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Articles Tags Comparative analysis

England. Closing the Gap between Vocational and General Education? Evidence from University Technical Colleges in England

For students who enter at a more conventional transition age of 16, University Technical Colleges (UTCs) boost vocational achievement without harming academic achievement. They also improve achievement in STEM qualifications, and enrolment in apprenticeships. By age 19, UTC students are less likely to be unemployed and more likely to study STEM at university.
https://www.iza.org/publications/dp/13837/closing-the-gap-between-vocational-and-general-education-evidence-from-university-technical-colleges-in-england

Germany. Does tertiary vocational education beat academic education? A matching analysis of young men’s earnings developments

This paper shows that young men who completed an apprenticeship education plus a tertiary vocational education have considerably higher earnings during the first half of their career than those who obtained an academic education in addition to their apprenticeship education.
https://ervet-journal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40461-020-00104-w

Finland. Vocational Education and Learners’ Experienced Workplace Curriculum

The study implies that the two VET pathways, school-based VET and apprenticeship training, have significant differences. However, in the construction sector, differences between students’ experiences of workplace learning seem to be less visible.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12186-019-09229-w

Canada & USA. Job Skills Mapping: Building Concordance Between the US O*NET System and Canada’s NOC

Investigation on the feasibility of using the US Occupational Information Network (O*NET) to link job–worker characteristics, such as skill importance and level ratings, to Canadian jobs. With its strong theoretical and empirical foundations and the similarity between the Canadian and US economic systems, O*NET is a credible source of occupational data for the Canadian labour market.
https://lmic-cimt.ca/publications-all/lmi-insight-report-no-35-job-skills-mapping-building-concordance-between-the-us-onet-system-and-canadas-noc/
En français. Canada et États-Unis. Cartographie des compétences professionnelles : Mise en correspondance du système étatsunien (O*NET) et canadien (CNP)

 

Poland, Italy and Germany. Using E-Learning to Deliver In-Service Teacher Training in the Vocational Education Sector: Perception and Acceptance in Poland, Italy and Germany

For teachers in vocational education and training (VET), lifelong learning and related further training is important to meet the growing demands of the teaching profession. This paper analyses the perception of technology and e-learning of teachers in Poland, Italy and Germany.
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/10/7/182

Switzerland. General or Vocational Education? The Role of Vocational Interests in Educational Decisions at the End of Compulsory School in Switzerland

Many educational systems are characterized by segregation between a general and vocational educational track. When adolescents must decide on their postcompulsory education at the end of lower secondary school, the different programs are typically embedded in one of these two main tracks. This paper examines the impact of vocational interests on the choice of Baccalaureate School (BAC, general track), Vocational Education and Training (VET, vocational track) or the Federal Vocational Baccalaureate (FVB), a hybrid qualification that links elements of both tracks.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12186-020-09256-y

Upper secondary education for youth at risk: A comparative analysis of education and training programmes in Austria, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland

The four countries surveyed differ widely in terms of educational traditions and the position of VET at upper secondary level. Regarding the integration of disadvantaged youth into education and work, the differences concerning access to upper secondary education, the importance of VET at upper secondary level and the recognition of training programmes for youth at risk may be of particular relevance. Further research is needed to empirically investigate the effectiveness of the identified education and training models as a means of integrating youth at risk into upper secondary education.
https://journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de/hup2/ijrvet/article/view/380

Canada. Obtaining a bachelor’s degree from a community college: Earnings outlook and prospects for graduate studies

Bachelor’s degree holders generally earn considerably more than workers with no degree. However, bachelor’s degrees have traditionally only been available from universities, which are less accessible to rural residents than colleges are.
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/190909/dq190909a-eng.htm?CMP=mstatcan

EU & USA. Transnational education policy and a globally competitive workforce: a comparative analysis of vocational education and training policy in the European Union and the United States

This research examines parallel multilevel political entities as they competitively position education within a global education policyscape.
https://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv%3A81300

UK. A Comparison of Earnings Related to Higher Level Vocational/Technical and Academic Education

