Are general skills important for vocationally educated?

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the effect of general skills on wages for vocationally educated workers with a qualification at upper secondary level. While general skills are considered crucial for labour market success of workers in general, it is not clear whether this also holds for the vocationally educated workers. We use the recently developed concept of effective skills to identify the relationship between general skills and wages for this group. Using data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) in 25 countries with advanced economies, we show that general skills strongly affect wages of vocationally educated workers and are just as important a factor as they are for generally educated workers. For vocationally educated males, the effect is especially salient for older workers (aged 45 and above). For vocationally educated females, general skills are most important in the beginning of their career (aged 20 to 35) and at prime age (aged 36 to 45).