The effect of workplace vs school-based vocational education on youth unemployment: Evidence from France

Abstract

We conducted a field experiment in France which shows that employers exhibit little preference when deciding whom to invite for job interviews: unemployed apprentices or vocational students, both of whom have earned the same diploma. By merging the results of this experiment with a search and matching model which accounts for the selection of apprentices retained by their training firms, we provide a framework to understand the ways in which apprenticeship influences youth employment. Our results indicate that the main positive impact on employment comes from retaining apprentices within their training company, while the productivity gap compared to vocational students remains minimal when the same skills can be acquired through the academic path or apprenticeship.