Examining the Relationship Between Personality and Career and Technical Education Job Outcomes

• In Event: Alternative Pathways: Career and Technical Education Training and Predictors of Workforce Success

Abstract

There has been an increasing number of reports indicating a proliferation of job opportunities related to career and technical education (CTE) as well as the challenges that employers face to fill in the vacancies. In addition to technical skills, employers are asking job applicants to display an array of personal characteristics such as interpersonal skills, ability to work in teams, and cultural sensitivity; skills that are closely related to personality traits. Although several studies have examined the link between personality traits or noncognitive factors and measures of academic and work outcomes (Porchea, Allen, Robbins, & Phelps, 2010; Richardson, Abraham, & Bond, 2012; Robbins, Allen, Casillas, Peterson, & Le, 2006; Robbins, Lauver, Le, Davis, Langley, & Carlstrom, 2004), to the knowledge of the authors, no studies have been conducted examining these relationships for individuals with CTE jobs. The purpose of this study is to compare the relationships between personality traits and job outcomes for individuals with CTE jobs that do not require bachelor’s degrees and individuals with jobs that require a bachelor’s degree.

Method
We used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), a longitudinal survey of 8,984 respondents between 12 and 18 years old in the base year in 1997, with over 7,103 interviewed in round 17 in 2015-2016. This data set includes several personality measures and information on employment such as occupations, job satisfaction and salaries. We classified the 2015 occupations reported by participants into job zones according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Employment Network (O*NET). We examined the relationship between personality measures and 2014 salaries for people with Zone 3 jobs (jobs that require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree) as well as for individuals with jobs in Zone 4 (jobs that require a bachelor’s degree). We used the scales of extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience and neuroticism from the Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI; Gosling, Rentfrow & Swann, 2003) measured in 2008, as well as a short version of the Chernyshenko Conscientiousness Scale (CCS; Chernyshenko, 2002) measured in 2008.

Preliminary Results & Scholarly Significance
The prediction of salaries for individuals with Zone 3 jobs resulted in four significant predictors: extroversion (B=1627, β=.09, p<.001), conscientiousness (B=1542, β=.06, p<.05) neuroticism (B=-1504, β=-.08, p<.01) and openness to experience (B= -1271, β=-.06, p<.05). Agreeableness was not statistically significant (B=-531, β=-.02, p=.34). In contrast, the prediction for individuals with jobs in Zone 4 resulted in three significant predictors: extroversion (B=1664, β=.09, p<.01), neuroticism (B=-1593, β=-.07, p<.05) and agreeableness (B=-1686, β=-.06, p<.05). Conscientiousness (B=1012, β=.03, p=.28) and openness to experience (B=-1413, β=-.05, p=.06) were not statistically significant.
The results indicate that personality variables might have different relationships with job outcomes for people with CTE jobs and those with jobs that require more advanced degrees. This suggests that the personal characteristics needed to succeed in Zone 3 jobs are not the same as the characteristics needed to succeed in Zone 4 jobs. We plan to directly compare the regression weights between groups using a multiple group model.

Authors

• Margarita Olivera Aguilar, Educational Testing Service

• Daniel Fishtein, Educational Testing Service