Profiles of career choice motivation of preservice VET teachers and their relationships with professional self-concept and career certainty

Career choice motives of pre-service teachers have an impact on the development of professional competence in the teacher training program and thus on the academic and later career success. For the first time, the present study investigates career choice motives in the VET teaching profession (N = 350) by using latent profile analysis and compares the identified groups in terms of professional self-concept and career certainty as indicators of academic success. Based on the questionnaire Motivation for Choosing Teacher Education (FEMOLA), five motivation profiles were identified. Of these, two profiles were classified as favorable and one profile as less favorable. The favorable profiles were both characterized by high intrinsic motivation, with one profile being extrinsically motivated at the same time. Both profiles have high career certainty and high self-assessments in their professional self-concept. The less favorable profile has the highest mean in the utility scale and low interest-related career choice motives. In this group, career certainty and professional self-concept are the lowest, which is why this constellation of career choice motives can be described as risky.