what is vocational in essay

Essay on Vocational Education for Students and Children

500 words essay on vocational education.

It refers to a skill-based program that enables students to obtain knowledge, training, and practical skills of a specific trade. It is often referred to as technical or career education as it helps students develop skills in a particular discipline. In addition, they focus more on application-based training rather than theoretical knowledge.

Besides, diverse job functions from various sectors such as food and beverages, computer network cosmetology, banking and finance, tourism, skilled trades, and healthcare, etc. include vocational training.

Source: NIOS

Benefits of Vocational Training

The vocational training has many benefits not only for an individual but also for the nation. Furthermore, some benefits of vocational training are:

Job-ready – This training makes a person job-ready and students can directly get a job after completing their studies. In addition, it provides students the required set of skills and training for various jobs such as fashion designers, computer networking, interior designing and many more. Also, it makes the person skilled and ready for the job of their respective fields.

Low Education Cost – The fees of these courses are quite economic and anyone can easily afford to pay for them. Moreover, they are an easy alternative for those students who do not want to opt for a 3-year degree course. Many of these vocational courses are as good as degree courses and offer employment quickly. Besides, they are best for those students who cannot afford the cost of the degree course.

Career advancement – They are also the best alternative for those people who have a job and want to acquire new skills. Also, the duration of these courses is quite less compared to the degree courses but the set of skills taught is quite useful and important.

Besides, it is quite effective for a professional to improve the prospect of their career. In addition, dropouts and students who are less interested in academic studies can choose from a range of diverse courses in their field of interest.

Economic Development – The demand for skilled professionals in the various sector is growing day by day in the world. In addition, the existence of skilled manpower is beneficial to society as well as the economy of developing nations. With this, the need for importing manpower from other nation is also reduced.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Growing Need for Vocational Education

The development of nations requires skilled manpower and vocational education prepares them for the job. Also, the demand for skilled labor has increased manifold in both the business and government sectors. Furthermore, over the year the vocational education has diversified immensely.

Moreover, vocational courses come as a surprise package as students get the opportunity to enhance and get trained to improve their natural talents and skills. Besides, they become highly successful in their field and fetch good packages.

In conclusion, the students who complete these courses are better at a job than those who only receive an academic education. Also, it is an asset of the country that helps the economy to develop and grow. In addition, there is a high demand for these skilled people in both the government and the business sector. Above all, it benefits students, society, nation, and employers.

FAQs about Essay on Vocational Education

Q.1 How vocational education is different from traditional education? A.1 In traditional education the main emphasis is on teaching and learning of theoretical materials. But vocational education emphasizes on learning and teaching of practical knowledge. Also, vocational education makes the person job-ready.

Q.2 Who is the father of vocational education? A.2 Charles Allen Prosser is known as the father of vocational education. His aim was to improve the education system of the country which later reforms the world.

Customize your course in 30 seconds

Which class are you in.

Travelling Essay
Picnic Essay
Our Country Essay
My Parents Essay
Essay on Favourite Personality
Essay on Memorable Day of My Life
Essay on Knowledge is Power
Essay on Gurpurab
Essay on My Favourite Season
Essay on Types of Sports

Download the App

The Classroom | Empowering Students in Their College Journey

How to Write an Essay on a Vocation

How to Write a Dissertation Summary

Writing an essay on a certain career or vocation is similar to writing essays on other subjects; the only difference is that the subject of this essay will be on a certain type of career or profession. Formulating a research question or thesis statement is an important part of writing an essay of any kind.

Thesis Statement

Before beginning to draft an essay of any kind, it is important to draft a thesis statement that will guide your paper. For example, if you were writing an essay on the benefits of being a doctor, your thesis could read "Medical doctors enjoy many professional perks, but by far the best things about being a doctor are the lives you save, the people you help and the lessons you learn." This thesis statement will help you to organize your thoughts and research the given vocation and its benefits.

Unless you are working in the field you are writing the essay about, you will have to conduct some research. There are several different sources that talk about various vocations so there is no lack of information. Pay particular attention to the validity of your sources. Try to use primary sources as much as possible, perhaps a current career professional or scholarly article about the vocation. Steering clear of less than stellar references, such as personal opinions in an online forum, will make your essay more credible.

Supporting Details

While your thesis statement is the skeleton that provides structure to your essay, the body paragraphs and supporting details are the flesh and sinew. Using the sources from your research, flesh out your paragraphs with relevant facts and evidence. For example, in the thesis example on doctors, the first body paragraph in your essay might be about the lives a doctor saves because this is the first detail mentioned in the thesis. Citing examples and statistics of how many lives an average doctor saves in the course of his career would be an effective supporting detail.

Conclusions

Just because you’ve clearly addressed each point of your thesis and crafted effective body paragraphs doesn’t mean you’re done. Many students skimp on conclusions and leave readers dissatisfied. Use your conclusion to wrap up any loose ends you created in your essay as well as mention any further issues raised as a result of your research.

How to Write a Report about a Famous Person

How to Write a Good Personality Essay

How to Make a Strong Argument in an Essay

Types of Introductions in a Research Paper

How Do Reflective Essays Differ From Analytical Essays?

What Is the Credibility Statement in Writing?

How to Write an Essay for an Internship

How to write a humanities paper

Ten Tips for Writing an Essay

Stacy Alleyne is a certified English teacher with a BA in English and graduate work in English, education, journalism and law. She has written numerous articles and her own dining column for the "Gazette."

Our Mission

Why Should We Care About Vocational Education?

Some years ago I was hired by Norway's Ministry of Education to train vocational education teachers. Having myself attended a comprehensive high school where vocational students were those who couldn't make it academically, and having taught in a suburban high school where there was zero vocational education, it was eye-opening to be in a country where vocational education had high prestige, was well-funded, and included students who could have gone to medical school if that had been their preference.

I was reminded of this experience recently when Tony Wagner, the author of The Global Achievement Gap and, most recently, Creating Innovators (much more on that book in a future column), spoke with educators and parents in my community and noted that in Finland's highly successful educational system, 45% of the students choose a technical track, not an academic track, after completing their basic education.

Blue-Collar Stigma in White-Collar Society

I'm sure many high school counselors have had some students confide that what they enjoyed doing most was working with their hands, whether on car engines, electrical circuits in the house, hair, or doing therapeutic massage. I bet that many of these students also confided that there is no way they could tell their parents that they'd rather pursue one of these occupations than go to college to prepare for a professional or business career.

We live in a society that places a high value on the professions and white-collar jobs, and that still considers blue-collar work lower status. It's no surprise that parents want their children to pursue careers that will maintain or increase their status. This is even more evident in high socio-economic communities. And for most teachers, if the student is academically successful, this will be seen as a "waste of talent."

The same dilemma often exists for students who are working to overcome the achievement gap. Most schools that are effectively helping kids to overcome this gap and achieve academically also place a premium on college admissions, often the mark of success for these schools. And kids who are the first in their families to graduate high school appear foolish to "throw this all away" by choosing some alternative to college and a blue collar career.

This bias against vocational education is dysfunctional. First, it is destructive to our children. They should have the opportunity to be trained in whatever skills their natural gifts and preferences lead them to, rather than more or less condemning them to jobs they'll find meaningless. If a young person has an affinity for hair design or one of the trades, to keep him or her from developing the skills to pursue this calling is destructive.

Second, it is destructive to our society. Many of the skills most needed to compete in the global market of the 21st century are technical skills that fall into the technical/vocational area. The absence of excellence in many technical and vocational fields is also costing us economically as a nation.

In the early sixties, John Gardner, in his classic book Excellence , talked about the importance of vocational education and of developing excellence across all occupations for the social and economic health of our society. Unfortunately, we've made little progress in the intervening years. Students who don't excel in traditional academic areas, or who have little interest in them, should not meet with disappointment or disapproval from parents and teachers. As another Gardner, Howard Gardner, has repeatedly pointed out, there are varied types of intelligence, and they are of equal value. As one example, bodily-kinesthetic and spatial intelligence are frequently high in those who are successful in varied technical trades. And there is absolutely no contradiction between recognizing and developing these intelligences and developing basic verbal and mathematical literacy for all students.

Vocational Education Groundswell

While changing societal values will take time, changes can take place on a school or district level more immediately. And the good news is that there are increasing models and resources to guide educators.

Joe Klein in a recent Time magazine article described an increasing number of excellent and well-funded vocational programs in the U.S., particularly in Arizona. Two of these, the East Valley Institute of Technology in Mesa and the Career and Technical Education Program at Monument Valley High School in Kayenta, provide both inspiration and practical models that could be implemented in many districts.

There are also more schools across the U.S. that are creating internship programs to help students gain workplace experiences while enrolled in an academic high school. At City Arts and Technology High in San Francisco, all juniors and seniors secure internships in the community, where they are mentored by an on-site professional and regularly visited by their school advisor. MetWest High School in Oakland, California is one of many that place student internships at the center of their mission. And Nancy Hoffman's excellent new book, Schooling in the Workplace , looks at how six countries successfully integrate schools and workplaces, while also providing a look at where this is happening in the U.S.

Finally, being able to begin legitimizing vocational education in a district may also depend on successfully re-educating parents regarding the value of occupations that aren't high on the social status scale. Mike Rose's The Mind at Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker , provides an excellent antidote to our social biases about intelligence and an eye-opening look at the combination of cognitive and manual skills needed in occupations that our society has mistakenly devalued.

Vocational education on both a secondary and post-secondary level should be highly valued, well-funded and effectively implemented. The first steps can and should be taken on a local level.

What Is a Vocational School?

Choosing A College
College Admissions Process
College Profiles
College Rankings
Application Tips
Essay Samples & Tips
Testing Graphs
College Financial Aid
Advanced Placement
Homework Help
Private School
College Life
Graduate School
Business School
Distance Learning
Ph.D., English, University of Pennsylvania
M.A., English, University of Pennsylvania
B.S., Materials Science & Engineering and Literature, MIT

A vocational school is one that prepares a student for a specific type of job. In other words, a vocational education provides the skills needed for a career in a particular trade or craft. A student who attends a vocational school (sometimes called a trade school) will focus almost entirely on that target career.

The vocational approach is in sharp contrast to most traditional bachelor's degree programs in which students take courses in a wide range of subjects to develop broad and versatile knowledge and skills. For example, a student majoring in biology at a liberal arts college will also take classes in chemistry, physics, history, literature, writing, and the social sciences. At a vocational school, a student might study the biological sciences, but courses would be targeted towards a specific career goal such as becoming a dental hygienist, radiologist, or surgical technician.

The Vocational School Experience

Vocational schools typically have open admissions , although some specialized programs are certainly an exception to this rule. Often, to be admitted a student need only be 16 or 17 years old and have completed high school or earned a GED. Programs can have limited spaces, but the application process rarely involves things like the SAT or ACT, letters of recommendation, admissions essays, or other measures that are often required by four-year colleges and universities.

