Query: vocational education

title: The importance of vocational education institutions in manufacturing regions: adding content to a broad definition of regional innovation systems
abstract: This paper explores the importance of vocational education institutions in regional innovation systems, and the role skilled workers have in implementing new technologies in manufacturing industries. The case study is founded on a broad conceptualisation of RISs, emphasising the importance of all relevant parts of the industrial and institutional system. We analyse the collaboration between industry actors and vocational education institutions in two Norwegian manufacturing regions. The analysis demonstrates how, in developing new education programmes tailored for contemporary and future manufacturing, vocational education institutions are essential for manufacturers' competitiveness. The paper adds empirical content to the hitherto highly theoretical concept of broad RISs, emphasising the key role of skilled workers and engineering technicians when implementing new manufacturing technologies. Furthermore, we explain how the vocational education institutions and RISs are co evolving with emerging technologies in terms of changed knowledge demands in the industry, prompting new education programmes in vocational education institutions.

title: General Education, Vocational Education, and Labor Market Outcomes over the Lifecycle*
abstract: Policy proposals promoting vocational education focus on the school to work transition. But with technological change, gains in youth employment may be offset by less adaptability and diminished employment later in life. To test for this tradeoff, we employ a difference in differences approach that compares employment rates across different ages for people with general and vocational education. Using microdata for 11 countries from IALS, we find strong and robust support for such a tradeoff, especially in countries emphasizing apprenticeship programs. German Microcensus data and Austrian administrative data confirm the results for within occupational group analysis and for exogenous variation from plant closures, respectively.

title: Vocational and Career Tech Education in American High Schools: The Value of Depth Over Breadth
abstract: Vocational education is a large part of the high school curriculum, yet we have little understanding of what drives vocational enrollment or whether these courses help or harm early careers. To address this deficiency, we develop a framework for curriculum choice, taking into account ability and preferences for academic and vocational work. We test model predictions using detailed transcript and earnings information from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1997) Our results are twofold. First, students positively sort into vocational courses, suggesting that the belief that low ability students are funneled into vocational coursework is unlikely true. Second, we find higher earnings among students taking more upper level vocational courses a nearly 2 percent wage premium for each additional year, yet we find no gain from introductory vocational courses. These results suggest: (1) policies limiting students' ability to take vocational courses may not be welfare enhancing, and (2) the benefits of vocational coursework accrue to those who focus on depth over breadth.

title: Vocational education and employment over the life course using a new measure of occupational specificity.
abstract: Vocational education is seen as beneficial for the labor market allocation of young people. However, recent studies point to disadvantages later in the life course, where the specific skills that are obtained from vocational education decrease employability. This paper re evaluates this hypothesis for the Netherlands with an improved measure for the vocational specificity of educational programs, utilizing both vertical (level) and horizontal (field) information on education. More specifically, we use a gradual measure for the linkage strength between education and occupation to predict employment over the life course. Using data from the national Dutch labor force surveys, we show that there is considerable heterogeneity in occupational specificity within the categories of vocational and general educational programs that is masked when using a dichotomous classification of general versus vocational education. In the life course analyses we find that the large early benefits of having vocational education disappear later in the career and turn into a small disadvantage before retirement.

title: The Impact of Vocational Education and Training Programs on Recidivism: A Systematic Review of Current Experimental Evidence
abstract: Although the association between unemployment and offending is well established, relatively little is known about the impact of vocational education and training programs on re offending, with much of the previous work in this area failing to control for, or correct, selection bias. This article reports the findings of a systematic review, which considers the findings of only those studies that have used experimental or quasi experimental designs to evaluate vocational training and employment program outcomes for adult offenders. The analysis identifies key features, based on these studies, of those programs associated with the best outcomes and recommends selection criteria for those who are most likely to benefit from prison vocational education and training.

title: Technical and Vocational Education and Training

title: Learning How (and How Not) to Weld: Vocational Learning in Technical Vocational Education
abstract: This article focuses on vocational learning in technical vocational education in upper secondary school, with a special focus on the object of learning to weld. A concrete teaching situation where the learning object to weld is the focus of the interaction between a vocational teacher and an upper secondary student was documented by a video camera and then analysed from two different perspectives: a conversation analytical perspective and a variation theory perspective. The combination of the two perspectives allows a study of learning that deals with issues regarding both form and content, which may increase our understanding of vocational learning in technical vocational education in upper secondary school.

title: Instructional sensitivity in vocational education
abstract: Apprentices' performance after vocational educational training (VET) is commonly attributed to the effectiveness of the training. This implies the assumption that learners' development of vocational knowledge and ability is significantly affected by vocational instruction. However, the few analyses that have been made of instructional sensitivity within the general school based educational system, have in most cases shown little or no effect of instruction (time in school) on performance in assessments. The question as to whether, and to what extent, VET in adult education is effective (in the sense that it fosters the development of vocational knowledge and ability) as well as the related question whether we are able to track the resulting learning progress with adequate measures (i.e. assessments) has hardly been investigated. In the present study, we propose modeling of instructional sensitivity via differential item functioning (DIF) and apply this method to a sample of n 534 apprentices. We find that during vocational instruction, apprentices significantly improved their performance in an assessment of vocational knowledge and ability, and that we were able to track these changes in the quality of their abilities over the span of a three year initial VET program: that is, the first program of vocational study in which apprentices become qualified to work in a given trade. Moreover, with this proposed method, it is possible to identify items that are particularly sensitive to instruction and that appear therefore to be amenable to the future development of vocational assessments.

title: The Labor Market Effects of Academic and Vocational Education over the Life Cycle: Evidence Based on a British Cohort
abstract: Several commentators have argued that the short term advantage of vocational versus academic education, which is a smoother school to work transition, trades off with long term disadvantages, which are lower employment and/or lower wages. Using data based on the careers of individuals born in the United Kingdom in 1958, we find evidence of a trade off, but only for real wages and only for the group with lower vocational education. These results are confirmed when the careers of individuals born in 1970 are examined. The presence of a trade off does not imply, however, that individuals with vocational education have lower long term utility.

title: The effects of digital learning material on students' mathematics learning in vocational education
abstract: This study investigates the effects of Digital Learning Material (DLM) including instructional clips, online guidance, structuring of content, and a collaboration tool on students' mathematics learning in Dutch vocational education. A pretest posttest design was used. Apprenticeship students were asked to complete assignments and to discuss them with their peers and the online teacher. The results showed that DLM can enhance students' mathematics learning in vocational education. The learning enhancement was mostly due to the use of instructional clips and structuring of the content of the mathematics tasks. Elaborations of these results, implications, limitations and recommendations for further research are provided.