Abstract:
The objectives of this mixed methods research were to explore the component of social skills among vocational certificate students majoring in commerce in private vocational colleges in Chonburi Province, Thailand, and to investigate the goodness of fit in the social skill measurement model with the empirical data. This exploratory mixed methods research was divided into two main phases. In Phase I, the qualitative research was conducted to investigate the component of social skills among vocational certificate students majoring in commerce.
Data was collected from college directors and commerce teachers through the interview. The data was collected until it reached the level of saturation. The informants include three college directors and four commerce teachers. Thematic analysis was utilized for data analysis.
Phase II which was the confirming of the findings from the qualitative part was the quantitative part. Data was collected from 1,218 vocational certificate students majoring in commerce who were currently enrolled in in private vocational colleges in Chonburi Province in the academic year 2018. The research instrument was a questionnaire developed from the qualitative findings. Data obtained was analyzed by using the second order confirmatory factor analysis.
The findings were as follows:
i) The qualitative research finding based on the thematic analysis indicated that the desirable social skills consisted of seven main components: (i) teamwork, (ii) leadership, (iii)interpersonal, (iv) communication, (v) responsibility, (vi) self-management and (vii) empathy.
ii) The quantitative research findings based on the second order confirmatory factor analysis showed that the measurement model of social skills derived from the qualitative result acceptably fitted with the empirical data as demonstrated by the following fitted indices:
χ2 = 2604.442, df = 886, p < .01, χ2/ df = 2.940, RMSEA= 0.040, CFI = 0.907,
TLI = 0.901, SRMR = 0.050