Adult Vocational Qualifications Reduce the Social Gradient in Education

Abstract

Many youth leave school early without an upper secondary education, impeding their chances in the labor market. Early school leavers come disproportionately from families with low parental education. In some countries, there are alternative routes to upper secondary qualifications as adults. Does adult attainment reduce initial social differences in educational attainment, or does it reinforce such differences? Norway is one of the countries where many attain upper secondary qualifications in adulthood. Using individual data from administrative registers, we follow five Norwegian birth cohorts (1973–1977) from age 20 to 40. We document that the association between parental education and upper secondary completion declines monotonically with age, ending at age 40 about 35% below that at age 20. We also document that the alternative routes to adult qualifications recruit students of different family backgrounds. In particular, adults who acquire vocational qualifications via the experience-based route come from families with lower education than other groups. Our evidence suggests that institutions that offer opportunities for certifying qualifications acquired at work mitigate social gradients, fostering more equal opportunities within the education system.

Types of Education, Achievement and Labour Market Integration over the Life Course

“…Occupational outcomes tied to certain types of education differ for men and women, people with and without a migration background (Naseem, 2019;Zimmermann & Seiler, 2019) as well as by the national context (Barroso-Hurtado & Chan, 2019;Korber, 2019). In a similar vein, educational attainment in adulthood and the concomitant labour market outcomes are related to individuals' social background and occupational status (Bratsberg et al, 2019;Luchinskaya & Dickinson, 2019). Last but not least, two cohort comparisons provide the first tentative evidence that the relationship between types of education and labour market outcomes may have changed over time (Glauser et al, 2019;Kratz et al, 2019).…”

“…On the other hand, several contributions provide evidence that-despite these differences-there is considerable heterogeneity within types of education. VET, higher education as well as further training after labour market entry are linked to heterogeneous outcomes, which differ markedly by the chosen occupational field/level or type of training (Bratsberg et al, 2019;Grønning & Trede, 2019;Luchinskaya & Dickinson, 2019;Sander & Kriesi, 2019). Furthermore, the contributions on this issue show that there is interplay between types of education and ascribed characteristics, such as gender, social origin or migration background.…”

“…This is partly due to a lack of longitudinal data, which would allow the observation of an individual's entire working life. A useful example is the Norwegian register data used by Bratsberg et al (2019). Thanks to the full population information, this contribution is able to trace all adults and investigate their educational or occupational attainment over a period of 15 years.…”

Low education, high job quality? Job autonomy and learning among workers without higher education in Scandinavia, the United Kingdom and Ireland

“…The formalisation of vocational skills can be meaningful at the individual level, as shown in Article 4. As demonstrated by Bratsberg et al (2019), obtaining a trade certificate through the practice candidate scheme is, for many adult workers in Norway, not only a matter of formalising vocational skills but also of completing upper secondary school for the first time. In the Norwegian transition system, the practice candidate scheme thus represents a "second chance" that provides access to formal qualifications that are recognised and valued in the labour market.…”

Industry Challenges for an Under-Skilled Workforce

“…The VET programs need to address the issues for future skills requirements, job content, and the aggregate effect on employment and the opportunities presented by these trends and mitigate undesirable outcomes. (Bratsberg et al, 2019) Many youths leave school early without an upper secondary education, impeding their chances in the labor market. Early school leavers come disproportionately from families with low parental education.…”