Vocational schools draw a diverse range of students. Some will be recent high school graduates who are continuing their educations, while other students are adults who are returning to the workforce after a period of time or who are looking for a change.

Almost all vocational school programs can be completed in two years or fewer. Some lead to a two-year associate degree, while others might take a year or less and lead to certification or licensure in a specific profession. A vocational school might be a private, for-profit institution or it could be run through a state-funded community college. The latter will typically have lower costs.

Many vocational programs are designed with working people in mind. Evening and weekend classes are common so that students can balance their classwork with jobs and family commitments. Classes tend to be small, and most have a significant hands-on component, since students are learning trade skills that require specialized tools and equipment.

What Can You Do With a Vocational School Degree?

Many students who enter the workforce straight out of high school find that job opportunities are extremely limited. Jobs in retail, food service, and construction often don't require further education, but they can also be jobs with limited potential for growth. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employees with an associate's degree earn an average of $124 more per week than those with a high school diploma, and $316 more per week than those who never completed high school.

Employees' salaries, of course, are going to vary significantly based on the type of vocational degrees they earn, and some degrees are in much more demand than others. Healthcare is a field with high demand, and vocational education can lead to careers such as

Nursing aides
Medical technicians
Surgical prep technicians
Phlebotomists
Laboratory technicians
Radiologists

Other common vocational fields include

Computer support
Laboratory science technology
Real estate
Hospitality
Firefighting

Vocational schools across the country offer hundreds of specialized training opportunities, so the primary challenge is finding one that matches your specific interests and career goals.

The Pros and Cons of Attending Vocational School

In our highly technological world, the majority of careers require some form of training and education after high school. Many jobs, however, do not require a four-year college degree or graduate degree. A vocational education increases a student's employability and earning potential. Vocational school is also highly efficient—rather than a four-year commitment, a one-year certificate program or two-year associate's degree will provide the necessary training.

Vocational school does, however, have some limitations. For one, you'll be training for a specific job, and that type of focused, specialized training can limit job mobility. The broader and more flexible preparation provided by a four-year college doesn't have as many limitations, and it can be easier to advance into senior positions and management. Also, while a vocational degree certainly increases one's earning potential, those with a bachelor's degree earn, on average, about $340 more per week than those with an associate degree.

That said, attending a vocational school can be an efficient, effective, and affordable way to advance one's career.

Earning an Associate Degree
What Are Technical Schools?
Types of Nursing Programs and Degrees
5 Reasons to Consider Community College
Community College vs. University: What's the Difference?
What Is a Community College?
A List of the Most Common Business Degrees
Should I Earn a Real Estate Degree?
Growing Industries to Consider If You're Going Back to School
Understanding Different Types of Colleges
Should I Earn a Human Resources Degree?
Which Degree Is Right for You?
Should I Earn a Business Degree?
6 Financial Benefits of a College Degree
STEM Majors: How to Choose the Right Degree
Should I Earn an Entrepreneurship Degree?

Featured Essay The Love of God An essay by Sam Storms Read Now
Faithfulness of God
Saving Grace
Adoption by God

U.S. Edition

Arts & Culture
Bible & Theology
Christian Living
Current Events
Faith & Work
As In Heaven
Gospelbound
Post-Christianity?
TGC Podcast
You're Not Crazy
Churches Planting Churches
Help Me Teach The Bible
Word Of The Week
Upcoming Events
Past Conference Media
Foundation Documents
Church Directory
Global Resourcing
Donate to TGC

To All The World

The world is a confusing place right now. We believe that faithful proclamation of the gospel is what our hostile and disoriented world needs. Do you believe that too? Help TGC bring biblical wisdom to the confusing issues across the world by making a gift to our international work.

The Doctrine of Vocation

Other essays.

The Reformation doctrine of vocation teaches that all Christians are called by God to live faithfully in three arenas, the household, the Church, and the state, in which all Christians are to live out their priesthood as believers by offering up their lives as living sacrifices to God.

The Reformers formulated the doctrine of vocation in response to the Roman Catholic insistence that “vocation” or “calling” was reserved for those entering the service of the church through the priesthood or a monastic order. Those doing so would renounce marriage, secular work, and economic advancement through taking vows of celibacy, obedience, and poverty. In response, the Reformers argued that all Christians are called by God to live faithfully in the three arenas of life: the household, the church, and the state. As a corollary of the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers, all Christians are called by God to offer up their lives as living sacrifices in all areas of life. This means that all of life, including the most mundane tasks, are worship to God, not only select actions and vocations reserved for those who have renounced involvement in normal institutions of worldly life.

Introduction and Definition

The doctrine of vocation is one of the greatest—though strangely neglected and forgotten—teachings of the Reformation. Contrary to the common assumption, it is much more than a theology of work. Vocation has to do with God’s providence, how He governs and cares for His creation by working through human beings. Vocation shows Christians how to live out their faith, not just in the workplace but in their families, churches, and cultures. Vocation is where faith bears fruit in acts of love, and so it grows out of the Gospel. And vocation is where Christians struggle with trials and temptations, becoming a means of sanctification.

The word “vocation” is simply the Latinate word for “calling.” God calls us—addresses us personally with the language of His Word—and we are brought to faith. He also calls us to arenas of service. “Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him” (1 Cor. 7:17). Thus, the Lord “assigns” us to a “life,” and then He calls us to that life.

The Three Arenas

The immediate context of that verse from the Apostle Paul is a discussion not of the workplace but of marriage. According to Luther, we have callings in each of the three estates that God created for human life:

The household . This refers to the family, including its economic labor by which it supports itself. Marriage, becoming a father or mother, being a son or daughter, are all vocations. In Luther’s late-medieval economy, most work—whether that of peasant farms, middle class crafts, or the nobility’s political rule—were all based in families and usually conducted at home. The very word “economy,” which derives from the Greek words for “house” ( oikos ) and “management” ( nomia ), referred to the concept of the “household.” But our family relationships constitute our most important vocations.
The church. All Christians are called by the Gospel. God also “calls” pastors. Also elders, other church workers, and all other members, each of whom has a part to play in the congregation.
The state. We find ourselves in a certain time and place, under certain political jurisdictions, part of a certain culture. This is part of our “assignment” in which we are to live our Christian lives. Our citizenship is a vocation. We are called to our local communities, our nation, our surrounding culture. Christians are free to participate in the political life of their countries, as well as to hold public offices. We thus have vocations even in the “secular” arena, which is where Christians interact with non-believers and function as salt and light in the world. (Matt. 5:13–16)

The Reformers reacted against the Roman Catholic teaching that reserved “having a vocation” or “receiving a call” for entering a monastery, a convent, or the priesthood. To receive that kind of calling meant entering the “spiritual” life, which was considered far more Christian and meritorious than living a “secular” life in the world. To so devote oneself to the church meant taking vows of celibacy (thus repudiating marriage and parenting), poverty (thus repudiating economic productivity in the society), and obedience (thus being subject only to church law and not to that of earthly authorities). To the Reformers, not only were such vows a manifestation of works righteousness in opposition to the Gospel, they were also blasphemous rejections of the very estates that God ordained for human life.

The Reformers responded by exalting the family—particularly the callings of marriage and parenthood (vs. the vow of celibacy)—as a realm of Christian love and devotion. They exalted the workplace as a realm of Christian service (vs. the vows of poverty). And they exalted not just the state but the society as a whole as realms of God’s creation and sovereignty (vs. the vows of obedience).

The Reformation teachings about vocation are facets of the doctrine of the “priesthood of all believers.” This does not mean that every Christian is a minister leading a congregation or that there is no need for pastors. Rather, it means that one does not need to be a pastor—who himself has a calling to proclaim God’s Word—in order to be a “priest.” Farmers, shoemakers, lawyers, merchants, soldiers, rulers, husbands, wives, mothers, children, etc., are all “priests”— performing “spiritual” work in their ordinary labors, interceding in prayer for everyone they deal with, bringing God’s Word into their everyday lives.

A “priest” is someone, above all, who offers sacrifices, something even pastors do not do (except for Catholic pastors who call themselves priests because they believe they re-sacrifice Christ in the mass). But though Christ has been sacrificed once and for all so that we no longer need any other sacrifice for our sin (Heb. 9:6), we now are called to present our bodies as living sacrifices (Rom. 12:1) and “to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:5). This happens in vocation.

The Purpose of Vocation

Every vocation, according to Luther, is to love and serve your neighbors. Your vocation brings specific neighbors into your life: your spouse, your children, your fellow-citizens, the members of your congregation, your customers. God wants us to love and serve them.

Loving God and loving our neighbors as ourselves encapsulates “all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 22:37–40). Our love of God is based solely on His love for us in Christ:

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). Thus our relationship with Him is based not on our works, our service to him, or our vocations, but upon Christ alone. “God does not need our good works,” observed Luther. “But our neighbor does.” God saves us apart from our works, then calls back into the world, into our distinct callings, to love and serve Him by loving and serving our neighbors.

This love and service, these good works, consist largely not of special “good deeds” but of the ordinary tasks of the vocation. Parents changing their baby’s diaper, which Luther hailed as an act of holiness; farmers plowing their fields; a shopkeeper selling something useful; an engineer designing a useful piece of technology; an artist painting a beautiful picture; a citizen casting a vote—these all can be offered as acts of love and service.

Vocation as the Mask of God

Luther stressed that God himself is living and active in and through vocation. He gives us our daily bread by means of farmers and bakers. He creates new human beings and cares for them by means of mothers and fathers. He protects us by means of lawful magistrates. He proclaims His Word and gives his sacraments through the voice and hands of pastors. Vocation, says Luther, is a “mask” of God: We see only the human face, performing ordinary tasks in everyday life, but behind that calling, through which we are blessed, God himself is hidden, giving his gifts.

God in his providence works even through non-believers. Often the non-Christian is motivated solely by self-interest or self-fulfillment. Christians can experience some of that, but they can also make their work the fruit of their faith—“faith working through love” (Gal. 5:6)—and bear the burdens of their callings as a “daily” cross of service and self-sacrifice (Luke 9:23–24).

To be sure, we often sin in our vocations. Instead of wanting to serve, as Luther observed, we insist on being served. Instead of loving and serving, we harm the neighbor of our vocation. We “lord it over” those under our authority rather than using our authority to serve them, as the “Son of Man” does (Mark 10:42–45). Sin in vocation puts us in conflict with God’s purpose, as we resist God’s love for others and work against Him. Often God still blesses others through our vocation, despite ourselves. But we must be broken to repentance by God’s law, whereupon we can know Christ’s forgiveness again, which restores our vocation.

This is the texture of the Christian life—which plays out in our marriages, parenthood, work, congregation, and cultural life—which, along with the trials and tribulations that also afflict us in these callings, can become occasions for spiritual growth and sanctification.

The doctrine of vocation brings the Gospel into ordinary life. It transfigures the mundane routines of ordinary life, charging them with purpose, spiritual significance, and the very presence of God.

Custom Writing Services

Holland’s theory of vocational choice.

