Here are some of the best questions for a vocational school student survey about apprenticeship experience, plus tips to help you create them. At Specific, we help you generate a targeted survey in seconds, tailored for deep feedback and actionable insights.
Best open-ended questions for vocational school student surveys about apprenticeship experience
Open-ended questions let students share their unique stories and surface feedback you might never have predicted. They’re perfect for uncovering deeper motivations, unexpected roadblocks, and details you would miss with checkboxes alone. If you want to know what really happens during those apprenticeships—or why—a handful of well-chosen open-ended prompts will do wonders. Recent data shows that in countries like Germany, 51% of under-22s complete apprenticeships—illustrating just how varied these experiences can be and why direct feedback is crucial for program improvement. [2]
What were your main expectations before starting your apprenticeship, and how did they compare with reality?
Can you describe a memorable challenge you faced during your apprenticeship, and how you handled it?
How did your apprenticeship experience influence your confidence in your skills or career path?
What specific skills do you feel you developed most during your apprenticeship?
Tell us about a task or responsibility you enjoyed the most. Why was it meaningful to you?
Did you receive enough support or guidance during your apprenticeship? What made the biggest difference?
Were there any moments when you felt undervalued or ignored during your placement? What happened?
Describe an instance when feedback from your supervisor affected your performance or motivation.
What improvements would you suggest for future apprenticeship programs at your school?
How has your apprenticeship shaped your goals for the future?
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for vocational school student surveys about apprenticeship experience
Single-select multiple-choice questions are fantastic when you want easy quantification, like when reporting to administrators or making year-to-year comparisons. They're also useful as “conversation starters”—sometimes it’s easier for a student to click their answer, and then you follow up for detail.
Question: How satisfied were you with your overall apprenticeship experience?
Very satisfied
Satisfied
Neutral
Dissatisfied
Very dissatisfied
Question: How relevant was your on-the-job training to your future career plans?
Very relevant
Somewhat relevant
Not very relevant
Not relevant at all
Other
Question: Which area did you find most challenging during your apprenticeship?
Technical skills
Communication
Time management
Teamwork
Other
When to follow up with “why?” If a student chooses “dissatisfied” or “not very relevant,” always give them a prompt for more context. For example: “Why did you feel your training wasn’t relevant?”—that simple “why” opens up richer, actionable feedback for future improvement.
When and why to add the “Other” choice? Always use “Other” if the question’s options may not cover everyone’s reality. Don’t guess all possible challenges—instead, let students fill in their unique answer, and use follow-ups to dig into these unexpected insights.
NPS survey question for apprenticeship experience: Should you use it?
Net Promoter Score (NPS) asks: “How likely are you to recommend your apprenticeship to a friend or fellow student?” Rating this on a 0–10 scale is a simple, research-backed way to benchmark overall satisfaction, and catch problems early. Because 84.8% of vocational graduates with work-based learning are employed—versus 71.5% without—tracking NPS is a strong signal of long-term program health. [1] If your NPS drops, it’s a prompt to act fast. You can generate an NPS survey for vocational school students in seconds with Specific.
The power of follow-up questions
The secret to great feedback isn't just the questions you ask, but automated follow-up questions that clarify, dig deeper, and capture the full context. With Specific, our AI asks smart follow-ups in real time—just like a skilled interviewer—for richer, more actionable insights. This is a game-changer for student research: no more chasing after incomplete or vague responses by email.
Vocational school student: “I didn’t get enough support.”
AI follow-up: “Can you tell me more about where you needed support, and what would have helped?”
How many follow-ups to ask? Usually, two or three targeted follow-ups are enough. You always want a setting that lets students skip ahead when you've got what you need—Specific makes this easy with built-in skip logic.
This makes it a conversational survey: Follow-ups transform your survey from a dry questionnaire into a real conversation, keeping students engaged and willing to share more.
Response analysis with AI: Even if you collect tons of open-text replies, it’s now easy to analyze survey responses using AI. You’ll spot trends, surface key themes, and get a clear summary fast—no manual coding required.
Automated follow-ups are a new concept—try generating your own AI survey and see how naturally it uncovers real stories from students.
How to prompt chatgpt to generate questions for vocational school student surveys
If you want to brainstorm your own questions with AI, try this prompt:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for vocational school student survey about apprenticeship experience.
For even better results, add more background about your program and what you want to learn. The more context you give, the sharper the survey becomes. For example:
We run a one-year apprenticeship in automotive technology with students aged 17–20. Our goal is to improve mentorship and skill transfer. Suggest 10 open-ended questions for a student survey about their apprenticeship experience, focusing on skill gaps and support systems.
Once you have your initial list, organize with:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Pick the most relevant categories, and ask:
Generate 10 questions for categories “Mentorship” and “Skill Development”.
What is a conversational survey—and why AI survey generation changes everything
Conversational surveys aren’t just forms—they’re real chat interactions where students feel heard, and AI guides the conversation to get full stories and clear answers. Unlike tedious manual surveys, an AI survey generator builds your questionnaire in seconds, asks smart follow-ups, and lets students reply in a friendly, intuitive interface. It’s a leap forward in survey design.
Manual Surveys | AI-Generated Surveys |
|---|---|
Build questions one at a time, often missing new trends | Instant survey creation with expert AI and built-in best practices |
Static forms, no real probing | Conversational flow with dynamic follow-up questions |
Time-consuming manual analysis | Fast AI-powered insights, summaries, and trend detection |
Frustrating for students—boring, easy to abandon | Feels like a real chat—higher engagement and richer responses |
Why use AI for vocational school student surveys? The rapid rise in AI use—just look at the UK, where 92% of undergraduates now use AI in studies [3]—shows how natural and comfortable students find it. AI survey examples offer a best-in-class experience: quick to build, fun to take, and simple to analyze. With Specific, you can create a survey that’s both insightful for researchers and enjoyable for students, all in a conversational, human tone.
See this apprenticeship experience survey example now
Grab meaningful, actionable student feedback with a few clicks—Specific’s AI-powered surveys deliver real insights, fast, and turn every response into a conversation worth having.