Our results show that initially higher earnings observed for people achieving higher vocational education disappear when people are in the mid-twenties. Depending on the type of university attended, male degree holders earn up to 18% more by age 30, while female graduates earn around 40% more. However, there is considerable heterogeneity by gender and subject area. There are high returns related to higher vocational/technical education in STEM subjects, which remain significantly above those of many degree holders by age 30.
https://www.niesr.ac.uk/publications/comparison-earnings-related-higher-level-vocationaltechnical-and-academic-education

Canada & Africa. Why the TVET system of French-speaking African countries is not able to produce a highly qualified and operational man power? : a comparison with Canadian community colleges

This paper analyzes why for over 50 years, West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) countries – Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo – are unable to provide their economies with effective manpower with professional and operational abilities that can function to attract investors and why the system produces so many unemployed graduates. It then compares it with Canadian Community Colleges. The comparison is made because there are strong similarities between the Francophone African economies and the Canadian economy, both of which are based essentially on small and medium enterprises.
https://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv%3A81287

USA. Training Contracts, Employee Turnover, and the Returns from Firm-Sponsored General Training

Firms may be reluctant to provide general training if workers can quit and use their gained skills elsewhere. “Training contracts” that impose a penalty for premature quitting can help alleviate this inefficiency. Simulating a structural model, we show that observed worker quit behavior exhibits aspects of optimization (for one of the two contracts), and that the contracts increased firm profits from training and reduced worker welfare relative to no contract.
http://ftp.iza.org/dp10835.pdf

Lithuania and Germany. Comparison of historical development pathways of initial vocational education and training: how does history matter for policy learning?

This paper reveals the importance of considering differences in the historical development of pathways to initial [vocational education and training] VET for policy learning. It refers to the actual application of the experience of dual apprenticeship from Germany in the implementation of apprenticeship in the school-based initial VET system in Lithuania.
http://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv%3A75827

Europe. Tertiary vocational education in Europe – examples from six education systems

The tertiary education sector has observably been developing comparatively dynamically in recent years. On the basis of examples from England, France, Ireland, Norway, Austria and Poland, the understanding of “tertiary education”, its structures and the relevance of work-based learning programmes are described.
https://www.bibb.de/veroeffentlichungen/en/publication/show/8155

Canada. The transition from school to work – the not in employment, education or training (NEET) indicator for 15 to 19 year old in Canada

This fact explores the situation of 15 to 19-year-old Canadians in order to further the understanding of school and labour market transitions for youth at this age, and how this first age of transition compares to 15 to 19-year-old in other OECD countries and over time. As well, provincial comparisons will be presented.
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-599-x/81-599-x2018012-eng.htm
En français. Canada. La transition de l’école au travail : indicateur ni en emploi, ni aux études, ni en formation (NEET) pour les jeunes âgés de 15 à 19 ans au Canada
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-599-x/81-599-x2018012-fra.htm

Firms’ motivation for training apprentices: an Australian–German comparison

This paper looks at firms’ motivation for training apprentices in both Australia and Germany. It explores how these countries compare when dealing with their respective institutional arrangements for apprenticeship training. It then analyses Australian employer’s commitment to training based on changes to incentive payments in Australia.
https://www.ncver.edu.au/publications/publications/all-publications/firms-motivation-for-training-apprentices-an-australian-german-comparison

OECD Handbook for Internationally Comparative Education Statistics

This Handbook aims to facilitate a greater understanding of the education statistics and indicators produced and so allow for their more effective use in policy analysis. Equally, it provides a ready reference of international standards and conventions for others to follow in the collection and assimilation of educational data.
http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/oecd-handbook-for-internationally-comparative-education-statistics_9789264279889-en

Italy. The Effect of Immigrant Peers in Vocational Schools

This paper provides new evidence on how the presence of immigrant peers in the classroom affects native student achievement. Vocational
training institutions provide the ideal setting for studying these effects because they attract not only disproportionately high shares of immigrants but also the lowest ability native students. We adopt a value added model, and exploit within-school variation both within and across cohorts for identification. Our results show small negative average effects on maths test scores that are larger for low ability native students, strongly non-linear and only observable in classes with a high (top 20%) immigrant concentration. These outcomes are driven by classes with a high average linguistic distance between immigrants and natives, with no apparent role played by ethnic diversity.
http://ftp.iza.org/dp11027.pdf