Applications of Holland’s theory of vocational choice involve assessing individuals in terms of two or three prominent personality types and then matching the respective types with the environmental aspects of potential careers. The theory predicts that the higher the degree of congruence between individual and occupational characteristics, the better the potential for positive career-related outcomes, including satisfaction, persistence, and achievement.

Holland’s Theory Overview

The typology inherent in Holland’s theory organizes the voluminous data about people in different jobs and the data about different work environments to suggest how people make vocational choices and explain how job satisfaction and vocational achievement occur. Seven assumptions underlie the typology:

Most people possess one of six modal personality types: Realistic (R), Investigative (I), Artistic (A), Social (S), Enterprising (E), or Conventional (C). Table 1 summarizes each of the six “RIASEC” types and gives examples of occupations associated with them.
Six modal occupational environments correspond to the six modal personality types: Realistic (R), Investigative (I), Artistic (A), Social (S), Enterprising (E), and Conventional (C). Each environment is dominated by a given type of personality and is typified by physical settings posing special circumstances.
People search for environments that allow them to exercise their skills and abilities, express their attitudes and values, and assume agreeable circumstances and roles.
A person’s behavior is determined by an interaction between his or her personality and the characteristics of the environment. Based on an individual’s personality pattern and the pattern of the environment, some outcomes of such a pairing can, in principle, be forecast using knowledge of personality types and environmental models. Such outcomes include choice of vocation, job changes, vocational achievement, personal competence, and educational and social behavior.
The degree of congruence (or agreement) between a person and an occupation (environment) can be estimated by a hexagonal model (see Figure 1). The shorter the distance between the personality type and the occupational type, the closer the relationship.
The degree of consistency within a person or an environment is also defined using the hexagonal model. Adjacent types on the hexagon are most consistent, or have compatible interests, personal dispositions, or job duties. Opposite types on the hexagon are most inconsistent, or combine personal characteristics or job functions that are usually unrelated.
The degree of differentiation of a person or an environment modifies predictions made from a person’s typology, from an occupational code, or from the interaction of both. Some persons or environments are more closely defined than others; for instance, a person may closely resemble a single type and show little resemblance to other types, or an environment may be dominated largely by a single type. In contrast, a person who resembles many types or an environment characterized by about equal numbers of workers in each of the six types would be labeled undifferentiated or poorly defined.

Figure 1. The Holland Hexagon

Career development professionals who use Holland’s theory of vocational choice typically assess individuals’ interest profiles from three primary perspectives: coherence, consistency, and differentiation. Holland has maintained that these factors correlate with the clarity and focus of individuals’ vocational personalities. An analysis of a profile in this way is customarily a prelude to a career development professional’s subsequent application of the theory, which involves translating an individual’s Holland profile into occupational alternatives for further consideration. Print, computer, and Internet-based sources are available to facilitate this latter process.

Coherence relates to the degree to which the Holland codes associated with an individual’s vocational aspirations or occupational daydreams conform to the Holland occupational themes (i.e., Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional). The consistency concept involves analyzing the proximity of the individual’s two dominant Holland types with respect to the hexagonal scheme. Adjacent types on the hexagon (e.g., Social and Enterprising) reflect high interest consistency; opposite types (e.g., Artistic and Conventional) reflect low consistency. The concept of differentiation relates to the variance between an individual’s highest and lowest types, typically computed by subtracting the extreme scale scores as assessed by a measure such as the Self-Directed Search. The larger the difference, the more highly differentiated the individual’s occupational interests.

Table 1. Description of Holland Types

Practical Applications of Holland’s theory of Vocational Choice

Career development professionals’ primary uses of Holland’s theory of vocational choice pertain to orienting clients to the world of work, providing a systematic means for career exploration, and, ultimately, facilitating career decision making and planning. Many clients find the theory’s basic tenets pragmatic and easy to grasp. In addition, many career-related resources incorporate Holland’s theory. These factors, in addition to its longevity, substantial research base, and renown among career-development professionals, have contributed to the theory’s popularity and utility.

A complex workplace, numerous known and unknown career decisions, personal and workplace uncertainties, and many uncontrollable factors pose daunting concerns to many people who confront career decisions. By imposing order and structure, Holland’s theory offers a means of helping both career counselors and clients make career decisions that promise fulfillment. Awareness of a proven, practical method for easing the process can be empowering. The theory’s research and applied bases, along with its structure and inherent systematic processes, offer clients assurance as they acquire a better understanding of themselves and their options.

Holland’s theory has also served as a basis for classifying and organizing occupations. The U.S. Department of Labor, for example, has integrated Holland codes into the Occupational Information Network (O*NET), a national database of occupational interest areas, education and training requirements, earnings, growth projections, and anticipated openings. The Dictionary of Holland Occupational Codes provided an earlier compendium of occupations listed by respective Holland codes.

A host of Holland-based products incorporate elements of Holland’s theory of vocational choice. The Holland theory is, for instance, integrated into some of the most well-known career assessment measures currently published, including the Self-Directed Search, Strong Interest Inventory, Vocational Preference Inventory, and the Career Assessment Inventory. Clients can take career tests integrating the Holland theory through traditional paper-and-pencil formats and via personal computers and the Internet.

The wide variety and availability of assessment measures that incorporate Holland’s theory have contributed to both ease of access and administration, which, in turn, have also indirectly contributed to the theory’s popularity. A variety of card sorts, self-directed career-planning books, and multimedia resources based in whole or in part on Holland’s theory are also available.

While most research and published material related to Holland’s theory of vocational choice have addressed career decision-making issues confronting youth and individuals early in their career development, the theory has been implemented well beyond these groups. Business and public organizations, for instance, have used Holland’s theory of vocational choice in human resource matters ranging from employee selection and staffing decisions to developing mentoring and succession-planning programs. The theory is also used in litigation involving disputes about earning capacity. A career counselor serving as an expert witness in a dissolution-of-marriage case, for example, could apply Holland’s theory as a partial basis for proposing a plan to help a spouse’s reintegration into the workplace after a period of absence or underemployment. Holland’s theory is also widely used among vocational-rehabilitation counselors who assist persons with disabilities in reexamining their objectives and career development after acquired disabling problems interfere with or otherwise alter how they can proceed.

Like all theories, Holland’s theory of vocational choice has had its detractors. Recent challenges to the theory’s applicability include assertions that research has failed to find a strong link between congruence and outcomes, such as satisfaction and performance. Other reviews of Holland’s theory have cited limitations that include problems inherent in trait factor theories, including the possibility that people can change themselves and their environments. Of course, the occupational and individual traits the theory attempts to match are variable and subject to modification. If an individual is dissatisfied with her job as an insurance claims examiner, for example, she has the option of attempting to change features of the job without changing its title. Job incumbents lacking career fulfillment quite often initiate these efforts before they seek job or occupational changes. Evaluations of Holland’s theory of vocational choice and comparisons with other theories have been proffered since the theory’s inception.

Holland’s theory of vocational choice is a staple among contemporary career-development professionals’ thinking about the world of work and methods of promoting clients’ career aims. It is among the most widely researched and applied vocational choice theories. Its longevity and appeal likely relate to its parsimony, its validation through scores of research studies, and the availability of multiple Holland-based resources that facilitate the theory’s implementation. Challenges to the theory’s validity will undoubtedly recur, and its continued viability will rest on its ability to assure its primary consumers, career-development professionals, that it meets the standards to which clients’ career guidance can be entrusted.

Person-environment fit (P-E fit)
Self-awareness
Self-Directed Search
Vocational psychology

References:

Arnold, J. 2004. “The Congruence Problem in John Holland’s Theory of Vocational Decisions.” Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology 77:95-113.
Brown, D. 2002. “Introduction to Theories of Career Development and Choice.” Pp. 3-23 in Career Choice and Development, 4th ed., edited by D. Brown. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Gottfredson, G. D. and Holland J. L. 1996. Dictionary of Holland Occupational Codes. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
Holland, J. L. 1973. Making Vocational Choices. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Holland, J. L. 1985. Manual for the Vocational Preference Inventory. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
Holland, J. L. 1992. Making Vocational Choices: A Theory of Vocational Personalities and Work Environments. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
Holland, J. L. 1997. Making Vocational Choices: A Theory of Careers. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Holland, J. L. and Gottfredson, G. D. 1976. “Using a Typology of Persons and Environments to Explain Careers: Some Extensions and Clarifications.” Counseling Psychologist 6:20-29.
Holland, J. L., Powell, A. B. and Fritzsche, B. A. 1994. The Self-Directed Search (SDS) Professional User’s Guide. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
Osipow, S. H. 1983. Theories of Career Development. 3d ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Swanson, J. L. and Gore, P. A. 2000. “Advances in Vocational Psychology Theory and Research.” Pp. 233-269 in Handbook of Counseling Psychology, 3d ed., edited by S. D. Brown and R. W. Lent. New York: Wiley.
Weinrach, S. G. 1996. “The Psychological and Vocational Interest Patterns of Donald Super and John Holland.” Journal of Counseling and Development 75:5-16.

P: 0800 529 7523 | E: [email protected] | AKL: 182 Broadway, Newmarket, Auckland, NZ

Differences between vocational and academic study

04 sep differences between vocational and academic study, differences between vocational and academic study.

It is hard to compare and declare whether vocational or academic is the best, it all depends on the interests and personality of the prospective student. It is also important to identify what vocation they are intending to study towards and the level they wish to attain in a career. Each vocation or job role requires specialised qualifications and credentials for you to progress.

One of the significant differences between vocational and academic study is that study for an academic degree involves study across various and broad subjects, for example, Calculus is required for many engineering directions. Economics for any business direction, whereas vocational study is directed towards focused topics like repairing computers or cutting hair. Vocational learning will include classwork that is based on authentic workplace requirements. In Techtorium as a Level 6 student on the Diploma in System Administration , you would be learning to understand Microsoft Active Directory implementation. This will create “real” world understanding to ensure you are capable of working with Active Directory in an employment situation. This is part of the skills required by an employer for this nature of job role.

If you are participating in vocational study, you will be assessed continuously. This ongoing assessment will test your skill level on a constant basis. The reason for this is to ensure you are acquiring the skills you will need in your chosen career direction. It also validates you are developing skill set for the workplace.

Academic study also requires an assessment of every course or paper, this is to ascertain the level of understanding each student has attained, this also ensures the validity of the course or paper.

Traditional academic studies are designed to provide a wide-based theoretical education in the direction of your chosen field of study and generally feature little or no work experience. The intention of academic studies is to provide a broad spectrum of learning.

Many universities and other academic institutes are trying to move away from a purely academic mode of teaching by introducing work experience. This is a positive start towards a vocational style to improve outcomes for the student.

When you talk about work experience, vocational training offers subjects that are already a blend of both practical work and theory; vocational training institutes build relevant practical skills based courses, to guide their students and to provide skills that are fit for the real world.

