Abstract
Over the last 15 years, research on the effects of different types of education on labour market integration and labour market outcomes has evolved. Whereas much of the early work analysed school-to-work transition outcomes, the focus of more recent studies has shifted to the relationship between educational achievement and mid- and long-term labour market outcomes. The overarching question of this body of research asks whether the allocation to different types of education leads to different skill sets, to different employment opportunities and to jobs offering unequal wages, job autonomy or job security. However, pivotal issues related to the comparison of vocational and general types of education or upper-secondary and tertiary-level qualification remain ambiguous and are hampered by a lack of suitable data and methodological problems. The aim of this issue is to further this debate and to provide more insights into the relationship between individual and contextual factors, allocation within the educational system, educational achievement and labour market outcomes over the life course. The 12 articles collected in this issue highlight the importance of focussing on the specific features and functions of different education tracks and programs, of applying data and methods suitable for such analyses and of considering the interplay of different determinants of education outcomes, such as social origin, gender or ethnicity.
Highlights
In the face of high rates of youth employment in many Western countries, educational system characteristics have become the centre of attention in research as well as in educational policy
Other countries allow for different types of education on the upper-secondary level, typically with an emphasis on vocational education and training (VET)
The results show that employees with university degrees complete higher shares of abstract and lower shares of manual tasks compared to employees with VET degrees
Summary
In the face of high rates of youth employment in many Western countries, educational system characteristics have become the centre of attention in research as well as in educational policy. Countries with strong VET have been shown to fare better in integrating young people swiftly into the labour market after completion of education (Bol & van de Werfhorst, 2016; Breen, 2005; de Lange, Gesthuizen, & Wolbers, 2014; Ryan, 2001; Shavit & Müller, 1998; van der Velden & Wolbers, 2003; Winkelmann, 1996; Wolter & Ryan, 2011; Zimmermann et al, 2013) This has been attributed to the high level of occupational specificity of VET, which increases initial productivity and reduces the immediate need of on-the-job training. The literature that goes beyond the question of unemployment at labour market entry reveals a more complex picture
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