Occupational Competence Needs Analysis as Basis for TVET Teacher Curriculum Development

The original DACUM approach, as well as the Developing a Curriculum on Curriculum Design (DCCD) tool, concentrate on collecting the required information from experts of the field in question by means of formalized face-to-face group meetings. The difference of DACUM and the DCCD tool lies in the underlying philosophy, how an occupation should be described, and what information is necessary for that.
http://tvet-online.asia/issue/2/kurnia-etal/

Indonesia. Comparison between the DACUM and work process analysis for vocational school curriculum development to meet workplace need, 2014

Development of vocational education curriculum, especially in Indonesia, should not only use the philosophy and introspection approach. DACUM and work process analysis (WPA) should be used to develop vocational education curriculum in order to increase the relevance of what is taught in schools and the needs of the workforce.
http://eprints.uny.ac.id/24428/1/A-8.pdf

Competency-based vocational education: Is this the answer?, 2007

The paper outlines the main features of competency-based vocational education (CBVE) and reviews and compares three competency-based programs in operation. The programs are offered by vocational colleges in Canada, United States of America and Australia and the review concentrates on processes and products required to implement the competency-based approach successfully. The review makes it apparent that CBVE has a good deal of potential for training in vocational education as well as in industry.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10408347308003621?src=recsys

 

Which occupational analysis technique: Critical incident, DACUM, and/or information search?, 2007

In investigating the competencies needed by secondary school teachers, the comparative effectiveness of three occupational (job) analysis techniques was examined: Critical Incident, DACUM, and Information Search. Using measures of comprehensiveness and uniqueness, it was found that DACUM and Information Search were equally effective, and Critical Incident was less effective; however, it was considered that both DACUM and Information Search needed to be used, with respect to this study, to obtain an adequate list of competencies for this particular occupation.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10408347308003391?src=recsys

Canada. 13 Ways to modernize youth employment in Canada

We depend on our young people to build and support the economy for the next generation. When changes to the nature of work and social conditions make it difficult for them to gain a solid foothold, the very foundation of our society is threatened.
On the surface, there may not appear to be a problem when it comes to the labour market participation of Canada’s youth, a population of 6.8 million people between the ages of 15 and 29. Among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, Canadian youth are more likely to be employed than their peers. At the same time, the labour landscape is being redefined at a dizzying pace. New and emerging technologies, demographic change and globalization are profoundly changing the way work gets done, and what the jobs of the future will require of our youngest workers.
https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/corporate/youth-expert-panel/report-modern-strategies-youth-employment.html
En français. Canada. 13 voies pour moderniser l’emploi des jeunes au Canada
https://www.canada.ca/fr/emploi-developpement-social/ministere/groupe-experts-emploi-jeunes/rapport-strategies-moderniser-emploi-jeunes.html#sommaire

Europe. Skills mismatch of natives and immigrants in Europe

Despite the strong interest in skills mismatch, an internationally agreed methodology to measure the phenomenon is lacking and methodological discussions are on-going. At the same time, matching of jobs and skills is a major factor shaping labour market outcomes, and monitoring of levels and trends of skills mismatch is important to inform labour market policy development including labour migration and integration policy.
http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/labour-migration/publications/WCMS_548911/lang–en/index.htm

Turkey. Do Vocational High School Graduates Have Better Employment Outcomes than General High School Graduates?

