Abstract
AbstractThe importance of apprenticeships for early labour market transitions varies across countries and over time. In recent times, there has been a policy drive to increase the number of people undertaking apprenticeships in England. This is regarded as important for addressing poor productivity. We investigate whether there is a positive return to undertaking an apprenticeship for young people. We use detailed administrative data to track recent cohorts of young school leavers as they transition to the labour market. Our results suggest that apprenticeships lead to a positive average earnings return (at least in the short run), although there is stark variation between sectors. This is an important driver of the gender gap in earnings.
Highlights
Apprenticeships feature in the vocational education systems of many countries, their popularity varies widely, being especially prevalent in countries like Germany, Austria and Switzerland and virtually absent in countries like the US, Sweden and Italy which rely more on classroom-based learning or put less emphasis on vocational education.1 England is somewhere in between, there is a strong policy interest in increasing the number of apprenticeships.In theory, apprenticeships should offer an excellent environment to acquire generic employability skills as well as specific occupational skills acquired ‘on the job’
Conditional on labour market conditions, we argue that this is a good proxy for access to information about apprenticeships
We are interested in whether there is a payoff to starting an apprenticeship over and above leaving education with at most classroom-based vocational qualifications at the same level
Summary
England is somewhere in between, there is a strong policy interest in increasing the number of apprenticeships. Apprenticeships should offer an excellent environment to acquire generic employability skills (such as team-working, communication skill etc) as well as specific occupational skills acquired ‘on the job’. They may ease the school-to-work transition by establishing a better match of workers’ skills to firm needs (Ryan, 2001). Even in countries with a good reputation for apprenticeships and vocational training, the initial advantage they confer may not last a lifetime. Whether or not apprenticeships have a payoff (and for how long) is an empirical question
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