Australia. Are vocational streams the key to producing a more adaptable workforce?
Structures within the labour market shape the educational pathways and outcomes of graduates. However, the links between qualifications and jobs in Australia are sometimes weak. Education and training in vocational streams, rather than in specific occupational tasks, could result in a more sustainable and adaptable workforce.
Tags : Article; Australia; Document; Source: NCVER - National Centre for Vocational Education Research; VET - vocational education and training;
Canada/Québec. Program development at the college
Compilation of research references to provide support when developing study programs at the college-level. Specifically, it focuses on research work promoting a competency-based approach when developing college study programs.
En français. Canada/Québec. L'élaboration de programmes d'études collégiales
Tags : Article; Canada/Québec; Colleges and Universities; Resources; Source: ÉDUQ;
Finland. Back to School? Labor-Market Returns to Vocational Postsecondary Education
Outside the U.S., little is known about the labor-market returns to vocational (or polytechnic) postsecondary education. This paper focuses on the labor-market returns to polytechnic bachelor’s degrees in Finland. Using detailed administrative data, we estimate person fixed effect models to study returns for individuals with labor-force attachment prior to polytechnic school enrollment. We find sizable earnings and employment impacts for polytechnic bachelor’s degrees, although the returns vary by personal characteristics and field of study.
Tags : Finland; Paper; Source: IZA - Institute for the Study of Labor; VET - vocational education and training;
Nicaragua. Demand versus returns ? pro-poor targeting of business grants and vocational skills training
The authors analyze an unusual experiment with very high take-up of business grants and vocational skills training, randomly assigned among nearly all households in selected poor rural communities in Nicaragua. On average, the interventions resulted in increased participation in non-agricultural employment and higher income from related activities. The paper investigates whether targeting could have resulted in higher returns by analyzing heterogeneity in impacts by stated baseline demand, prior participation in non-agricultural activities, and a wide range of complementary asset endowments. The results reveal little heterogeneity along observed baseline characteristics. However, the poorest households are more likely to enter and have higher profits in non-agricultural self-employment, while less poor households assigned to the training have higher non-agricultural wages.
Tags : Assessment - VET; Lower-income countries; Nicaragua; Source: World Bank; VET - assessment; Working paper;
Uganda. Getting millions to learn: Providing practical and entrepreneurial education in Uganda
Educate! addresses a challenge that is far too common in many countries around the world—a mismatch between what is taught in school and what skills are demanded by the labor market. Perhaps no country faces this challenge more acutely than Uganda, which has the world’s youngest population coupled
with a youth unemployment rate as high as 62 percent. The vast majority of jobs available are in the informal sector.
Tags : Article; Initiative - Educate!; Mismatch training/workforce - skills; School-to-work transition; Skills - mismatch training/workplace; Source: Brookings Institution; Uganda;
South Africa. On the value of foreign PhDs in the developing world: Training versus selection effects
This paper compares the career effects of overseas and domestic PhD training for scientists working in an emerging economy, South Africa. Variations in scientific achievements of South African academics may arise because those who attend "better" PhD programmes receive better training, but it may also be because good students select into good universities. We examine selection and training effects for four tiers of South African and two tiers of foreign universities. Those who received PhDs from universities in industrialized countries tend to be more productive than those whose PhDs were locally granted, but universities from industrialized countries do not necessarily provide better training than local universities. Pure selection effects contribute to career outcomes nearly as much as training effects. When looking at training in isolation, PhDs from top South African universities produce a similar quantity and quality research output to those from leading universities in the developed world.
Tags : Analysis - comparative; Article; Comparative analysis; Higher education; Lower/medium income countries; Source: United Nations University; South Africa; Value - of training;
Europe. Spotlight on VET
A 'Spotlight on VET' for each EU Member State, Iceland and Norway. Spotlights present essential VET features of all 30 countries using comparable system charts based on each country’s VET programmes, rather than schools or institutions
Tags : Analysis - comparative; Comparative analysis; Europe; Iceland; Norway; Source: Cedefop - European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training; VET - vocational education and training;
Skills and Wage Inequality Evidence from PIAAC
This paper exploits data from the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) to shed light on the link between measured cognitive skills (proficiency), (formal) educational attainment and labour market outcomes. Formal education is found to have a larger impact on inequality, given that returns to education are in general much higher at the top than at the bottom of the distribution. The profile of returns to proficiency, by contrary, is much flatter. This is consistent with the idea that PIAAC measures rather general skills, while at the top end of the distribution the labour market rewards specialised knowledge that is necessarily acquired through tertiary and graduate education. Finally, a decomposition exercise shows that composition effects are able to explain a very limited amount of the observed cross-country differences in wage inequality. This suggests that economic institutions, by shaping the way personal characteristics are rewarded in the labour market, are the main determinants of wage inequality.
Tags : Analysis; PIAAC - Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies; Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies - PIAAC; Source: OECD - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; Wage differentials; Working paper;
Global Skill Partnerships: a proposal for technical training in a mobile world
Skilled workers emigrate from developing countries in rising numbers, raising fears of a drain on the human and financial resources of the countries they leave. This paper critiques existing policy proposals to address the development effects of skilled migration. It then proposes a new kind of ex ante public-private agreement to link skill formation and skilled migration for the mutual benefit of origin countries, destination countries, and migrants: ‘Global Skill Partnerships’. The paper describes how such an agreement might work in one profession (nursing) and one region (North Africa), and offers design lessons from related initiatives around the world.
Tags : Collaboration - public/private sectors; Foreign workers; Health - personnel; Human resources for health; Paper; Source: IZA Journal of Labor Policy;