Vocational students are immersed in specialised training focused around their future job role. This is recognised by employers. These employers offer job opportunities to vocational students as they realise vocational trained students are job ready . In this part, Techtorium invests a large amount of time and effort linking students to prospective employers, via Employment Pathways .

Over time, university graduates and degree holders have had a wide influence over the Tertiary Education system.

The New Zealand Government and many industry sectors have prioritised academic learning over technical, vocational and other professional qualifications. This has created an adverse effect on the boundary line that exists between academic and vocational.

There is a long-standing attitude that believes academic professions like, law, and medicine and other science based are careers of a significant level while vocational occupations such as building, hairdressing, automotive engineering, computer support and the like are somewhat lower jobs.

A widespread view held by many, seems to support the belief that vocational study is a preference for the less able i.e. the non-academic students, while academic study is meant for the students who are more capable of achieving results in an academic environment i.e. studying at university.

Choosing a future occupation is a complex challenge for a prospective student. Anyone can choose to pursue a career in any career direction depending on their personal motives and capabilities, especially in New Zealand.

An academic institute provides a broad-based education designed to deliver a wider education in the direction of the student’s path.

A vocational institute teaches highly focused job and workplace skills that will put the student into an entry level job role with enough expertise to start their career. Here at Techtorium, our courses provide core, entry level skills as a computer engineer ( computer engineering courses ) or software developer ( software development courses )

Skip to main content
Skip to secondary menu
Skip to primary sidebar
Skip to footer

Study Today

Largest Compilation of Structured Essays and Exams

Essay on Importance of Vocational Education (1456 Words)

February 19, 2018 by Study Mentor Leave a Comment

Table of Contents

What do you mean by Vocational Education?

Vocational Education has become very popular today. This form of education helps the students to get many qualifications for a particular profession.

The students are taught how to use their skills for practical application and only theory is not important to gain knowledge and progress in life.

By studying this, the students learn about various applications which helps them to go further in a profession or involve themselves in any art or activity on their own.

They are not dependent on anyone. This happens if they get the right type of vocational education or training.

Vocational education focuses on both abstract knowledge and professional skills for many jobs. As the field of vocational education is very broad, the students get many options to choose.

No matter which of the option or field they choose, there are proper training and education for all of the fields. There are many colleges that offer different courses on vocational education.

The teachers or professors who teach or give vocational education use many modern tools and lesson plans to teach the students.

From the starting of the course itself, they teach the students that whatever they study in the form of theory, they should learn to put them into practical use as well. This is because this practical use will help them in the future.

Importance of Vocational Education

Vocational Education is beneficial not only for the students but for the adults as well. It is because of vocational education that people become more specialized.

This later helps people to choose the specific field they want to work later on. By this it becomes easier for the people to choose in which particular field they want to work.

If they know which field they want, they will help that field to progress and even they will be able to progress in their life.

Vocational education is important because it helps the people to recognize the skills and improve whatever skills are present in them.

In today’s world, almost every job or organizational wants people to work for them who have proper skills that will benefit their company and organization.

When a student receives vocational education in college or any other educational institution, they are not getting prepared just to study and pass the college. But they are also being prepared to get a job in the future.

Vocational educational gives people a new learning experience and even their performance is increased.

This shows that vocational education does not benefit just in the academics but beyond that too as well for practical applications. Very often people get confused what course they must choose.

But the existence of vocational education clears out all their confusion. Thus, the students get clear idea about the field they want to study and work in the future.

By vocational educational people learn to work themselves by using their skills for the benefits of others and for themselves as well.

They do not become dependent on machines or someone else because it is their skills which are helping them to work.

Parents must understand the importance of vocational education and help their children to improve their skills.

If they ask them to choose the field they want, the children will never be able to progress in the life. In order to progress in life, the children must go in that field where they can use their skills properly.

Personal experience on the concept of Vocational Education

In the year 2017, I completed my graduation, that is, the Bachelor’s Degree in a vocational course.

My college has all the UGC (University Grants Commission) vocational courses that includes Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.), Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA), Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.) and Bachelor of Commerce- Tourism and Management (B.Com. TM).

In the Arts stream there are six courses. But out of those six courses only two of them are vocational course. These two courses are HETT and CEOEP.

In HETT the subjects included are History, Economics and Travel and Tourism. While the subjects included in CEOEP are Communicative English (Media), Optional English (Literature) and Psychology.

Other courses in the Arts stream that does not come under the Vocational course are PENGS (Psychology, Optional English and Sociology), HENGS (History, Optional English and Sociology), PECOS (Psychology, Economics and Sociology) and HECOS (History, Economics and Sociology).

Apart from this triple subjects with the degree the students are also supposed to study some additional subjects and some compulsory one s as well. Making a total of them, the total subjects students study is either six or seven.

The number of subjects which the students study are not fixed some of the combinations or the course either have extra subjects or one subject is divided into two.

In the year 2014, two new vocational courses were added in the college. This new course was B.Voc.

One is for the commerce people so their course is known as B.Voc Banking and Finance.

There is another one for the Arts stream. This one is called B. Voc Visual Communication and Performing Arts with Psychology.

Along with all these subjects, the administration and staff of the college also encourage the students to involve themselves in non-academic activities as well.

This will make them an all rounder student because just academics is not important for one to progress in life. It is important to balance between both academic and non academic activities.

The vocational course I chose was CEOEP which was about Media, Literature and Psychology.

Literature was mostly about books, stories, novels, poems and plays. But the concept and content which was taught to us in the three years was very good.

There were some of the works of different writers, novelists and poets which if we read and try to understand them, we will be able to connect with that in our life and see that practically in reality as well.

Many times we see that some of the stories, novels and poem are sort of similar to our life and environment. So, in that way literature helps us to connect with our life.

Vocational education or training is mostly about making use of the skills for practical applications and are specifically for particular business, occupation or trade.

The meaning of vocation has undergone many changes. So considering that, the subjects Psychology and Communicative English have really helped me to improve my skills for practical applications.

Compared to Communicative English, Psychology has not made such a major impact but from one point of view it really has helped me for the development skills for different practical applications and occupations.

Moving on to the subject of Communicative English, from the first semester till the sixth semester, in every semester I learnt something new.

Today, due to a new learning every semester, I know many new things which I otherwise would not learnt so many things. In the first semester we were taught about art, different types of art and how to analyze any type of art.

By studying this, today whatever I see or observe I look them as an art and analyse them. In the second semester we studied about blog writing and media laws.

Today there are many bloggers who are earning a lot and becoming famous. In the third semester we had radio and creative writing.

Both of them are helpful because writing skills have improved and now it is easier to put down any creative work, be it a story, novel or a poem.

Everything has become easier when it comes to bring out creativity. After that studying radio jockey has also helped us because we can do any work in the radio stations.

In the fourth semester, we were taught photography and public relations. One knows the importance of photography in the modern world at the present day. While public relations helps to solve various crisis and agendas.

In the fifth semester the syllabus included film making and research paper. Film making was taught from the basics to the end.

So today one can alone make their own films by taking small help from others. Not only this, the software used in this is very helpful in today’s world.

While in the research paper we learnt the various problems which occur in the field of media. While in the 6 th semester the syllabus was about advertisement.

We were taught what advertisement is all about and how different companies do advertisement for their own work.

So, by this we learnt how to advertise anything given to us. All of these can be used to put practical applications.

Reader Interactions

Top Trending Essays in March 2021

Essay on Pollution
Essay on my School
Summer Season
My favourite teacher
World heritage day quotes
my family speech
importance of trees essay
autobiography of a pen
honesty is the best policy essay
essay on building a great india
my favourite book essay
essay on caa
my favourite player
autobiography of a river
farewell speech for class 10 by class 9
essay my favourite teacher 200 words
internet influence on kids essay
my favourite cartoon character

Brilliantly

Content & links.

Verified by Sur.ly

Essay for Students

Essay for Class 1 to 5 Students

Scholarships for Students

Class 1 Students Scholarship
Class 2 Students Scholarship
Class 3 Students Scholarship
Class 4 Students Scholarship
Class 5 students Scholarship
Class 6 Students Scholarship
Class 7 students Scholarship
Class 8 Students Scholarship
Class 9 Students Scholarship
Class 10 Students Scholarship
Class 11 Students Scholarship
Class 12 Students Scholarship

STAY CONNECTED

About Study Today
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions

Scholarships

Apj Abdul Kalam Scholarship
Ashirwad Scholarship
Bihar Scholarship
Canara Bank Scholarship
Colgate Scholarship
Dr Ambedkar Scholarship
E District Scholarship
Epass Karnataka Scholarship
Fair And Lovely Scholarship
Floridas John Mckay Scholarship
Inspire Scholarship
Jio Scholarship
Karnataka Minority Scholarship
Lic Scholarship
Maulana Azad Scholarship
Medhavi Scholarship
Minority Scholarship
Moma Scholarship
Mp Scholarship
Muslim Minority Scholarship
Nsp Scholarship
Oasis Scholarship
Obc Scholarship
Odisha Scholarship
Pfms Scholarship
Post Matric Scholarship
Pre Matric Scholarship
Prerana Scholarship
Prime Minister Scholarship
Rajasthan Scholarship
Santoor Scholarship
Sitaram Jindal Scholarship
Ssp Scholarship
Swami Vivekananda Scholarship
Ts Epass Scholarship
Up Scholarship
Vidhyasaarathi Scholarship
Wbmdfc Scholarship
West Bengal Minority Scholarship
Click Here Now!!

Mobile Number

Have you Burn Crackers this Diwali ? Yes No

Essay on Vocational Education for Children and Students in English

Table of Contents

Vocational Education Essay: Vocational Education is the skill-based training provided to students through diverse courses available in several career fields such as health care, banking and finance, computer technology, trade, tourism and so on. The education imparted to students focuses more on providing manual training and giving more practical exposure.

Fill Out the Form for Expert Academic Guidance!

Please indicate your interest Live Classes Books Test Series Self Learning

Verify OTP Code (required)

I agree to the terms and conditions and privacy policy .

Fill complete details

Target Exam ---

Every industry or company today is looking for skilled and efficient employees. Vocational education helps students apply their learning practices and expertise in a specific field. It also gives opportunities to students unable to cope with academic education. Vocational educational organizations generate skilled manpower to meet the job demands. Here are essays on Vocational Education of varying word lengths to help you with the topic in your exam/school assignments. You can select any Vocational Education essay as per your need and requirement:

Long and Short Essay on Vocational Education in English

Below we have provided long and short Essays on Vocational Education of varying lengths in English.

This Vocational Education Essay will let you understand the meaning and significance of vocational education and acknowledge its importance.

After going through the essays, you will know how vocational education plays a significant role in the life of youths and also in the overall development of the nation.

Essay on Vocational Education – Essay 1 (200 words)

Vocational education is the education that trains people to work in various jobs such as technician, trade and craft. It refers to the career and technical education that prepares students for a specific career. The vocational programs provide students with hands-on instruction and training that leads them to certification or a diploma. Vocational schools provide vocational training on post-secondary, higher, and further education levels. Students can choose certificate or diploma programs, apprenticeship and associate degree programs.

