In recent years, Spain has experienced an increase in the number of students enrolled in Basic Vocational Education and Training (BVET) and Intermediate Vocational Education and Training (IVET). However, 4 years after enrolling, 41.7% of BVET students and 30.7% of IVET students would have dropped out of the degree and educational system (Ministry of education and vocational training, 2022). For these reasons, it is important to explore those variables that would help prevent dropout in Vocational Education and Training (VET).

Numerous studies have indicated that school engagement is one of the central elements in preventing dropout (Cerdà-Navarro et al., 2020). In addition, various investigations have pointed out the decisive role that teachers play in promoting school involvement (Roorda et al., 2011).

The Self-determination Theory (SDT) (Ryan & Deci, 2017), considers the influence of teaching practices on teaching-learning processes, focusing on the types and sources of motivation and their impact on student behaviour. According to SDT, it is essential to consider teachers' perceptions of their professional autonomy, teaching competence, and interpersonal skills as determinants not only of beliefs and intentions, but also of teaching practice and the connection established with students (Deci & Ryan, 2000; Niemiec & Ryan, 2009).

Bandura (1997) defined self-efficacy as the set of individual attitudes and beliefs that teachers have about their ability to accomplish particular activities successfully. Subsequent research has shown that self-efficacy beliefs is related to the ability to teach and facilitate learning process (Tschannen-Moran & Johnson, 2011). Furthermore, high levels of teacher self-efficacy predict better instructional practices (Zee & Koomen, 2016) and closer relationships with students (Hajovsky et al., 2020).

In order to determine which factors influence the feeling of teacher self-efficacy, Klassen and Chiu (2010) argued the influence of years of teaching experience on teachers' self-efficacy is a nonlinear relationship, increasing as more years of teaching experience are attained but decreasing in the last professional stage. However, Fackler & Malmberg (2016) found that years of professional experience do not predict teachers’ sense of self-efficacy. Siciliano (2016) noted that an optimal climate in the school and a good relationship and communication between teachers are factors that positively influence the teachers’ sense of self-efficacy. Finally, Fackler & Malmberg (2016) observed that having opportunities for professional development positively influences the teachers’ sense of self-efficacy.

Taking into account the little existing research on this construct in VET and understanding self-efficacy as an element of vital importance for teaching practice, which helps to improve the relationship with students and strengthens their school engagement, the objective of this research is to delve deeper into this concept, analyzing which factors influence the teaching self-efficacy of VET teachers.

The sample is made up of 287 teachers from different VET centers in the Balearic Islands, Spain. Of the total sample, 153 are women and 133 are men, who have professional teaching experience that fluctuates between 1 and 40 years of experience. It should be noted that 106 teachers belong to BVET and 179 to IVET. In addition, 140 teachers have a technical specialty, and 139 a secondary specialty (general education). Finally, the hours of teacher training in the last 12 months range from 0 to 1800 hours. Teachers’ feelings of self-efficacy were collected using the Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale (TSES) (Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk, 2001), which consists of 24 items distributed in 3 subscales: Effectiveness in fostering student engagement, Effectiveness of applied teaching strategies, and Effectiveness in classroom management. The response scale is Likert-type and goes from 1 (not at all) to 9 (very much). The hours of training, the employment situation of the teaching staff (temporary contract or permanent contract), the qualifications of the teaching staff (university degree or vocational training degree), and the years of professional teaching experience were collected from the data provided by the participating teachers. The variable impact of the training was collected through an item in which teachers were asked if they considered that the training carried out in the last 12 months had had a positive impact. The sample was collected through an online questionnaire during the first semester of 2021 in vocational training centers, resulting in a total of 287 surveys. In order to analyze which factors influence teachers' sense of self-efficacy, a linear regression analysis was carried out using teachers' sense of self-efficacy as the dependent variable, and the following variables as independent variables: the sex of the participants, the specialty to which they belong (technical or secondary), the type of VET (BVET or IVET), the impact of the training carried out (positive or negative), the hours of training carried out, the professional teaching experience, the employment situation (temporary contract or permanent contract), and the academic qualifications of the teaching staff (university degree or vocational training degree).

The linear regression analysis showed that the hours of training carried out (β = 0.001, t = 2.89, p = 0.004), the specialty (β = 0.196, t = 1.71, p = 0.090) and the professional teaching experience (β = 0.015, t = 2.30, p = 0.023) are significant predictors of students' academic performance. The preliminary results obtained reveal that teachers with a technical specialty report a greater sense of self-efficacy. In addition, the more training hours completed and the more years of professional teaching experience the greater the teachers' feeling of self-efficacy. In line with previous research, the results point to professional teaching experience as a positive predictor of teachers’ sense of self-efficacy (Klassen & Chiu, 2010). In addition, teachers' sense of self-efficacy can be strengthened by attending training courses (Fackler & Malmberg, 2016). In addition, this research shows that those teachers who belong to the technical staff and who practice teaching in VET will have a greater feeling of self-efficacy, evidencing VET as an academic path differentiated from general education, which requires teachers to have a specialty according to the contents of each degree. The preliminary results coincide with the results obtained in previous research (Fackler & Malmberg, 2016; Klassen & Chiu, 2010) and provide new evidence exploring the sense of self-efficacy in VET. This work is part of the R&D project PID2019-108342RB-I00, founded by MCIN/ AEI/10.13039/501100011033/

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