Vocational Education with Changing Technologies

The Pros and Cons of Vocational Education When There Is Technological Change

The digital transformation is a key technological trend that will change the world of labor in the future. In our research, we have shown that people with a vocational education run the risk of losing their jobs later in life when demand for their occupation-specific skills fades over time due to technical and structural change. This creates a trade-off between early employment advantages and later employment risks for educational programs that train for work in a specific job which is particularly pronounced in apprenticeship countries.

Blog:

Apprenticeship Programs in a Changing Economic World (with E.A. Hanushek). Brookings Institution, Brown Center Chalkboard, 28.6.2017

Non-technical contribution:

Vocational Education Facilitates Entry into the Labour Market but Hurts Employment at Older Ages (with E.A. Hanushek and L. Zhang). VOX, 21.11.2011

Here you can learn more about my research on this topic.

My most important academic paper on the topic is:

General Education, Vocational Education, and Labor-Market Outcomes over the Life-Cycle (with E.A. Hanushek, G. Schwerdt, and L. Zhang). Journal of Human Resources 52 (1): 48-87, 2017

Slides:

Slides from my keynote lecture "Vocational vs. General Education and Employment over the Life Cycle" at the 2017 CVER conference at the Centre for Vocational Education Research at the London School of Economics

Additional material is available in German.