the specific person responsible for re-enrolment and were unsure of how long it would take to get back in the course. Two dropouts were offered to re-start as part of the next cohort, but it remained unclear to them whether they needed to re-start the course entirely or if the school would award them credit for modules or courses they already completed.

Illness‘Nine of 25 dropouts reported personal illness or sickness of a parent or guardian that needed to be care for’

RECOMMENDATIONS

Establish clear and documented processes for re-enrolment in the event of sickness or family emergency. Students require clear instructions for reporting absence from course in the case of illness or personal emergency. There also needs to be clear instructions on who to contact for students to re-enroll or make-up coursework they have missed during absences. For instance, as part of course orientation, institutions can request that students report this as soon as possible and provide a contact number that they can share with family in the event they are unable to notify (due to sickness).

As noted above, clearly communicate the modular system of the coursework so that students better understand what they can get credit/certification for if they return after they recover.

For the students who were reported by the intuitions as ‘high absent rate’ we found that they were ‘special cases’ for dropout.

The first reported that he was unable to afford the required practical safety equipment and was not permitted to attend practical class lessons. When he was able to buy, he returned to school but had missed too many practical lessons. The school offered for him to take the final exam, but he did not feel comfortable because he was asked to pay each professor a small (informal) fee in order to take the exam (1500Mts for each).

The second special case dropped out to attend a public course but did not inform the institution. He reported that he will not be returning or finishing the course as he is enrolled in another programme that he is enjoying and will finish there. When probed as to why he switched schools, he also noted the transport cost and distance to the school.

Other reasons‘Two of 25 dropouts reported by the intuitions as ‘high absent rate’ proved to be special cases’

“However, when he came to me again, he said that every teacher would want to 1500 meticais to be able to make the assessments, and as I did not have that value I ended up quitting.”-Institution 4

Two students reported that the accommodations were not well kept and not cleaned properly- particularly for women and the food was being taken of campus by staff.

Photo credit: Belulane Industrial Park

Social and Environmental Issues‘A number of dropout student reported hardships while attending the school that compounded their primary reasons for dropout. The environmental issues concerning school accommodation and meals were of highest concern.’

“Cost of living is high, accommodation center not very suitable for girls and a very weak diet.”- Institution 3

‘I noticed the food staff taking food out, and there is not enough left for us’ –Institution 3

Another two students reported that the accommodation and food was not of good quality.

We asked students whether they had reported these concerns to management or the institution’s secretariat and the responses were mixed. Students said that they had raised some of these issues in group meetings but did not feel comfortable to take a stand and also did not want negative consequences for speaking up.

“The food was my main challenge. The food, many colleagues gave up because the food was not good” -Institution 1

“Accommodation and food issues were not favorable for me to stay. I learned to work with only cereals.” -Institution 1

RECOMMENDATIONSOngoing Learning Partnerships

JOBA wants to continue to work together to learn and improve the opportunities we provide for young people in Mozambique. Grant partners can feel free to reach out to facilitators with specific questions or feedback on the study results. Also, moving forward if you’d like to consult the facilitators for revised strategies on how to enact the recommendations or other changes, please do so through monthly visits. We also encourage all grantees to talk with each other and share experiences.

In developing their business plans, JOBA grantees included different ‘wrap around services’ that were intended to improve access, retention and transition to work for marginalized youth. Table 2 shows which services are available by grantee.

The findings of this study demonstrate that some strategies that help access may not be sufficient to prevent drop out. JOBA will continue to learn from our grantees, so that we can understand better the quality and costs of the services needed to ensure that marginalized young people and women can not only access, but also stay in, training.

* BIP pays each intern a stipend which is considered a form of financial aid to increase retention of interns** Mezope provides stipends for all women enrolled in the program, Nacuxa only provides scholarships to a proportion

Child care

Young Africa BIP

* **

Nacuxa/Mezope FUNDE Mission

Educate

Female health support

Transport costs (bus)

Toilets

Hostels

Scholarships

Wrap-around service is provided

Wrap-around service not provided

KEY

Table 2. Wrap-around services for Course Access & Retention, by grantee (JOBA--supported only)

Ensure there is a student feedback mechanism, such as a Facebook or Whatsapp group or a suggestion box in a common area. The feedback should be managed by a designated staff at the institution and each inquiry should be responded to within 5 working days to ensure that students feel their concerns were heard and action will be taken as appropriate.

Provide students with the contact of a ‘counselor’ or teacher where they can formally report these issues and generate documentation as needed given the severity of the reported misconduct.

Transitions-to-Work: Global Learnings and Applications for JOBA Grantees

Next in the Series:

In April 2019

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@JobaMoz

Photo credit: Belulane Industrial Park