Evasion in vocational courses at distance: a study of the courses offered by SENAR/Goias

This study intends to investigate the causes of dropout among students enrolled in vocational courses offered in the distance education modality by the Servico Nacional de Aprendizagem Rural of Goias. For this purpose, a survey including thirty questions was constructed. The first nine questions sought to investigate the profile of the students. The remaining questions, expressed in Likert scale, sought to identify the causes of student dropout, contemplating subjects related to personal problems, the quality of the course, tutors and monitors, technology and the students' jobs. The main causes of dropout were related to students' difficulties in carrying outthe vocational course simultaneously with their jobs or with other courses they were doing in other institutions. In addition, the lack of support from the company where they work and the overload of work they were facing seemed to be important causes of dropout. In a second moment, in order to validate the questionnaire, a factorial analysis was performed. All questions presented a satisfactory explanation for the factorial solution, justifying their permanence in the questionnaire. A discussion of the interrelationships identified by the factorial solution is presented in order to provide insights for improvements in future applications of the questionnaire.