Why is vocational education stigmatised? Evidence from Europe

It is a widely recognised problem that vocational education and training (VET) is stigmatised around the world. This stigma affects student choices, life satisfaction and the provision of skills, and is of growing concern to policymakers and researchers. Prior work suggests these attitudes are determined, in-part, by four closely related mechanisms: perceptions of quality, information and awareness of VET, direct and indirect experience and social class. Drawing on theories of institutional skill formation and educational stratification, we examine how these mechanisms are associated with negative attitudes towards VET and how their associations vary across European systems. We show that perceptions of quality explain a large amount of the variation in attitudes towards VET. We find significant variation in stigma by social class, even after accounting for differences in the perceived quality of VET. Individuals from the upper and middle classes are significantly more likely to stigmatise VET than respondents from the working class. There is considerable heterogeneity across countries and this is driven in-part by the type of VET system they have. Countries with stronger links between VET and employers tend to have more positive attitudes and exposure to these types of systems (through experience and other information sources) could improve perceptions. These results have important implications for policy and future research, pointing to key areas of focus for improving the social perceptions of VET around the world.