Investigation of vocational interests, attitudes and satisfaction towards vocational education of 9th and 12th grade students of Vocational Technical and Anatolian High Schools in the maritime field

In this study, the professional interests, attitudes, and satisfaction towards vocational education of the 9th and 12th grade students of Vocational and Technical Anatolian High Schools providing education in the field of seaway in Istanbul in the 2021-2022 academic year were investigated from various aspects. In the study, a total of 346 students were reached, and the Personal Information Form, the Attitudes towards Vocational Education Scale, the Vocational Interest Scale and the Vocational Satisfaction Questionnaire were surveyed. While analyzing the data, Mann Whitney U test was used for two-group comparisons and Kruskal Wallis test was used when comparing more than two groups. In order to determine the relationship between the means taken from the questionnaire and the scales, Spearman Correlation Coefficient test was used. According to the results obtained, 12th grade students' professional satisfaction is lower than 9th grade students. The male students have higher averages than females in terms of attitudes towards vocational education, professional readiness, self-development, recommending others and professional satisfaction. It was observed that family income level did not make a difference in the professional interests, attitudes, and satisfaction towards vocational education. However, the attitudes, professional satisfaction, self-development, readiness and recommendation levels of the students whose family worked in the maritime field were higher than those of the students whose family did not work in the maritime field. The vocational choice awareness level of the students who have a mother who is a primary school graduate was higher than the students who have a mother who is a high school graduate. It has been observed that there are differences among the 5 Vocational and Technical Anatolian High Schools in terms of *all sub-dimensions of vocational interest, attitude towards vocational education and occupational satisfaction. It was observed that the average of all students' attitudes towards vocational education, recommending others, awareness of vocational choice, vocational readiness and occupational satisfaction were high, but the averages of self-development, which is a sub-dimension of professional interest, were low.