IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zbw/espost/190499.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Secondary Education Systems and the General Skills of Less- and Intermediate-educated Adults: A Comparison of 18 Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Heisig, Jan Paul
  • Solga, Heike

Abstract

We investigate the impact of external differentiation and vocational orientation of (lower and upper) secondary education on country variation in the mean numeracy skills of, and skills gaps between, adults with low and intermediate formal qualifications. We use data on 30- to 44-year-olds in 18 countries from the 2011–12 round of the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies. We find that higher levels of external differentiation (tracking) amplify skills gaps between less- and intermediate-educated adults. This is mainly due to lower mean skills achievement of less-educated adults. By contrast, greater emphasis on vocational skills in upper-secondary education is positively related to numeracy skills for both less- and intermediate-educated adults. Gains are larger for the less educated, so the gap in numeracy skills tends to fall with the degree of vocational orientation. We discuss implications of our findings for research on educational and labor market inequalities.

Suggested Citation

  • Heisig, Jan Paul & Solga, Heike, 2015. "Secondary Education Systems and the General Skills of Less- and Intermediate-educated Adults: A Comparison of 18 Countries," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 88(3), pages 202-225.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:190499
    DOI: 10.1177/0038040715588603
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/190499/1/f-19210-full-text-Heisig-et_al-Education-v3.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0038040715588603?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eric A. Hanushek & Guido Schwerdt & Ludger Woessmann & Lei Zhang, 2017. "General Education, Vocational Education, and Labor-Market Outcomes over the Lifecycle," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 52(1), pages 48-87.
    2. Heisig, Jan Paul, 2015. "Late-career Risks in Changing Welfare States: Comparing Germany and the United States since the 1980s," EconStor Books, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 179003.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Holtmann, Anne Christine & Menze, Laura & Solga, Heike, 2017. "Persistent Disadvantages or New Opportunities? The Role of Agency and Structural Constraints for Low-Achieving Adolescents’ School-to-Work Transitions," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 46(10), pages 2091-2113.
    2. Alexandra Wicht & Nora Müller & Simone Haasler & Alexandra Nonnenmacher, 2019. "The Interplay between Education, Skills, and Job Quality," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(3), pages 254-269.
    3. Heisig, Jan Paul & Elbers, Benjamin & Solga, Heike, 2020. "Cross-national differences in social background effects on educational attainment and achievement: absolute vs. relative inequalities and the role of education systems," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 50(2), pages 165-184.
    4. Checchi, Daniele & van de Werfhorst, Herman Gerbert, 2017. "Policies, Skills and Earnings: How Educational Inequality Affects Earnings Inequality," SocArXiv wn3h2, Center for Open Science.
    5. Ehlert, Martin, 2020. "No Future, No Training? Explaining Cross-national Variation in the Effect of Job Tasks On Training Participation [Keine Zukunft, keine Weiterbildung? Zur Erklärung von Länderunterschieden im Effekt," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 72(S1), pages 483-510.
    6. Heisig, Jan Paul & Gesthuizen, Maurice & Solga, Heike, 2019. "Lack of skills or formal qualifications? New evidence on cross-country differences in the labor market disadvantage of less-educated adults," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 83, pages 1-20.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maïlys Korber, 2019. "Does Vocational Education Give a Labour Market Advantage over the Whole Career? A Comparison of the United Kingdom and Switzerland," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(3), pages 202-223.
    2. Todd Pugatch, 2014. "Safety valve or sinkhole? Vocational schooling in South Africa," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-31, December.
    3. Shaun M. Dougherty, 2018. "The Effect of Career and Technical Education on Human Capital Accumulation: Causal Evidence from Massachusetts," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 13(2), pages 119-148, Spring.
    4. Tamilina, Larysa & Tamilina, Natalya, 2017. "Explaining the Impact of Formal Institutions on Social Trust: A Psychological Approach," MPRA Paper 84560, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Rendall, Michelle & Weiss, Franziska J., 2016. "Employment polarization and the role of the apprenticeship system," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 166-186.
    6. Driouchi, Ahmed & Harkat, Tahar, 2016. "Macroeconomic and School Variables to Reveal Country Choices of General and Vocational Education: A Cross-Country Analysis with focus on Arab Economies," MPRA Paper 73455, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Cockx, Bart & Ghirelli, Corinna, 2016. "Scars of recessions in a rigid labor market," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 162-176.
    8. Silke L. Schneider, 2022. "The classification of education in surveys: a generalized framework for ex-post harmonization," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 1829-1866, June.
    9. Heisig, Jan Paul & Solga, Heike, 2014. "Skills inequalities in 21 countries: PIAAC results for prime-age adults," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Skill Formation and Labor Markets SP I 2014-503, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    10. Torberg Falch & Anna Cecilia Rapp, 2024. "Apprenticeship as Critical Transition in Vocational Education, the Role of Training Agencies," Working Paper Series 19824, Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
    11. Xu Qin & Jonah Deutsch & Guanglei Hong, 2021. "Unpacking Complex Mediation Mechanisms And Their Heterogeneity Between Sites In A Job Corps Evaluation," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(1), pages 158-190, January.
    12. Mr. Jose L. Torres, 2020. "Youth Unemployment in Uruguay," IMF Working Papers 2020/281, International Monetary Fund.
    13. Aghion, Philippe & Bergeaud, Antonin & Blundell, Richard & Griffith, Rachel, 2023. "Social Skills and the Individual Wage Growth of Less Educated Workers," IZA Discussion Papers 16456, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Balestra, Simone & Backes-Gellner, Uschi, 2017. "Heterogeneous returns to education over the wage distribution: Who profits the most?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 89-105.
    15. Hans Dietrich, 2013. "Youth unemployment in the period 2001–2010 and the European crisis – looking at the empirical evidence," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 19(3), pages 305-324, August.
    16. Morikawa, Masayuki, 2017. "Who Are Afraid of Losing Their Jobs to Artificial Intelligence and Robots? Evidence from a Survey," GLO Discussion Paper Series 71, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    17. Leslie S. Stratton & Nabanita Datta Gupta & David Reimer & Anders Holm, 2017. "Modeling Enrollment in and Completion of Vocational Education: The Role of Cognitive and Non-cognitive Skills by Program Type," University of Western Ontario, Centre for Human Capital and Productivity (CHCP) Working Papers 20172, University of Western Ontario, Centre for Human Capital and Productivity (CHCP).
    18. Francesco Ferrante, 2017. "Assessing Quality in Higher Education: Some Caveats," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 131(2), pages 727-743, March.
    19. Eric A. Hanushek & Guido Schwerdt & Ludger Woessmann & Lei Zhang, 2017. "General Education, Vocational Education, and Labor-Market Outcomes over the Lifecycle," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 52(1), pages 48-87.
    20. Francesco Ferrante, 2017. "Great Expectations: The Unintended Consequences of Educational Choices," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 131(2), pages 745-767, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:190499. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zbwkide.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.