The professional development of VET teachers in Italy: participation, needs and barriers. Statistical quantifications and benchmarking in an international perspective

Empirical Research in Vocational Education and Training

Table 11 Teachers of vocational subjects (Group C) perceiving barriers to their professional development: differences with Group A of teachers, in percentage points (pps) and standard error of the difference (s.e.), Italy, 2013

Barrier	Teachers of vocational subjects in schools with VET programmes (Group C)		Teachers of general subjects in schools with no VET programme (Group A)		Difference (C) − (A)
Barrier	%	s.e.	%	s.e.	pps	s.e.
B1-do not have the pre-requisites	18.4	2.1	14.2	1.6	4.2	2.6
B2-too expensive—unaffordable	57.7	2.4	53.4	1.8	4.3	3.0
B3-lack of employer support	54.9	2.2	45.9	1.8	9.0 (*)	2.9
B4-conflicts with work schedule	58.0	1.9	64.7	1.5	− 6.6 (*)	2.4
B5-family responsibilities	32.3	1.9	42.5	1.7	− 10.2 (*)	2.5
B6-there is no relevant offer	70.3	2.2	71.0	1.7	− 0.7	2.8
B7-there are no incentives for participating	85.2	1.5	86.9	1.0	− 1.7	1.9

NB: Data refer to upper secondary teachers. Positive values of the difference indicate that in Italy the element is considered as a barrier to professional development proportionally more by VET teachers’ than by teachers of general subjects. The (*) indicates that the difference is statistically significant at 95% level of significance