Motivation to learn and employability of Vocational High School students

Motivation to learn is one of the factors that can play a role in determining student employability. This study aimed to empirically test the role of motivation to learn on student employability. The population in this study were all grade twelve students in Vocational High School 1 Dlingo Bantul Yogyakarta, which is as many as 110 students. The sample in this study was 54 grade twelve students of Vocational High School 1 Dlingo Bantul, which consisted of two classes namely fashion and wood craft classes. The selection of the research sample was made by randomization using the cluster random sampling technique. Data collection was carried out by using the employability scale and motivation to learn scale. Data analysis was conducted using Pearson product-moment analysis technique. The analysis result shows that the magnitude of the correlation coefficient (r) between motivation to learn and employability was 0.747, p = 0.000 (p < 0.01). This finding indicates that there is a very significant positive correlation between motivation to learn and student employability. Motivation to learn contributes as large as 55.8 percent of employability. Thus, motivation to learn does contribute to explaining the level of employability of Vocational High School students.


INTRODUCTION
To face the competitive world labor market pressure, individuals must prepare themselves as well as possible [1]. One of the skills that need to be prepared and developed is employability [2]. Employability is a significant concern in vocational education [3] because it will aid individuals in finding work in the future [4]. Employability can help individuals to manage their careers better [5,6]. Developing and increasing students' employability is exceptionally critical [7] because it improves teamwork, communication, selfmanagement, analysis, and critical thinking skill [8].
Employability plays an essential role in planning professional development and effective career advancement in individuals, and with strong employability, individuals can objectify career goals and start entrepreneurship or work [4]. Low employability causes low self-esteem, a lack of effort, and unwillingness to enter the workforce [9]. Individuals with low employability tend to experience more difficulties in entering the workforce or achieve their dream careers [10]. Nowadays, a large amount of unemployment is caused by the low employability of individuals [11]. Other adverse impacts caused by low employability are inappropriate decision making, conflict, inappropriate leadership, low meta-cognitive skills, ineffective performance, low social responsibility, and pessimism [12].
Employability is the constant ability of individuals to do and get or create work [13,14]. Employability refers to the ability of individuals to enter and adapt in the workplace [15,16]. Employability is a skill, knowledge, and competency that could improve an individual's ability to be employed quickly [17]. Employability is a set of skills, knowledge, and personal attributes that make an individual more likely to find work and succeed in his/her career [18]. Employability is defined as a form of skill from special abilities that enable individuals to identify and recognize career opportunities [19].
Fugate, Kinicki, and Ashforth [20] provide the concept of employability dimensions. These dimensions consist of career identity, personal adaptability, and social and human capital. Career identity resembles constructs such as role identity, job identity, and organizational identity, referring to how an individual's self is in a particular work context. In the context of employability, career identity includes goals, hopes, and worries; personality traits; values, beliefs, and norms; interaction style; time horizon. Personal adaptability is an individuals' ability to change their personal factors to adjust to the demands of the workforce. There are two meanings to this dimension. First, it is seen as the needed ability to adapt to work. Second, it is the ability to identify and recognize opportunities to get a job. Social and human capital is the individual's ability to identify and recognize work opportunities that are strongly influenced by social and human capital. Social and human capital is good intentions inherent in social networks. Individuals with social and human capital find work by utilizing social networks and also more formal networks. Social and human capital includes internship experience, training experience, emotional intelligence, and knowledge.
Given the importance of employability for students in preparing themselves for work, schools, parents, teachers, and students themselves must pay attention to factors that can affect employability. So far, some researchers have found that motivation to learn is one of the resources that can maximize employability [21][22][23]. Motivation to learn has been linked to mastery goal orientation, intrinsic interest, and values for career success [24]. In a career context, extrinsic motivation to learn is a motive that increases employability. These resources facilitate individuals to obtain job opportunities [25]. Motivation to learn will increase the likelihood of individual success in achieving work goals [26].
Motivation to learn is described as a force that guides individuals to participate in ongoing learning activities by making various efforts to achieve both the individual and others' learning goals [27]. Motivation to learn is an internal impulse that gives a specific direction to achieve learning goals [28]. Motivation to learn refers to the extent to which individuals are involved in an activity either to gain knowledge, skills, or experience or to solve problems [29]. Motivation to learn is a psychological resource that facilitates individual learning processes to achieve learning goals that are set by increasing the intensity of learning behavior [30].
This study aims to empirically examine the role of motivation to learn towards the employability of students in Vocational High School 1 Dlingo Bantul, Yogyakarta. The hypothesis in this study was that motivation to learn has a role in the employability of Vocational High School students.

RESEARCH METHOD 2.1. Population, sample and sample techniques
The population in this study was 110 grade, 12 students, in Vocational High School 1 Dlingo Bantul Yogyakarta. The sample in this study was 54 grade twelve students Vocational High School 1 Dlingo Bantul, consisting of two classes, namely fashion and woodcraft class. The selection of research subjects was done by randomization using cluster sampling techniques.

