Teamwork skills and occupational work ethic of secondary school students in a school-to-work program

The main purpose in conducting this quasi-experimental study was to determine, using the WorkKeys Teamwork assessment and the Occupational Work Ethic Inventory (OWEI), if there are significant differences between teamwork skills and work ethic of secondary student participants in a company-sponsored school-to-work program and a control group. Demographic factors were reviewed including grade level, career cluster, work experience, anticipated level of education, and cooperative education participation. In addition, this study examined if there is any significant interaction between WorkKeys Teamwork scores and OWEI scores. Students from a secondary school in Monroe County were used as participants in the study. A total of 128 students were asked to participate in the study. One hundred and five surveys were returned, accounting for an 82% response rate. Descriptive statistics including the mean, standard deviation, and frequencies were gathered for demographic data to assist in the interpretation of the WorkKeys Teamwork scores and work ethic subscales. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOV A), analysis of variance (ANOV A), and Chi-square statistics were utilized to analyze differences between the experimental group and the control group. Finally, Spearman' s rho correlation was calculated to determine if a relationship existed between the WorkKeys Teamwork scores and work ethic subscales. The major findings from the study implied that (a) there are significant differences in work ethic of the experimental and control group and (b) there is a positive correlation between the WorkKeys Teamwork scores and initiative, subscale of work ethic.