IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/128193.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Closing the gap between vocational and general education? Evidence from University Technical Colleges in England

Author

Listed:
  • Machin, Stephen
  • McNally, Sandra
  • Terrier, Camille
  • Ventura, Guglielmo

Abstract

Vocational education delivery is widely debated, with ongoing efforts to improve its effectiveness. In 2010, England introduced University Technical Colleges (UTCs), hybrid institutions combining general and vocational education. Using an instrumental variable approach, this paper examines the impact of UTC attendance on academic and vocational achievement, university enrolment, and labour market outcomes. For students entering UTCs at the unconventional age 14, enrolment significantly lowers academic achievement at age 16. However, for those entering at the conventional age 16, UTCs enhance vocational achievement, boost enrolment in STEM degrees, and improve labour market outcomes. The findings highlight the risks of early specialisation and the benefits of aligning education with students' interests at a more suitable stage.

Suggested Citation

  • Machin, Stephen & McNally, Sandra & Terrier, Camille & Ventura, Guglielmo, 2025. "Closing the gap between vocational and general education? Evidence from University Technical Colleges in England," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 128193, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:128193
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/128193/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

    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:ehl:lserod:128193. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.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.