This paper estimates the causal effect of vocational high school (VHS) education on employment likelihood relative to general high school (GHS) education in Turkey using census data.
http://ftp.iza.org/dp10507.pdf

Canada. Education indicators in Canada: An international perspective, 2015

In 2015, 9 out of 10 people (90%) in Canada aged 25 to 64 had completed at least high school, well above the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average of 78%. Only the Czech Republic (93%), Estonia, the Slovak Republic and Poland (all at 91%) had higher proportions. The United States matched Canada at 90%.
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/161215/dq161215b-eng.htm

Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. Tertiary Technical Education and Youth Integration

Vocational training versus a traditional university education. This chapter seeks to answer the question of whether ‘tertiary technical education’ has contributed to increasing economic and social opportunity for young people in Latin America, using three case studies from Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.
http://poldev.revues.org/1776

How to close the skills gap: lessons from emerging economies

Automation and globalization are reshaping the world economy. Within the next four years, more than 5 million jobs are expected to be lost to robots. But which skills do we need in order to face the unexpected? And how do we equip today’s school-age children for professions that don’t exist yet?
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/08/skills-gap-emerging-economies-lessons/

Europe. The role of modularisation and unitisation in vocational education and training

This study investigates the role of modules and units in vocational education and training (VET) in 15 EU countries and aims to determine how these structures fit in the wider VET systems.It provides a comparative analysis of different modularisation and unitisation practices and the rationale behind their implementation, and an outline of the different national contexts in which modular and unitised structures developed over time.
http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/publications-and-resources/publications/6126?src=email&freq=weekly

Workforce development in emerging economies: Comparative perspectives on institutions praxis, and policies

The book’s findings, based on cross-sectional data for nearly 30 countries and time-series data for five countries, identify successes and common issues across countries in the sample. In lagging countries, the biggest difficulties relate to: forming and sustaining strategic partnerships with employers; ensuring equitable and efficient funding for vocational education; and putting in place mechanisms to enhance training providers’ accountability for results defined by their trainees’ job market performance. By framing workforce development in the broader skills-for-growth context and drawing on lessons from countries where well-designed workforce development strategies.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/24541/9781464808500.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y

Latin America. Comparative Review of National Mobile Learning Initiatives in Latin America

The cases of Costa Rica, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay. Comparative Report
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002440/244084e.pdf
En français. Révision comparative des initiatives nationales d’apprentissage mobile en Amérique Latine
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002440/244084f.pdf
En español. Revisión comparativa de iniciativas nacionales de aprendizaje móvil en América Latina
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002440/244084s.pdf 

England. Governing Education and Training Systems in England Some Lessons from the United States

This paper broadly discusses education and training system policies that focus on workforce development in England and the US, especially with regard to the role of further education colleges (community colleges in the US), employer engagement, and local workforce development bodies. The focus is on governance at the post-secondary level, as the main interest is skills development after compulsory education. The most striking differences between the American and English systems are the governance and authority structures, which are stronger in the US and afford greater scope for strategic planning by states and between states and the federal level. The experiences of community colleges in working with employers to provide workforce training may be worth further investigation as further education colleges further develop this type of provision. The US experience is less instructive with regard to quality assurance or increasing employers’ engagement with education.
http://www.skope.ox.ac.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/WP-121.pdf

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.
http://www.merit.unu.edu/publications/working-papers/abstract/?id=5934

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
http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/publications-and-resources/publications/4135

Formal Education Versus Learning-by-Doing

The efficiency of educational choices is studied in a search-matching model where individuals face a trade off: acquiring formal education or learning while on the job. When their education effort is successful, newcomers directly obtain a high-skill job; otherwise, they begin with a low-skill job, learn-by-doing and then search while on-the-job for a high-skill job. Low-skill firms suffer from hold-up behavior by high-skill firms. The low-skill sector is insufficiently attractive and individuals devote too much effort to formal education. A self financing tax and subsidy policy restores market efficiency.
http://ftp.iza.org/dp8341.pdf

EU. The role of modularisation and unitisation in vocational education and training

This study investigates the role of modules and units in vocational education and training (VET) in 15 EU countries and aims to determine how these structures fit in the wider VET systems.
It provides a comparative analysis of different modularisation and unitisation practices and the rationale behind their implementation, and an outline of the different national contexts in which modular and unitised structures developed over time. It also offers a close-up of three different approaches to modularisation in one occupational area, in Germany, the Netherlands and Scotland.
http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/publications-and-resources/publications/6126

