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Meet the need – The role of vocational education and training for the youth labour market

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Abstract

To fight negative trends in the youth labour market, policymakers around the world foster vocational education and training programmes (VET). We therefore investigate how the share of three upper secondary education programmes, i.e. general education, school-based VET, and dual VET, affect the labour market of 15-to24-year-olds. We complement the existing literature by analysing non-linear effects that might arise due to general equilibrium effects. Furthermore, we include ten labour market indicators for integration and job quality. To address unobserved heterogeneity across countries, we run ?xed effects regressions on unbalanced panel data of 35 countries from 2004 to 2014. We ?nd that school-based VET hinders youth labour market integration. In contrast, dual VET improves not only labour market integration but also job quality. However, the positive and negative effects of VET programmes diminish with increasing enrolment rates. Thus, policymakers should consider these different effects in their educational reforms.

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  • Thomas Bolli & Maria Esther Egg & Ladina Rageth, 2017. "Meet the need – The role of vocational education and training for the youth labour market," KOF Working papers 17-429, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    • Handle: RePEc:kof:wpskof:17-429
    DOI: 10.3929/ethz-a-010869230
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    Cited by:

    1. Bernd-Joachim Ertelt & Andreas Frey & Melanie Hochmuth & Jean-Jacques Ruppert & Silke Seyffer, 2021. "Apprenticeships as a Unique Shaping Field for the Development of an Individual Future-Oriented “Vocationality”," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-14, February.
    2. Katherine Caves & Severin Baumann, 2018. "Getting there from here: A literature review of VET reform implementation," KOF Working papers 18-441, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    3. Alka Obadić & Viktor Viljevac, 2023. "Labour market tightness and matching efficiency in different labour market segments – do differences in education and occupation matter?," EFZG Working Papers Series 2303, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb.

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