Measuring instruments
Data collection was conducted using instruments. The employability scale is in the form of a Likert scale. The scale is based on the dimensions of employability, according to Fugate, Kinicki & Ashforth [20], namely career identity, personal adaptability, and social and human capital. Examples of the employability scale items include: "I have the skills needed in the workforce", "I can be calm even in crowded class condition", and "I get work information from my friends".
The motivation to learn scale refers to aspects of motivation to learn by Sardiman [31], namely perseverance, tenacity, interest and attention, challenging tasks, and autonomy. Examples of motivation to learn scale items are: "I always try to be on time to attend a lesson", "I am responsible for what I do", "I pay attention to the lessons given by the teacher ", "I like lessons that require me to think critically", and "I work on the assignments that have not been completed during the time between lessons".

Validity and reliability of measuring instruments
The results of the trial analysis of 47 subjects on the employability scale showed the reliability coefficient (α) of 0.834 with a range of different power index items (corrected item-total correlation) moving from 0.253 to 0.598. Valid and reliable items used for research were 17 items.
The results of the trial analysis of 47 subjects on the motivation to learn scale showed the reliability coefficient (α) of 0.944 with a range of different power index items (corrected item-total correlation) moving from 0.387 to 0.776. Valid and reliable items used for research were 34 items.

Data analysis
The data analysis method used was the parametric statistical method. Data analysis was performed using the IBM SPSS 19.0 program for windows, using the product-moment technique, a statistical analysis technique to determine the role of motivation to learn on employability. The assumption tests conducted before the hypothesis test were the normality and linearity test.

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS 3.1. Prerequisite test
Before doing calculations with product moment analysis, it is necessary to do an assumption test, namely the normality test and the linearity test, as a condition in using product moment analysis.

Normality test
The normality test is done with the aim to assess the distribution of data in groups of data or variables, whether the data distribution is normally distributed or not. The normality test is useful for determining data that has been collected in the normal distribution or taken from a normal population. Table  1 shows that the significance value of employability and motivation to learn are 0.587 (p > 0.05) and 0.972 (p > 0.05), respectively, indicating that each data is normally distributed. Thus, each variable has a normal distribution of data.

Linearity test
The linearity test aims to determine whether two variables have a linear correlation or not significantly. A linear correlation shows that changes in predictor variables will tend to be followed by changes in criterion variables by forming linear lines. Table 2 depicts the linearity test results between motivation to learn and employability. The linearity test result obtained an F linearity of 77.775 with a significance level (p) of 0.000 (p < 0.05), which indicates linearity or the presence of a line that connects motivation to learn and employability.

Hypothesis testing
Testing the hypothesis proposed in this study done using product moment analysis. Product moment analysis is a statistical test tool used to test the associative hypothesis (correlation test) of two variables if the data is interval or ratio scale. Table 3 the results obtained were that motivation to learn played a role in the employability of students in Vocational High School 1 Dlingo Bantul, Yogyakarta. These results indicate that the proposed hypothesis is accepted. In other words, employability could be predicted by the motivation to learn. The results of this study are in line with several previous studies that found that motivation to learn plays an essential role in increasing employability [32][33][34]. Motivation to learn contributed 55.8 percent to explaining employability. The remaining 44.2 percent is influenced by other variables outside the scope of this study. Factors that influence employability include soft-skill factors, problem-solving skill factors, internship  [35]. Some researchers add other factors that affect employability, namely: learning achievement, self-concept [36], motivation to learn, social support [37], career management practices, work experience, training, education [38], autonomy, discipline [39], self-concept, and perceptions of the learning environment [40]. Motivation to learn is a factor that can facilitate the interests and needs of individuals to enter the workforce [41]. Motivation to learn will encourage individuals to gain experiences that support their future careers, hoping that individuals have greater opportunities in the workforce [42]. Motivation to learn can be sourced from intrinsic or extrinsic factor, as well as individual motives to increase competitiveness so that they have greater employment opportunities, therefore individuals who have high motivation to learn to tend to have better employability [43], while the concept of intrinsic motivation to learn refers to a process that motivates individuals without tangible rewards and solely for individual self-satisfaction, this will ultimately increase individual employability automatically [44].
Motivation to learn is a psychological resource that drives individuals to increase the knowledge and skills needed in the labor market [45]. Individuals with high motivation to learn will try to develop skills, attributes, and competencies that can improve their competitiveness and adaptability, to broaden their individual work choices [42]. High motivation to learn will lead individuals to acquire new knowledge and maintain a competitive advantage that is important to attract organizational interest [45]. Individuals with motivation to learn to tend to be more active in participating in activities that can promote learning, growth, and self-development towards work opportunities [26].
The implications of this study can provide awareness and insight to students, teachers, and parents. The results showed that motivation to learn plays a role in determining the process of student career identification and student self-adaptation in preparation for work. The results of this study can be beneficial for schools to create an environment that can foster student motivation to learn because it will have an impact on increasing students' knowledge, understanding of skills, and personality. Thus, students may have more significant opportunities to compete and get a job.

CONCLUSION
Motivation to learn has an essential role in influencing the degree of employability among vocational high school students. Several factors of motivation to learn that relates to employability include student perseverance, tenacity, interests and attention, challenging assignments for students, and student autonomy. Motivation to learn contributes quite significantly at 55.8 percent to employability.