A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE SEAFARING CAREER PERSISTENCE OF NAUTICAL POST-BACCALAUREATE AND COLLEGE STUDENTS

Abstract

To foster more maritime human resources, Taiwan's Ministry of Education began to approve the establishment of nautical post-baccalaureate programs at three maritime universities in 2010. This study conducted a comparative analysis of the seafaring career persistence of nautical post-baccalaureate students and college students. Social cognitive career theory (SCCT) served as the research perspective, and data were collected through a questionnaire survey on persistence in the seafaring profession. The collected data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). This study revealed that seafaring career persistence, self-efficacy, and positive outcome expectation for seafaring careers were significantly higher among the post-baccalaureate students than they were for the college students. In addition, among the post-baccalaureate students, positive outcome expectation had the most significant direct effect on seafaring career persistence, whereas among the college students, vocational interest had the most significant effect on seafaring career persistence. The research findings are discussed in depth in this paper.