Earlier, most vocational training programs took place in a classroom or on the job site professionals in the field. However, online vocational education has now become popular and easy for students to learn various skills from professionals. Earlier the training was also limited to certain jobs like welding, carpentry, and automotive services. Still, with the changing times, training has expanded to various job functions like tourism management, food and beverage management, computer network management, retail training, paralegal management and so on.

Vocational education focuses more on providing practical skills and hands-on instruction in a particular job. Students get a real working environment during vocational programs. Vocational education is evolving prominently and generates skilled and trained workers for specific jobs.

Essay on Vocational Education in India – Essay 2 (300 words)

Introduction

Vocational education, also known as career and technical education, enables students to gain specialized skills and training in various fields such as trade, craft or technical. Vocational education involves less academic learning and basically focuses on manual or practical activities and training. The students develop expertise in specific techniques or technology.

Vocational Education in India

Vocational education aims to prepare students for a particular profession, trade or vocation. These courses are specifically designed to make students job ready. The employability of graduates in India has become a major concern. Only 25% of the graduates from all streams are considered to have employable skills, indicating the need for high-quality vocational education to train the youth for Jobs. Vocational training is important to supplement formal education and improve youth employment in India.

There is a growing need for specialist and skill-based employees in India. Vocational education will help job-seekers get employment and meet the need for skilled professionals in India. It is important that sufficient training and skills are provided to the youth. The youth’s skill set in India plays a vital role in the country’s growth. Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) India offers various vocational courses at the senior secondary level and secondary level.

The courses are diverse and can be classified into various categories: commerce, home science, hospitality and tourism, health and paramedical, engineering, agriculture and others. These courses are offered in association with organizations such as NIFT, ROLTA, MED, WWI, NHMIT, etc., to train and upgrade the professional skills of youth. The students can choose from the diverse courses available as per their interest to gain skills in their chosen field.

Vocational education will provide tremendous opportunities to youth in various sectors. It will help build a skilled and educated workforce that is the need of the hour.

Essay on Importance of Vocational Education – Essay 3 (400 words)

Vocational education refers to the training that emphasizes skills and knowledge needed for a specific job, trade or craft. Vocational education is provided for various job functions in various sectors like tourism, food and beverage, computer networking, banking and finance, fashion designing, property management, etc. Students can choose from diverse courses available as per their skills and interest.

Importance of Vocational Education

In today’s fast-paced and competitive world, it is really hard to find a good Job. Vocational education is an advantage as VET programs offer practical skills and hands-on training that trains students for specific jobs. The students who develop practical skills for a particular field are more confident and perform better in interviews and jobs than those with a general academic background.
Vocational education, also popular as technical or career education, provides a clear edge in career goals as it provides expertise and knowledge in a specific discipline. The courses prepare them for a specific job. Vocational education programs are of short duration and are less expensive than conventional academic educational programs. They eliminate the disadvantages of rote learning and give a practical learning experience that makes the student’s job ready.
Not only are the students at an advantage, but there is also a growing need for skilled labor. High-quality vocational education and skilled manpower is prerequisite for economic development. The graduates with conventional academic learning and degrees are not job-ready and mostly lack the skills to meet job expectations. There is a high demand for skilled manpower in various industries worldwide. High priority is given to skilled manpower globally. Some of the profiles for which skilled manpower is in high demand worldwide include computer specialists, nuclear technicians, fashion designers, electricians, cardiovascular technologists and web-developer.
Vocational education helps youth to acquire practical experience and learn modern methods of diverse vocations. Students are now aware of their skills and choose their careers wisely. Vocational education prepares students to take up highly rewarding jobs and helps them become independent at a young age.

With changing times, people have started understanding the importance of vocational education. More skill and knowledge-based jobs will be generated in future. Close cooperation between industries and educational organizations about vocational training is essential to ensure that the education offered is relevant to the market demand and job expectations.

Essay on Growing Need for Vocational Education – Essay 4 (500 words)

Vocational education is the course of study that prepares students for handling the jobs practically rather than understanding their aspects theoretically. Vocational education is mostly non-academic and is related to a specific trade, occupation or vocation. Vocational education is gaining importance, and people are opting for such courses online and offline to gain skills in their interests. Traditionally, vocational education focused on a few trades like welding and automobile mechanic and was mainly enrolled by lower social classes.

Growing Need for Vocational Education

With the development of our nation, there is a growing need for skilled manpower, and vocational education prepares students for a job. Demand for skilled labour has increased both in the business and government sectors. There has been a speedy increase in vocational education owing to the increasing demand for skilled professionals. Vocational education has immensely diversified over the period. Demand for skilled professionals has increased in various industries such as tourism, information technology, banking and finance, retail management, BPO, hospitality and traditional crafts. Various institutes provide vocational training to the youth to make them job-ready.

Present-day education puts more emphasis on rote learning and not on practical work. There is a lot of pressure on students due to the rise in competition. Vocational learning allows students to choose the career of their interest, gain practical knowledge and get groomed.

In India, there is a disparity between the skills of educated youth and demand in various sectors. There is a greater need for a skilled workforce to meet job expectations. Vocational education can train students to meet job expectations. To meet the job demand and expectations, students should be motivated to take up vocational education.

Students in India are encouraged to score well and seek admission to a good college, whether it imparts vocational training. Students should get the opportunity to pursue their careers per their interests and according to their calibre rather than pushing them to become doctors and engineers even if they don’t have the required mindset. They must seek admission in courses that offer vocational training and don’t focus solely on the theoretical part. The absence of skilled professionals in various technical fields is costing us economically.

Some students may come as a surprise package when they get the opportunity to be trained and enhance their natural skills and talents. They become highly successful in their field and fetch good pay packages. The good news is the growing demand and scope for diverse skills globally. Sometimes the grades on mark sheets don’t matter. Most of the students can be good when it comes to displaying their practical skills. It is seen that many students who are not very good academically in their school prove to be good employees and attain great heights professionally.

There is a growing need for vocational education to develop skilled professionals in all occupations for our country’s social and economic growth. Students with low academic performance should not be discouraged by their parents and society. There are diverse options for students, and they should be free to choose whatever their interests and skills lead them.

Essay on Benefits of Vocational Education – Essay 5 (600 words)

Vocational education is skill-based education in a specific field which enables students to acquire training and practical skills in a particular trade, vocation or occupation. It is also known as career and technical education, as students develop skills and expertise in a specific discipline through manual practice. Vocational courses focus more on the application-based study.

Diverse job functions from various sectors, such as banking and finance, food and beverage, tourism, computer network, designing, healthcare, cosmetology, skilled trades etc., are included in vocational education.

Benefits of Vocational Training

Job Ready: Vocational education makes student employment ready. It provides students required skills and training for a particular job, such as Interior Designing, Fashion Designing, Computer Networking, etc. Along with the classroom instructions, students also get practical knowledge. This makes the students job-ready and experts in their field.
Low Education Cost: Private and Government institutes provide vocational education, and such courses’ fees are quite economical. Vocational courses are an easy and cheaper alternative for students who do not want to take a three-year degree course and cannot afford the hostel fees, commuting and added costs. Many vocational courses are as good as degree courses and employ students. A vocational course is the best option for those who cannot manage the expenses of a college degree.
Easy Employment: Vocational training makes it easy for students to find employment opportunities. There is a growing need for skilled and efficient manpower in various sectors. The students with vocational training have an advantage over the college pass outs. Students with vocational training are preferred as they possess the right skills, education and knowledge for the job. Thus, easy and fast employment is a major advantage that students with vocational training have. Vocational education and skills can also provide students with employment opportunities in foreign countries.
Career Advancement: Vocational education is the best alternative for people who already have a job and want to acquire further skills to enhance their careers. The course duration is quite less than the degree courses but the skills imparted are quite important and useful. Professionals can improve their career prospects and be successful. Students who are less interested in academic studies or dropouts can choose from the diverse courses available and enhance their skills in the field of their interest. Vocational education can help students make successful careers.
Meet Market Demand: Employers in various industries rely on training organizations to impart knowledge and skills to the workers. These training organizations need to train the workers and ensure that their services meet the needs of employers and the students are job ready. Students who pursue vocational courses at the college level do not require undergoing such training programs. This saves the company cost spent on training.
Economic Development: There is a growing need for skilled professionals in various sectors across the world. The existence of a skilled workforce is beneficial to society and also for the economic development of the nation. There would be a lesser need to import workforce from foreign countries at higher wages.
Job Satisfaction: There are also various indirect benefits. For instance, vocational education boosts the student’s confidence, and they are well-groomed and trained, making them eligible for specific jobs. It also increases job satisfaction and results in high productivity.

Students who complete VET programs perform better in jobs than those with mere academic education. Vocational education is an asset to our economy. There is a high demand for skilled labour in the business and government sectors. Vocational education benefits students, employers, society and the nation.

Long Essay on Vocational Education – Essay 6 (800 Words)

Vocational Education refers to an education preparing students for specific industrial or commercial engagements. It provides an option other than traditional professional courses like engineering and medicine. Vocational training prepares interested students for specific trades or occupations. It is an opportunity for someone who doesn’t want to or couldn’t enroll in professional courses for some reason or another.

Skilled instructors give students hands-on training and experience in their specific subject. Every year some new fields are included in vocational training courses, providing the students with a good number of options to choose from.

Types of Vocational Programs

Vocational Education prepares students for industrial or commercial employment. There are many options available through which vocational training could be acquired. Many trade institutes offer vocational training courses, or else in-job training programs for specific fields of interest could acquire them.

Many vocational courses have been integrated into the syllabus of CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education), a national-level board of education in India controlled by the Government of India. Some of the most opted among these vocational courses include – Accountancy and Auditing, Marketing and Salesmanship, Banking, Business Administration, Electrical Technology, Automobile Technology, Civil Engineering and IT Application etc. Any student can opt for the subject of their choice at the senior secondary level.

Where is Vocational Education Provided?

For the convenience of students and keeping in mind the interests of working professionals, the government of India provides vocational training in both full-time and part-time courses. Full-time training is provided through Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), while State Technical Education offers part-time courses. Thus, Polytechnics – privately owned ITIs or Government owned ITIs are the best place to acquire vocational training.

Students can also opt for the subject they want to be trained in at the senior secondary level.

Advantages of Vocational Education

Vocational Education is an unconventional method to generate a skilled workforce having practical knowledge and experience. These students are trained in real practical situations, making them instantly employable in their trades.

It requires less time than professional courses and is much cheaper to pursue. At a relatively young age and in considerably less time, a vocational student learns the skills of the trade and gains practical working experience, securing his career and growth.

The availability and quality of vocational education in a country determines its industrial and economic progress. Industries get young and skilled employees with hands-on experience and probably long commitments. This is a win-win situation for the industry/company.

