Investigating the effect of vocational education and training on rural women’s empowerment

Abstract

This research is an attempt to identify the most important dimensions of vocational education and training (VET) on empowering rural women, a topic that has received less attention. The present study is a quantitative, non-experimental, applied, survey research, whose statistical population includes rural women and girls who participated in VET classes. The research tool was a researcher-designed questionnaire. The reliability and validity of the research tool using a pilot test and calculating Cronbach’s alpha, AVE, and CR coefficients were shown to indicate the high capability of the research tool to collect data. The results showed that among the four dimensions of VET, the role of content and educator was more than other dimensions and these dimensions of training had improved the economic empowerment of rural women, which was often at the lowest level. The conceptual framework presented can be used as a guide to achieving sustainable development goals of the millennium; and should be considered at the national and international levels. The paper makes an impact on the growing body of knowledge by emphasizing on more important dimensions of education; which can be effective for the empowerment of women, especially in the economic dimension. In the existing studies on empowering rural women, none of them examined the effect of all different components of education on women’s overall empowerment, which are among the innovations of the present study and should be considered in future planning.