<p>This ex post facto comparison study of a postsecondary apprenticeship program at a naval ship construction company examined 8 years of academic performance and program completion data for two curricular formats: a 15-week traditional group (1,259 apprentices) and a 10-week accelerated group (736 apprentices). The two groups were investigated to determine if there were significant differences in retention, course grades, and overall GPA between the two curriculum lengths. A chi-square test for association between groups and retention found a statistically significant relationship between retention and curriculum length, χ2 (1, <i>N</i> = 1,995) = 65.84, <i> p</i> < .001, with retention greater for the 10-week curriculum. Six of 12 accelerated courses had higher grades (descriptively) than the corresponding traditional 15-week courses, and 4 of 12 accelerated 10-week courses had significantly higher grades (statistically) than the corresponding traditional 15-week courses. The overall GPA for completers was significantly higher for the 10-week curriculum (<i>n</i> = 474, <i>M</i> = 3.02, <i> SD</i> = .79) than for the 15-week curriculum (<i>n</i> = 862, <i> M</i>= 2.83, <i>SD</i> = .81), <i>t</i> (994) = -4.16, <i> p</i> < .001, <i>d</i> = - 0.26. This study has added to the limited body of literature on apprenticeship studies and workforce development by exploring how apprenticeship programs can be accelerated to transform inexperienced skilled labor into a high-performance workforce with a general increase in academic performance. </p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:3575536 |
| Date | 12 December 2013 |
| Creators | Adams, Gilbert L. |
| Publisher | Regent University |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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