Vocational Education of Academically Backward Rural Adolescents: A Step towards Furtherance

The lives of rural adolescents are characterized by limited resources, minimum exposure lack of education and awareness as well as opportunities affecting their lives. The objective of present study was to assess vocational interest of rural adolescents (both girls and boys) and make them vocationally aligned by providing intensive interventions so as to improve their living standards. Adolescents who scored less than 50% marks in their last exams were considered academically backward. 10–15% of adolescents who scored least in the 7^th, 8^th and 9^th standard were taken as the sample for study. Vocational interest of respondents was assessed using standardized Vocational Interest Record (VIR). Thereafter respondents were provided intensive interventions exposing them to various vocations and assisting them in selecting vocations as per their interest, aptitude and skills. The data were analyzed with the help of frequency, percentage and z-test. Results revealed that intervention had significant impact on their knowledge about the vocations and their choice of vocation according to their skills and interest.