Being cheaper to pursue and with no age bar, vocational education provides an option to students from economically weaker sections or for the elders who never had the opportunity to study. Therefore, vocational education reduces unemployment and hence the poverty graph of a nation. More skilled students mean more employability quotient and more jobs, resulting in the nation’s overall growth.

Schemes Offered by the Government of India

The Government of India offers many schemes to provide vocational training to the underprivileged or economically backward sections. Some of the most significant such schemes are given below.

1) Udaan: This program is specifically designed for the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The program has a five-year duration and offers vocational training and employment in Information Technology, BPO and retail.

2) Polytechnics: Polytechnics are a kind of Industrial Training Institute present in almost all states of India. It provides three-year diploma courses in various disciplines of Engineering and computer science.

3) Industrial Training Institutes: Industrial Training Institutes offer vocational training in various engineering and non-engineering disciplines. ITIs are managed by the Directorate General of Training and Employment, Government of India.

4) NRLM (National Rural Livelihood Mission): Launched in June 2011, NRLM is specifically targeted at BPL (Below Poverty Line) group. It aims to provide vocational training in various trades to people below the poverty line, differently able and women, to make them self-employable.

5) Craftsmen Training Scheme: This scheme provides vocational training in various engineering disciplines as well as in the fields of paramedical, agriculture and commerce etc. The Directorate of Vocational Education and Training governs it.

Vocational Education is nothing less than a blessing for those who cannot go for professional courses for some reason or another. It provides a wonderful and affordable opportunity to acquire technical skills and improve their employability. A quality vocational education provided by skilled trainers will generate a young and efficient workforce, contributing immensely to the nation’s progress. It also provides an opportunity to generate self-employment for people below the poverty line who are both able and women. Such people are taught skills to start their own business in a trade of their choice.

Essay on Vocational Education

Vocational education is a special learning course apart from normal studies, which aims to provide a better concept of learning to the students. It includes courses in various fields like healthcare, graphic, web designing, cinematography, electrician, artesian, computer programming, etc. It basically helps in making students learn things with a proper practical approach and training. It benefits the students by making them skilled and ready for jobs.

Short and Long Essays on Vocational Education in English

I hope these essays here will help you to better understand everything about Vocational Education .

Vocational Education Essay 10 Lines (100 – 150 Words)

1) The education that aims to prepare students for jobs is termed as vocational education.

2) Vocational education provides more practical knowledge to the students.

3) It is also referred to as career-oriented technical education.

4) Vocational education helps students in opening more job opportunities.

5) Beautician, technicians, animation, etc are some examples of vocational education.

6) Vocational education is offered by many universities with fees less than academic education.

7) People of any age group can attain vocational knowledge.

8) Vocational knowledge is less successful due to a lack of awareness.

9) Vocational knowledge encourages entrepreneurship.

10) Government should promote vocational education to reduce unemployment.

Essay 1 (250 Words) – Vocational Education

Introduction

Vocational education can be called education which is job-oriented. Generally, we see that a person is completing the academic education and after the completion, search or opt for some job opportunities. Academic education is providing with a vast background of study which is theoretical and concept-based. Vocational education provides us with a more practical aspect for any of the vocational courses.

How Vocational Education helps us

Vocational education helps the student to become skilled in any discipline by learning and training process. There are many Universities offering various vocational courses. These courses help in the skill development of the student and make them ready for the jobs. We have often seen that many of the students are not willing to choose academic courses and thus vocational courses are helping them to escape from the vast academic course. They can learn the techniques and become trained in the field in which they desire to work.

Vocational education provides the nation with skilled manpower. Vocational education can be attained by a person at any age. The course fee is also less as compared to the academic or professional course. This provides a chance for the students to develop themselves in the fields which they are fond of. Secondly, they get a chance of improving their skills and get hired by different industries.

The vocational education courses must be emphasized by the government so that students can go for these courses and further build up their careers. Vocational education helps the country’s economy to boost up as it provides skilled manpower.

Essay 3 (400 Words) – Vocational Education: Need and Challenges

Vocational education is designed to make the students ready for jobs. It can also be called career education. It basically focuses on the skill development and practical aspect of any discipline.

The need for Vocational Education

Vocational education makes a student ready for a job or we can say it helps in producing skilled people. It is seen that many of the students go through a financial crisis and they need to earn for the survival of their family. The academic courses are having a vast curriculum as also do not favor skill development and a larger practical approach. And the vocational courses provide better skill development in the required field and make them eligible for jobs.

The students who are not interested in doing the academic programs are compelled to study and for degrees in the colleges and complete the academic course. These students instead of just blocking the seats or studying without any interest can opt for vocational programs. They can join the course of their interest. The maximum qualification for doing vocational courses is either ten or ten plus two. These courses provide us with a certificate or diploma degree.

Vocational education helps us in learning new skills or improves our skills. In this era when there are limited job opportunities. The industries and firms require a skilled or trained candidate. These courses help us in getting jobs.

Challenges of Vocational Education in India

Many of the students are not able to get the proper information about the vocational courses and therefore they have to opt for academic education.
The government is also paying less attention to promoting the importance of vocational courses.
The financial help and funds are not sufficient to make these courses to run successfully, as these courses require the use of machinery and technology.
The teachers involved in these courses either are not having proper resources to teach the students or are not knowledgeable.
The universities and colleges offering these courses are not having proper practice and training facilities. The students without any practical knowledge cannot work in any industry.
The tools and techniques need to be updated with the development of technology. It will be of no use if the old concept is taught.

Vocational education has become important. It helps people to make their careers in the field in which they are interested along with getting a way to earn their living.

Essay 3 (500 – 600 Words) – Vocational Education versus Academic Education and Its Benefits

As we all know that our country is a developing country the development of which depends upon its people. So, vocational education is one of the helping aids in its development. Vocational education courses play an important role in making students become skilled and get employed. It lays an emphasis on the practical aspect of the relevant course or field. It includes various streams like art and craft, electrician, trade, technology, etc.

Vocational Education versus Academic Education

In our country India, there is a concept of academic education which is prevailing for years. Academic education offers vast course syllabi and theoretical concepts. Practical learning is only in laboratories and internships. The academic course requires a longer time to be completed and involves a higher expenditure of money. The students after completion of the course are awarded a degree. There are many of the students who graduated and post-graduated each year, but they cannot get jobs easily and remain unemployed as they lack in skill.

The vocational education courses are helping us in developing our skills by providing us with a practical approach to the course. They help in the process of learning by providing training and workshops related to the course. This helps the student to develop the required skill and have prior experience of the work. Therefore the skilled students are easily hired by different industries and are employed.

Benefits of Vocational Education

Vocational education courses can be completed in a short period of time. The person receives a certificate or diploma degree after the completion of the course.
These courses can be done at any age, and with less expenditure of money. There are many courses, out of which some are full time and some are part-time courses.
Vocational education is connected with the practical approach to the subject. It provides the student to apply the concept to real work functioning. The students opting for vocational education and training are hired easily by the recruiters as they have practical skills in a particular field.
There are many courses under vocational education that can be completed online or by distance learning.
There is a high demand for skilled professionals in the market. The students who have opted for these courses are employed by the industries as they are skilled.
Vocational education courses are a job providing courses as they help in producing skilled manpower. This helps in contributing to the economic development of the country.
Vocational education courses can be done only after completing 10 th or 12 th standards.
Vocational education also helps students to start their own business, after they are acquired the skill of entrepreneurship. They can start their business independently.

Towards a New Era for Vocational Education in India

The former HRD minister Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed addressed that, getting jobs as a student requires becoming skilled. The skilled population in India accounts for only 25% of the whole. As the development of the country is increasing day by day, so these courses will become the need of the time.

The New education policy has introduced many vocational courses like artificial intelligence, tourism, information technology, mass media, etc. These courses will be introduced from this year only and will be applicable from the 6-9 th class. According to CBSE, these skills will lead to developing the creative and reasoning skills in the students. Thus these courses will make them work globally.

CBSE has started three courses – Design Thinking, Physical Activity Trainer, and Artificial Intelligence which will be implemented for class 11 th students in 2020-21.

CBSE has 40 vocational courses which had been since 2014. For strengthening the vocational education and with a strong determination to provide benefit to each and every student; many of the courses have been introduced with the partnership of various companies like Rolta India Limited, NIFT, WWI, NHMIT, etc from which students will be benefited with these strategies as they get a proper platform for training and carrier development.

Vocational education courses must be encouraged in our country. There are many sectors that have a requirement for skilled professionals, but unfortunately, the skilled and trained professionals are few in number. This creates a misbalance in demand and availability of the industries for skilled manpower. Vocational education is an urgent need today as it can help in solving the issue of reduced skilled manpower.

FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions

Ans . Charles Allen is regarded as the father of vocational education.

Ans . Vocational education helps us in better learning and prepares us for getting good job opportunities.

Ans . There are a total of 40 vocational courses.

Ans . The duration of vocational courses is from two months to two years depending upon the course.

Ans . Vocational education started in India in 1956.

Essay on digital india, cashless india essay, essay on child is father of the man, essay on causes, effects and prevention of corona virus, essay on dr. sarvepalli radhakrishnan, durga puja essay, essay on summer vacation, essay on my plans for summer vacation, essay on holiday, leave a comment cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Open access
Published: 16 November 2020

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

Veronika Lukesch 1 &
Thomas Zwick ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4032-1995 1 , 2 , 3

Empirical Research in Vocational Education and Training volume 12 , Article number: 16 ( 2020 ) Cite this article

6349 Accesses

4 Citations

11 Altmetric

Metrics details

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. We match employees with a tertiary vocational and an academic education based on their labour market experience and their individual and employer characteristics during their formative apprenticeship training years in which they presumably decided on their further education track. Then we compare the earnings developments in both groups of the matched sample during their tertiary education phase and after its completion for maximally 16 years after apprenticeship completion. We use linked employer-employee data of the IAB (LIAB9310).

Introduction

There is a lively debate on differences between the returns of vocational in comparison to academic or general education (Eichhorst et al. 2015 ; Hanushek et al. 2017 ). It is however frequently overlooked in this debate that apprenticeship training does not equate to streaming into vocational education at the secondary level because a considerable share of former apprentices moves on to academic education in many countries (Ryan 2001 ). Besides academic education, many apprentices obtain vocational tertiary education. Vocational tertiary education however is comparable to academic education with respect to duration and is sorted into the same level in most professional classifications (OECD 2015 ).

This paper compares accumulated earnings of employees with a vocational tertiary education to academics when both groups have a completed vocational training on the upper secondary level. The comparison allows the assessment of the market value of vocational and academic education for relatively homogeneous groups of employees. Besides having a comparable education history, employees in both comparison groups have the ambition to add a higher education after having obtained an occupation that gives access to the skilled labour market (Rzepka 2018 ). Homogeneity of academics and employees with vocational tertiary education with respect to career orientation and schooling efforts allow us to effectively control for the endogeneity of educational path choice. The earnings differences we calculate therefore can be interpreted as causal effects of differences in the choice of the education path. So far, most comparisons of the returns to education of vocational and academic education are on secondary education or they do not take into account differences in the prestige and selectivity of vocational and academic education (Verhaest and Baert 2018 ).

