Exploring NCS-Based Job Competency and Its Related Factors among Nail Major Students

This study aimed to explore the factor structure of NCS-based job competency among nail major students and to analyze the associations of grade level and certification acquisition with job competency. A survey was conducted with 521 nail major students. Exploratory factor analysis, descriptive statistics, independent t-tests, two-way MANOVA, ANOVA, and multiple regression analyses were performed. The results indicated that NCS-based job competency could be organized into three factors: advanced technical competency, applied and instructional competency, and basic service competency. Students with certification demonstrated significantly higher levels of job competency than those without certification. MANOVA and ANOVA results showed that certification acquisition was significantly associated with advanced technical competency and basic service competency. Multiple regression analysis revealed that both grade level and certification acquisition were significantly associated with advanced technical competency and basic service competency, whereas only grade level was significantly associated with operational and instructional competency. These findings suggest that NCS-based nail job competencies have a multidimensional structure and that grade level and certification acquisition are differentially associated with competency subdimensions. Future research should include a broader range of variables and employ confirmatory factor analysis to further validate the competency structure identified in this study.