Abstract
Compared to general education, vocational education and training (VET) has been shown to facilitate young people’s integration into the labour market. At the same time, research suggests that VET falls short in teaching basic skills and, in turn, may lead to less adaptability to labour market changes and long-term disadvantages in individual labour market outcomes. To better understand the relationships between education, skills, and labour market outcomes, we examine to what extent job quality differs between individuals with general education and those with VET with respect to different skill levels. Furthermore, we investigate whether the relationship between type of qualification and job quality differs by skills. We broaden past research by considering four indicators of job quality: earnings, job security, job autonomy, and the match between respondents’ abilities and job demands. Using data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies for Germany, we demonstrate that individuals with academic education and advanced VET score higher in job quality concerning earnings and job autonomy as compared to individuals with initial VET. Comparing the two higher qualified groups, academic education is more associated with higher earnings than advanced VET, while the level of job autonomy is similar. Regarding the abilities-demands match, both groups score lower than individuals with initial VET. Moreover, higher literacy skills are associated with higher levels of job quality irrespective of the type and level of formal qualification. Finally, we find no empirical evidence that skills compensate for or reinforce disadvantages in job quality derived from professional qualifications.
Highlights
In the era of digitalisation and knowledge-based societies, strategies to promote high skills are pursued to enhance a country’s productivity and competitiveness
The results for job autonomy cannot be translated into an everyday measure as they are based on factor values, but they show the same picture: academic qualification (.32 standard deviations) as well as advanced vocational education and training (VET) (.23 standard deviations) are associated with higher job autonomy than initial VET
Using the German PIAAC data, we could consider job security, job autonomy, and abilities-demands match as indicators of job quality in addition to earnings
Summary
In the era of digitalisation and knowledge-based societies, strategies to promote high skills are pursued to enhance a country’s productivity and competitiveness. In the Riga Conclusions of 2015 (European Commission, 2015), strengthening and modernising the vocational training system remains a priority of the European skills agenda, not least to support social inclusion by promoting the upskilling of the adult population and labour market inclusion of young people and groups disadvantaged on the labour market like migrant or unskilled workers. This policy connects to studies that have shown that VET facilitates school-to-work transition and results in low rates of youth unemployment (Bol & van de Werfhorst, 2013; Forster, Bol, & van de Werfhorst, 2016; Müller & Shavit, 1998). While these basic skills have been shown to affect labour market outcomes, in particular wage returns and employment rates (Green & Riddell, 2015; Koutná & Janícko, 2018; McIntosh & Vignoles, 2001), it is as yet unclear whether they impact labour market outcomes over and above the type of professional education
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