Besides calculating the earnings differences in vocational vs. academic education, the question whether tertiary vocational education is an attractive alternative to academic education also is important in its own right, however. The group of those with completed apprenticeship training who are interested in a tertiary education and have the choice between vocational and academic education track is large and growing in Germany (Rzepka 2018 ).

Our contributions to the literature on the returns to academic versus vocational training are: first, we address the selection bias into academic vs. vocational tertiary education by identifying and using comparable homogeneous employee groups that are matched on individual labour market value during apprenticeship training. Second, we calculate the returns to tertiary vocational education in comparison to tertiary academic education in a lifetime earnings approach using detailed administrative earnings spell data for the first half of the employees’ career. Third, we contribute to the discussion of the labour market acceptance of vocational careers in comparison to academic careers at the tertiary education level by comparing institutional differences between both education paths.

The paper is structured as follows. “ Tertiary vocational education ” describes the institutional background of tertiary vocational education in Germany. “ Data, sample and description ” presents our data and sample. “ Empirical method ” discusses our empirical method to calculate differences in lifetime earnings of employees with tertiary vocational and academic education. The results of the earnings comparisons are presented in “ Results ”. In “ Robustness Checks ”, several robustness checks are shown. “ Discussion ” discusses our results and concludes.

Tertiary vocational education in Germany

This paper calculates differences in earnings for people with tertiary vocational and academic education. In order to compare earnings of a homogeneous group of employees, we only include employees who in principle could have chosen both education tracks. More specifically, all employees in our sample completed an apprenticeship on the secondary level that is necessary to start with a tertiary vocational education and that is used by a substantial share of academics as a first degree before their tertiary education. The typical course of career events for people in our sample is depicted in Fig. 1 . In order to understand our sample of employees better, we first characterize the German vocational training system with its secondary and tertiary education levels.

Relevant career phases

The dual apprenticeship training system is an important and successful component of the German education system. Apprenticeship training in Germany traditionally provides general and vocational education at the upper-secondary level for the majority of the German workforce and it therefore is the backbone of medium-skilled occupational training. Until the year 2012, the highest occupational level of more than 50% of the German population was a completed dual apprenticeship. In 2016, this share slightly fell to 47.2% (Autorengruppe Bildungsberichterstattung 2018 , Table B5-4web). We have to take into account that in addition to about half of the population with a completed apprenticeship “only”, a substantial share of people with a tertiary education also completed an apprenticeship. This paper concentrates on the group of people with a completed tertiary education after their apprenticeship because providing career perspectives for employees who completed apprenticeship training is crucial to keep the apprenticeship system attractive and improves the pool of applicants for apprenticeship training.

The tertiary vocational education certificate (in Germany frequently called, “ Meister ” or “ Techniker ”) is a widely recognised education that allows a career in the framework of the German vocational education system. Around 20% of apprenticeship completers obtain a tertiary vocational education certificate. Footnote 1 In order to be allowed to attend tertiary vocational education, it is necessary to have completed an apprenticeship. The tertiary vocational education certificate guarantees general and transferable skills and it is granted by independent public bodies, the chambers of commerce and the chambers of craft. The certification therefore is analogous to apprenticeship training at the upper-secondary level, compare Acemoglu and Pischke ( 2000 ). The most important trait of the apprenticeship system is that the certificate is well known to most employers. In addition, the education contents are standardised and transparent, leaving the employer that contributed to education and their costs after completing foremen education is costless and possible directly after completion. Also analogously to apprenticeship training at the secondary schooling level, the costs for the foreman education are jointly borne by the state, employer and the employees. Footnote 2 The state subsidises occupational schools and the certification bodies. In addition, analogously to means-tested subsidies for students, there are also subsidies for tertiary vocational education. Footnote 3 About half of the foremen used public subsidies, mainly the Federal Training Assistance ( Aufstiegs-BAföG ) in the period 2012–2017 (DIHK 2018 ). The employers may provide practical training of those in tertiary vocational education at their own costs, about 30% of foremen received financial or other support from their employers (DIHK 2018 ). The employees either reduce their working hours (part-time education) or they stop altogether with their work (full-time education). In addition, they have to pay considerable education fees.

As an alternative to a vocational career, many apprenticeship completers also have the option to obtain an academic certificate from a university or a university of applied sciences. More than one fifth of apprenticeship completers already has a university entrance certificate ( Abitur ) (Adda et al. 2013 ) and this group can study at an academic institution directly after completing apprenticeship training or after a work spell without additional requirements. In addition, there are mainly two pathways for non-traditional students who are vocationally trained but do not have sufficient schooling to get direct access to academic education: they either take Abendschule (evening school) during or after apprenticeship training or an entrance exam provided by the academic institution for applicants with completed vocational training but without Abitur (Wolter et al. 2014 ). Footnote 4 Reasons mentioned for obtaining an apprenticeship certificate before an academic study are risk reduction (Büchel and Helberger 1995 ) and getting occupational practice for the academic job (Lewin et al. 1996 ). Some apprentices also may discover their career orientation during the apprenticeship training.

Tertiary vocational and some academic degrees are classified at the same level according to the International Standard Classification of Education, ISCED 2011 level 6. Footnote 5 The German tertiary vocational education is therefore comparable for example to the polytechnics vocational bachelor degrees obtained in Finland, Norway, the Netherlands (Böckerman et al. 2018 ) or Switzerland (Tuor and Backes-Gellner 2010 ). In 2014, around 40.000 individuals completed tertiary vocational training in Germany (BIBB 2016 ).

Although so many apprenticeship completers in Germany obtain a tertiary vocational education in Germany and the organisation of this education degree is comparable to the well-known dual apprenticeship system at the secondary education level, relatively little is known about the returns to education from it. The obvious comparison group of the effect of a foremen degree on earnings seems to be an academic degree at the same professional certification level.

Previous literature on returns to vocational and academic training

Brunello and Rocco ( 2017 , p. 106) summarize the discussion on differences between the returns to vocational and academic training as follows: “Education economists often point out that individuals with a vocational education face a trade-off between short term benefits and long term costs. In the short term, this type of education facilitates the transition from school to the labour market by providing ready to use skills. In the long term, however, vocational skills depreciate relatively fast and individuals who specialize in these skills are less capable of adapting to technical change than individuals endowed with a more academically oriented education.” The main argument for higher returns to vocational education at the start of the career is that vocational education provides ready to use skills, facilitates the transition from school to work, and therefore leads to a higher labour market value in comparison to general or academic training (Cörvers et al. 2011 ; Wolter and Ryan 2011 ; Fersterer et al. 2008 ). This advantage may however come at the price of vocational skills becoming quickly obsolete in modern economies characterised by rapid technological change (Bennett et al. 1995 ; Krueger and Kumar 2004 ; Golsteyn and Stenberg 2017 ; Hanushek et al. 2017 ; Brunello and Rocco 2017 ). Therefore, there may be a turning point during the career when lifetime earnings from academic education surpass earnings from tertiary vocational education (Bennett et al. 1995 ; Hanushek et al. 2017 ). It remains unclear however how strong the financial advantage of vocational tertiary education is and at which age occurs the break-even point.

Previous empirical contributions found mixed results on the returns to vocational in comparison to academic education. The first group of papers compares the returns to vocational vs. academic education including employees with several education levels. As the vocationally trained have a lower education level on average, the studies usually find higher earnings for those with an academic education in the long run and for lifetime earnings (compare Flake et al. 2016 and Rzepka 2018 for Germany, Hanushek et al. 2017 for a sample of 11 countries). For Switzerland, Tuor and Backes-Gellner ( 2010 ) however do not find differences in net earnings between those who obtained a foreman certificate or a university of applied science certificate and those who obtained a university certificate.

The second group of studies compares returns to education at the same education level and therefore it is closer to our approach. Most of these empirical papers therefore find that more general education contents in a given education track pay off only in the long run in comparison to more vocational contents (if at all), compare Dearden et al. ( 2002 ) for the UK, Bishop and Mane ( 2004 ) and Meer ( 2007 ) for the USA, Fersterer et al. ( 2008 ) for Austria, Cörvers et al. ( 2011 ) for Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK, Golsteyn and Stenberg ( 2017 ) for Sweden, Malamud and Pop-Eleches ( 2010 ) for Romania, Zilic ( 2018 ) for Croatia, and Brunello and Rocco ( 2017 ) for the UK.

Empirical research on the economic effects of education types mainly faces the task of controlling in a credible way the endogenous selection into different curricula and education tracks (Blundell et al. 2000 , 2005 ; Brunello et al. 2017 ). In other words, unobservables may have an important impact on education choice as well as on earnings. Some papers use ordinary least squares wage equations (Blundell et al. 2000 ). They can be interpreted as regression based linear matching (Heckman et al. 1998 ). The control function estimators aim at putting enough structure to completely model the selection decision into the schooling track. Many obvious drivers of earnings potential and career intentions such as motivation or ability are hard to control with this approach, however. Some papers therefore compare earnings of same-sex full siblings (Golsteyn and Stenberg 2017 ) or use matching functions (Rzepka 2018 ) in order to get rid of heterogeneity. Other studies on returns to education use instrumental variables estimators and attempt to control for the correlation between otherwise unobserved individual factors and schooling choices by way of an excluded instrument, which is an education determinant which is independent of earnings (Card 1999 ), compare Hanushek et al. ( 2017 ). The third group of studies uses natural experiments that ideally split homogeneous groups of people in a treatment group with changes in education requirements or options and a control group without these changes. Examples of exogenous variations used to calculate differences in earnings by education path are changes in the compulsory shares of vocational and general content of education (Malamud and Pop-Eleches 2010 ; Hall 2016 ; Zilic 2018 ), the addition of one or two years of compulsory schooling (Pischke and von Wachter 2008 ; Bhuller et al. 2017 ), or the unexpected closure of firms that offered apprenticeship training (Fersterer et al. 2008 ; Hanushek et al. 2017 ).

In order to calculate the earnings differences between vocational and academic education, this paper for the first time combines two important steps that reduce potential estimation biases. First, we only compare vocational and academic education at the same—tertiary—level. Second, for matching it is important that during the period before the treatment decision, treatment and non-treatment pairs are observationally equal. We therefore only compare people who pursue (and complete) an apprenticeship training before choosing tertiary education. Unobservable yet decisive factors for earnings potential and career orientation therefore should be comparable (Dearden et al. 2002 ; Brunello and Rocco 2017 ). Most academics in Germany for example do not have apprenticeship training and therefore do not regard their academic studies as an alternative to a vocational career option. In addition, apprenticeship completers who obtain a tertiary vocational education may not be comparable to the average apprenticeship completer with respect to skills and abilities. We therefore argue that academics with a completed apprenticeship and apprenticeship completers with a tertiary vocational education are more homogeneous comparison groups than all employees with a completed vocational training on the secondary level and all academics. Footnote 6

In addition to the sample reduction on people with completed apprenticeship training, we match employees with a tertiary vocational and employees with an academic education using propensity score matching. We argue in detail in the empirical methods section why using individual, occupation, and employer information from the apprenticeship training period captures the earnings potential of an employee better than using for example test results or other individual characteristics from school age as indicators for earnings capacity.