USA. Skill Mismatches in the EU: Immigrants vs. Natives

The objective of this paper is to analyse and explain the factors behind the observed differences in skill mismatches (vertical and horizontal) between natives and immigrants in EU countries. Our analysis shows that immigrants are more likely to be skill mismatched than natives, being this difference much larger for vertical mismatch. In this case, the difference is higher for immigrants coming from non-EU countries than for those coming from other EU countries. We find that immigrants from non-EU countries are less valued in the EU labour markets than natives with similar characteristics, a result that is not observed for immigrants from EU countries. These results could be related to the limited transferability of the human capital acquired in non-EU countries. The findings suggest that specific programs to adapt immigrants’ human capital acquired in home country are required to reduce differences in the incidence of skill mismatch and a better integration in the EU labour markets.
http://ftp.iza.org/dp7701.pdf

USA. National hiring experiments reveal 2:1 faculty preference for women on STEM tenure track

The under representation of women in academic science is typically attributed, both in scientific literature and in the media, to sexist hiring. Here we report five hiring experiments in which faculty evaluated hypothetical female and male applicants, using systematically varied profiles disguising identical scholarship, for assistant professorships in biology, engineering, economics, and psychology. Contrary to prevailing assumptions, men and women faculty members from all four fields preferred female applicants 2:1 over identically qualified males with matching lifestyles (single, married, divorced), with the exception of male economists, who showed no gender preference. Comparing different lifestyles revealed that women preferred divorced mothers to married fathers and that men preferred mothers who took parental leaves to mothers who did not. Our findings, supported by real-world academic hiring data, suggest advantages for women launching academic science careers.
http://www.pnas.org/content/112/17/5360.full

USA. Mapping the market for higher education

For the first time, the U.S. Department of Education has made institution level earnings information available to the public. Students shopping for a college can now log on to the College Scorecard and see earnings information alongside other important factors, such as cost and graduation rate. The availability of this data makes it possible for consumers of higher education to use a cost-benefit framework to make savvier decisions about college. Simply put, they can compare the upfront cost of tuition to the benefits that they are likely to receive in the form of heightened future wages.  This has the potential to create both individual and systemic benefits.
https://www.brookings.edu/research/mapping-the-market-for-higher-education/

Canada. An Investment of a Lifetime? The Long-term Labour Market Premiums Associated with a Postsecondary Education

This paper examines the long-term labour market premiums associated with completing a college certificate and a bachelor’s degree, compared to completing a high school diploma. Several labour market outcomes of individuals are examined with longitudinal data over a 20-year period spanning their mid-30s to their mid-50s. The findings show that individuals who have a bachelor’s degree or a college certificate have more favourable labour market outcomes over their working lives than individuals who have only a high school diploma. More specifically, the earnings premium associated with a bachelor’s degree over the 20-year period ranges, on average, from $728,000 for men to $442,000 for women. For a college certificate, the premium is $248,000 for men and $180,000 for women, on average. The earnings premium associated with a bachelor’s degree is much larger at the top of the distribution for men than it is for women. The study also finds that, for both men and women, a bachelor’s degree and a college certificate are associated with more years of coverage in an employer-sponsored pension plan and fewer layoffs than a high school diploma.
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11f0019m/11f0019m2014359-eng.pdf

Immigrant Skill Selection and Utilization: a Comparative Analysis of Australia, Canada and the United States

We compare literacy test scores and relative wage and employment outcomes of Australian, Canadian and U.S. immigrants using the 2003/2006 Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey (ALLS). We find substantially higher immigrant skill levels at the lower end of the distribution in Australia, especially among recent arrivals, but little difference across countries at the top. In addition, we identify substantially larger wage returns to immigrant skill in the U.S., which we argue reflects language-skill complementarities, as opposed to more efficient skill utilization or unobserved productivity characteristics. Our results suggest that the benefit of a point system for the U.S. lies in its potential to limit unskilled immigration flows, rather than in raising skills at the top end of the distribution where the economic growth potential of immigration is likely greatest.
http://www.clsrn.econ.ubc.ca/workingpapers/CLSRN%20Working%20Paper%20no.%20140%20-%20Clarke%20and%20Skuterud.pdf

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