IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i18p13970-d1244028.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Investigating the Effects of Career Education Programs on High School Students’ Career Development Competencies in Korea

Author

Listed:
  • Youngsik Kim

    (Department of Education, Kyungnam University, Changwon 51767, Republic of Korea)

  • Hojun Lee

    (Department of Education, Cheonju National University of Education, Cheongju 28690, Republic of Korea)

Abstract

The high school years represent a critical transitional phase during which students navigate career exploration and career decision-making, significantly shaping their lifelong personal development. Policy authorities in Korea have taken proactive measures to strengthen career education within high schools. However, the extent to which students benefit from participating in career education programs remains a subject of debate. Despite increasing interest in career education since the 2000s, empirical studies investigating the causal effects of these programs have been relatively scarce in Korea. The primary aim of this study is to causally estimate the effectiveness of career education programs offered by high schools, and examine how the impact of these activities varies based on the characteristics of participating students, particularly their career plans after high school graduation. To achieve this objective, DID and DDD models were employed, utilizing a balanced panel dataset spanning two years, from the ‘Korean Education & Employment Panel II’. The findings of this study revealed the significant positive impact of career education on high school students’ career development competencies. Notably, career clubs and career experience programs were identified as effective in enhancing students’ career development competencies. Furthermore, the effects of career club and job simulation varied depending on the students’ post-graduation plans. These results underscore the importance of optimizing the educational effectiveness of career education by emphasizing students’ firsthand experiences and considering individual students’ career plans when implementing career education programs.

Suggested Citation

  • Youngsik Kim & Hojun Lee, 2023. "Investigating the Effects of Career Education Programs on High School Students’ Career Development Competencies in Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-18, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:18:p:13970-:d:1244028
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/18/13970/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/18/13970/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David H. Autor, 2003. "Outsourcing at Will: The Contribution of Unjust Dismissal Doctrine to the Growth of Employment Outsourcing," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(1), pages 1-42, January.
    2. Bishop, John H. & Mane, Ferran, 2004. "The impacts of career-technical education on high school labor market success," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 381-402, August.
    3. Mane, Ferran, 1999. "Trends in the payoff to academic and occupation-specific skills: the short and medium run returns to academic and vocational high school courses for non-college-bound students," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 417-437, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. 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.
    2. Larsson Taghizadeh, Jonas & Österman, Marcus, 2025. "Choosing the right path: The effects of pursuing general versus vocational secondary education on dropout risk and youth inactivity," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    3. Huzeyfe Torun & Semih Tumen, 2019. "Do vocational high school graduates have better employment outcomes than general high school graduates?," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 40(8), pages 1364-1388, August.
    4. Meer, Jonathan, 2007. "Evidence on the returns to secondary vocational education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 559-573, October.
    5. Verhaest, Dieter & Baert, Stijn, 2015. "The Early Labour Market Effects of Generally and Vocationally Oriented Higher Education: Is There a Trade-off?," IZA Discussion Papers 9137, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Werner Eichhorst & Núria Rodríguez-Planas & Ricarda Schmidl & Klaus F. Zimmermann, 2015. "A Road Map to Vocational Education and Training in Industrialized Countries," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 68(2), pages 314-337, March.
    7. Daniel Kreisman & Kevin Stange, 2020. "Vocational and Career Tech Education in American High Schools: The Value of Depth Over Breadth," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 15(1), pages 11-44, Winter.
    8. Neyt, Brecht & Verhaest, Dieter & Baert, Stijn, 2020. "The impact of dual apprenticeship programmes on early labour market outcomes: A dynamic approach," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    9. Verhaest, Dieter & Omey, Eddy, 2009. "The relation between formal education and skill acquisition in young workers first job," Working Papers 2009/07, Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel, Faculteit Economie en Management.
    10. Eichhorst, Werner & Rodríguez-Planas, Núria & Schmidl, Ricarda & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 2012. "A Roadmap to Vocational Education and Training Systems Around the World," IZA Discussion Papers 7110, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Bonilla, Sade, 2020. "The dropout effects of career pathways: Evidence from California," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    12. Dieter Verhaest & Stijn Baert, 2018. "The effects of workplace learning in higher education on employment and match quality: is there an early-career trade-off?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 1229-1270, November.
    13. Maer Matei Monica Mihaela & Mocanu Cristina & Zamfir Ana-Maria, 2018. "Educational paths in Romania: choosing general or vocational education," HOLISTICA – Journal of Business and Public Administration, Sciendo, vol. 9(2), pages 127-136, August.
    14. Yoseph, Nir Shlomo, 2018. "The Impact of Environmental Fraud on the Used Car Market: Evidence from Dieselgate," CEPR Discussion Papers 12899, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Beestermöller, Matthias, 2017. "Striking Evidence? Demand Persistence for Inter-City Buses from German Railway Strikes," Discussion Papers in Economics 31768, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    16. Muñoz-Acevedo, Ángela & Grzybowski, Lukasz, 2023. "Impact of roaming regulation on revenues and prices of mobile operators in the EU," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    17. Picarelli, Nathalie, 2016. "Who really benefits from export processing zones? Evidence from Nicaraguan municipalities," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 318-332.
    18. Uribe-Castro, Mateo, 2019. "Expropriation of church wealth and political conflict in 19th century Colombia," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 1-1.
    19. Nikolov, Plamen & Adelman, Alan, 2019. "Do private household transfers to the elderly respond to public pension benefits? Evidence from rural China," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 14(C).
    20. Dhammika Dharmapala & Richard H. McAdams & John Rappaport, 2019. "Collective Bargaining and Police Misconduct: Evidence from Florida," CESifo Working Paper Series 7718, CESifo.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:18:p:13970-:d:1244028. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.