Vocational Education
Pros and Cons of Vocational Education over the Life-Cycle
On the one hand, educational programs that train for work in a specific job can facilitate the transition from school to work. On the other hand, they can reduce employment opportunities at older age because of lower adaptability to changing environments. In several studies, our research finds evidence that vocational education indeed facilitates entry into the labor market, but that this comes at the cost of later adaptability. At the beginning of the career, individuals with a job-specific vocational education have better employment chances than those who receive a general education. But if demand for their occupation-specific skills fades over time due to technical and structural change, they are at a higher risk of losing their jobs later in life. This trade-off between early employment advantages and later employment risks is particularly pronounced in apprenticeship countries that provide the highest intensity of industry-based vocational education.
Returns to Educational Degrees over the Life Course
Education is an investment: it costs time, effort, and money. But be it an apprenticeship, master craftsmanship, or university degree: the costs of education pay off. The bottom line of our study for Germany is that each higher level of qualification yields between 22 and 64 percent higher income over the entire working life. Over their entire career, individuals with an apprenticeship degree earn 143,000 Euro more than those without a professional degree. A master craftsmanship yields 129,000 Euro more than an apprenticeship, a degree from a University of Applied Sciences 267,000 Euro, and a university degree 387,000 Euro. But there are large differences by field of study both for apprenticeship and university degrees.
Blogs:
How Vocational and General Education Affect the Labor-Market Life-Cycle. EENEE Policy Brief 1/2019
Apprenticeship Programs in a Changing Economic World (with E.A. Hanushek). Brookings Institution, Brown Center Chalkboard, 28.6.2017
Non-technical contributions:
Facing the Life-Cycle Trade-off between Vocational and General Education in Apprenticeship Systems: An Economics-of-Education Perspective. Journal for Educational Research Online 11 (1): 31-46, 2019
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
A contribution about my research results in The Economist, 1.6.2013
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