This study examines the effects of firm-based (or dual) vocational education and training (VET) on labour market and educational outcomes. Using Swiss administrative data, I compare graduates of dual and school-based VET, all of whom have studied the same curriculum and received the same diploma. In…
We investigate how work-based versus school-based learning impacts students’ cognitive (numeracy, literacy) and non-cognitive outcomes (student motivation, engagement, academic self-concept, well-being) in vocational secondary education. To this end, we exploit longitudinal test score and survey dat…
Higher education graduates with work experience enter the labour market more smoothly. This study analyses how work experience from vocational education and training (VET) affects labour market outcomes after higher education. To account for selection into VET, we use the regional enrolment rate as …
This study examines the impact of enrolling into dual apprenticeship programmes during secondary education on six early employment outcomes. Our contribution to the literature is threefold. First, we apply a method that has rarely been used in this literature to control for potential selection biase…
We analyse the effects of a 2012 reform, which increased the duration of many service sector apprenticeships, while leaving many other apprenticeships, including some in the service sector, unaffected. Using a Difference-in-Differences approach, we estimate the effect of this reform on apprenticeshi…
Building on Lazear's skill weights approach, we study the effect of having more or less heterogeneity in the training curriculum on the demand for and supply of apprentices. Modernizations of training curricula provide us with a quasi-experimental setting as these modernizations can be seen as a rel…
This paper investigates whether acquiring more general education reduces the risk of future unemployment. I study an educational reform in Sweden which prolonged the vocational programs in upper secondary school and gave them a considerably larger general content. The research design exploits variat…
In OECD countries, 'real world' upper-secondary vocational education and training (VET) programs are used to engage less academically oriented youth in learning, while helping to prepare them for post-school work and/or further education. In general terms, VET programs with high employer involvement…
This paper investigates whether on-the-job training has an effect on the employability of workers. Using data from the Netherlands we disentangle the true effect of training incidence from the spurious one determined by unobserved individual heterogeneity. We also take into account that there might …
While much research has examined how education influences work outcomes, fewer scholars have questioned whether or how school-labor market relationships might influence educational outcomes. With their rising enrollments and growing occupational programs, 2-year colleges are an increasingly importan…
This paper analyzes a simple game-theoretic model of curriculum integration decision-making in a high school with academic and vocational tracks. The model is based on a formal theory of how curriculum integration affects learning. Teachers choose to include a curriculum integration unit in their cl…
The German apprenticeship system is considered an exemplary school-to-work program for youth not intending to complete a baccalaureate degree. Yet the traditionally highly stratified system has been changing, with more students pursuing both general education and obtaining vocational certification. …
An intriguing finding in the literature on the role of education in the labor market concerns workers who have acquired either more or less education than they say their jobs require. Contrary to predictions from a rigid, structural view of jobs, several authors have found that the labor market rewa…
Recent policies have promoted work-based learning as part of the curriculum. Many students in the U.S. already work in part-time jobs, but spending a lot of hours per week in after-school jobs has been found to detract from students' performance in school. Co-operative education (co-op) ties work to…
This paper was written in 1992, while Benson was Director of NCRVE. It sets forth a vision of a "new vocationalism" that integrates academic and occupational curriculum, combines classroom instruction with work-based learning, and connects secondary with post-secondary education. The paper explains …
This paper compares graduates of the formal vocational and technical education (VTE) system in Côte d'Ivoire with those of informal apprenticeships, in terms of access to jobs, earnings, and the internal rate of return to investment in education. The structure of the labor market is explicitly consi…
"Vocations" are distinguished by specialized clusters of skills and to examine vocational education and training in a development context is to examine formation of progressively more refined mixes of skills. Of critical importance are diverse agencies and institutions in the formation of competenci…
Occupationally specific education in high school lowers the dropout rate of at-risk students and, if training related jobs are obtained, it increases the wages and employment after graduation as well. Unfortunately, less than half of vocational graduates work in occupations that match (very broadly …
Investing in on-the-job training (OJT) is risky because the value of specific human capital is lost if a permanent separation occurs between the employer and employee. An efficient contract between the two parties can reduce but not eliminate the risk. In theory, some form of "training insurance" co…
