A STUDY OF FACTORS AFFECTING THE PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCY OF VOCATIONAL CERTIFICATE WELDING STUDENTS IN TECHNICAL COLLEGES, THAILAND

The purposes of this research were 1) to study the level of welding professional competency of vocational certificate students in technical colleges in Thailand, 2) to examine factors influencing welding professional competency, and 3) to establish a prediction equation for professional competency using factors of basic skills, specific knowledge and skills, application abilities, and advanced welding skills. The sample consisted of 328 vocational certificate students in welding from technical colleges across Thailand. The research instrument was a 5-point rating scale welding professional competency assessment. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, One-Sample Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test, Kruskal-Wallis Test, Mann-Whitney U Test, and multiple regression analysis. The results revealed that: 1) Students had high levels of welding professional competency in all eight domains (median = 4.00), which were significantly higher than the medium level (3) at the .001 level of significance; 2) Institutional and grade point average factors significantly affected differences in professional competency, while gender and regional factors did not; 3) Multiple regression analysis showed that advanced welding skills, specific knowledge and skills, and application abilities significantly influenced welding professional competency (p < .001), collectively explaining 81.2% of the variance. The standardized prediction equation was Z = -0.029(BS) + 0.298(SKS) + 0.230(AA) + 0.438(AWS). These findings are beneficial for curriculum development and instructional management in the field of metal welding to enhance efficiency.