Data, sample and description

We use the longitudinal Linked Employer-Employee Panel Data of the Institute of Employment Research (IAB) in Nuremberg for a maximum period of 1993–2010 (LIAB 9310). Our observation period of maximally 17 years means that we can construct earnings profiles during the entire first half of the career for many employees after completing their apprenticeship. Our panel data set allows us to separate cohort from age effects. We therefore can control for business cycle effects at the first labour market barrier (start of the apprenticeship), during the tertiary education phase, and after having obtained the vocational or academic tertiary education degree in addition to birth year and age.

Individual social security records are linked with the employer survey of the IAB Establishment Panel. The employer data for example include information about the establishment size, industrial relations, and sector. It seems important to control for employer characteristics because apprentices from small and low-paying training employers might have a different market value and different incentives to obtain a vocational or academic tertiary education than those having obtained their secondary vocational degree from a prestigious, large and well-paying employer (Dellas and Sakellaris 2003 ). In addition, selection into large industrial firms and well-paying apprenticeship occupations is important information on the selection at the first labour market barrier that indicates the labour market value of the apprentice (Soskice 1994 ).

The administrative employee data include information about schooling plus occupational education, daily earnings, occupation, employment spells, apprenticeship spells, and unemployment spells, as well as age, tenure, gender, and work experience (Alda et al. 2005 ; Jacobebbinghaus and Alda 2007 ). The administrative individual data have the advantage that they are essentially free of reporting errors because this information is used to calculate social assistance, earnings taxes, and old age pension entitlements. There might be some problems with the schooling information because this variable might not be updated or reported with errors by the employer (Fitzenberger et al. 2005 ). We take our crucial information on completing tertiary vocational or academic education however from another variable in the data, the so-called “occupational status at the employer” ( Stellung im Beruf und Arbeitszeit ). This variable supposedly is more accurate than the schooling information because it is directly related to the topical work position of the employee. The work position however is more relevant for earnings than education level. Employers have to actively change the information on the work position of employees who have been first classified as skilled employees with a dual apprenticeship after they completed their vocational or academic tertiary level degree and now work in an adequate position for employees with a completed tertiary education. The same reasoning applies for employer changers who have been classified as apprentices or as skilled employees with a completed apprenticeship in an earlier employment spell and later are classified as academics or foremen. Footnote 7 We therefore can be sure that we observe only employees with an adequate position and drop employees from our sample who completed their vocational or academic tertiary level degree but still work as skilled employees at the upper-secondary level or founded their own business. Footnote 8

Another well-known problem of our data set is that we do not observe the number of hours worked per day for people in part-time employment. This information deficit however does not play a big role in calculating lifetime earnings because we are interested in cumulated absolute earnings and not hourly earnings. We therefore also include part-time employment spells. Finally, employees with earnings above the social security threshold have only the threshold reported and therefore right-censored income. As we mainly look at earnings during the first career years, the share of censored income observations is small, however. Footnote 9 We impute true earnings using a procedure proposed by Gartner ( 2005 ). We also check the robustness of our results when we only include observations without censoring.

In a first step, we identify all male apprentices who completed the dual apprenticeship training between 1993 and 2007 (N = 272,439). For this period, we have full information about the training and labour market biography. The restriction of the observation period to the year 2007 is necessary, in order to observe the apprentices with completed education for at least three years after they finished their apprenticeship. Studies have shown that males and females pursue different strategies in selecting educational tracks (Golsteyn and Stenberg 2017 ). Therefore, we only include males within our sample Footnote 10 because most occupations with a large share of foremen are dominated by males, for example those in the metal industry. In addition, we only keep occupations and professions for which vocational and academic education at the tertiary level is possible (e.g. no hairdressers).

The identification of a successful completion of vocational and academic education at the upper-secondary and tertiary level with Social Security Records data requires certain assumptions. The data only entail information on the status as apprentice, which makes it difficult to distinguish between dropouts and successful apprenticeship completion. About two thirds of dropouts however occur within the first year of apprenticeship training (BIBB 2016 ). Therefore, we drop all apprenticeship spells with a training period shorter than 1.5 years to ensure that only successful apprenticeship completers are included within our sample.

In a second step, we restrict our sample to apprentices who either complete tertiary vocational or tertiary academic education (N = 25,191 which is around 9.25% of the original sample). Further restrictions include a minimum age at the start of the apprenticeship of 15 years and a minimum age for foremen of 18 years. Further, we only include individuals who obtain their tertiary education after the apprenticeship. Our final sample before we perform the matching procedure includes 19,275 apprentices who either become foremen (N = 2213) or academics (N = 17,062). Footnote 11

Our spell data allow us to identify with daily accuracy the beginning and ending of the apprenticeship, the first employment spell(s) as skilled employee at upper-secondary level after apprenticeship completion, and the first employment spell(s) as skilled vocationally or academically skilled employee at the tertiary level (see Fig. 1 ).

From the apprenticeship period (decision phase), we determine the exact age at the beginning and ending of the apprenticeship at upper-secondary level, the schooling background of the apprentice, the year of the apprenticeship completion, and the daily wage at the end of the apprenticeship. We use the number of apprentices, the retention rate after apprenticeship training, the average income level within the training establishment and sector, size, and location as indicators of the quality of the apprenticeship training and the attractiveness of the training employer (Soskice 1994 ).

Simple comparisons between our groups of vocationally and academically trained employees including t tests show that employees with vocational tertiary education are about one year younger than academics when they complete their apprenticeship training, they earn a little less at the end of the apprenticeship, they are more likely to be trained in smaller establishments, and the average income level within the training establishment is lower. Footnote 12 All differences of means between foremen and academics within the decision phase on the tertiary education path are statistically significant. These differences point at a lower schooling and ability background of employees with tertiary vocational training in comparison to employees with tertiary academic training at the first labour market barrier (apprenticeship training at the secondary training level).

Our second measurement period is between the completion of the apprenticeship and the first employment as a completer of a vocational or academic tertiary education (education phase). Foremen gain more full-time working experience within this period than academics, they work less in part-time, they spend more days in unemployment and less time outside of the labour market, compare Table 1 . Again, all differences of means are significant and intuitive given that a vocational education on the tertiary level is closer to the labour market than an academic education. Foremen can choose between a full or part-time further education model. The education phase is about one year longer for academics than for foremen although they work less during their education.

Our third measurement period starts with the first employment as academic or foreman (return phase). Foremen are about 1.2 years younger when they start to work as foremen and they are employed in smaller establishments than academics (compare Table 1 ). Furthermore, the average income level of the establishments where foremen start is lower. Again, the differences of means are statistically significant. In contrast, the differences of means of the entry wages as academic or foreman are statistically insignificant.

We want to compare those foremen and academics who had a comparable labour market value and labour market prospects at the start into their labour market career after apprenticeship training. Therefore, we propose a matching method to find suitable homogeneous couples based on individual and employer characteristics during apprenticeship training.

Empirical method

To recover the average treatment effect on the treated, we choose a propensity score matching method (Rosenbaum and Rubin 1983 ; Heckman et al. 1998 ; Smith and Todd 2005 ; Biewen et al. 2014 ; Hanushek et al. 2017 ). The matching method tries to mimic ex-post a natural experiment by choosing a comparison group from among the non-treated such that the selected group is as similar as possible to the treatment group in terms of their observable characteristics (Dehejia and Wahba 1999 , 2002 ; Mueser et al. 2007 ). Our matching variables therefore aim to explain whether an apprentice chooses a vocational or academic tertiary education after completion and earnings during apprenticeship training. After adequately controlling for differences during the decision phase on tertiary education, we can interpret earnings differences after apprenticeship completion as treatment effect of a vocational versus an academic tertiary schooling choice (Heckman et al. 1998 ; Lechner 2002 ).

Although the sample reduction to employees with a tertiary vocational education and academics with a completed apprenticeship strongly reduces unobservable and observable differences in characteristics of employees with a vocational and with an academic education, both groups still show large differences in indicators of earnings potential and career intentions. We therefore use the 1:1 nearest neighbour matching to make foremen comparable to academics with respect to their tertiary education decision and their earnings potential (Stuart 2010 ; Rubin 1973 ; Smith and Todd 2005 ). The basic idea is to identify an academic who is as similar as possible to a foreman concerning all relevant pre-treatment characteristics. during the apprenticeship training period. As our control group is large enough, we perform matching without replacement to ensure, that every academic is matched only once. Footnote 13 After the matching procedure, we have 2079 foremen and the same number of matched academics. Footnote 14

We first assume that the quality of the apprenticeship training employer is an important indicator of earnings potential and career orientation because it indicates selectivity at the first labour market barrier for employees included in our sample (Von Wachter and Bender 2006 ). In Germany, is a clear hierarchy with respect to the attractiveness of apprenticeships and firms thoroughly screen their apprenticeship candidates (Soskice 1994 ; Winkelmann 1996 ). As a consequence, young people with a higher earnings potential and career orientation select themselves into larger and better paying training firms as well as into more attractive occupations and sectors (Soskice 1994 ). We therefore include the apprentice retention rate, size and sector of the training establishment, the number of apprentices, and the average income level in the training establishment are important matching variables.

Second, individual characteristics also reveal earnings potential and career orientation. Our individual indicators during apprenticeship training are occupation, age at the start of apprenticeship training (older apprentices frequently have a better professional orientation), prior education level, and length of apprenticeship period (more demanding apprenticeship programmes take longer). In addition, we use the labour market value of apprentices as revealed by their relative wage position within an occupation (compare Bhuller et al. 2017 ).

Finally, also the business cycle and temporary and regional labour market effects may influence the earnings potential and career decisions. Apprentices in depression phases may have higher incentives for obtaining tertiary education than apprentices with better options on the labour market directly after apprenticeship completion (Dellas and Sakellaris 2003 ). We therefore control for year and location in Western Germany. Footnote 15

Most papers on the returns to education rely on (mainly) cognitive tests or standardised ability test as indicators of earnings potential. Examples of tests are the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS), the American Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competences (PIACC), Intelligence Quotient (IQ) tests results, or the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) (Hanushek et al. 2017 ; Bhuller et al. 2017 ; Stenberg and Westerlund 2015 ; Heckman et al. 2018 ). Other frequently used matching variables for earnings potential and career orientation are school grades (Rzepka 2018 ), family background variables including parents´ opinion on education, siblings or twins (Blundell et al. 2000 , 2005 ; Golsteyn and Stenberg 2017 ), the number of books in the household or the economic situation during the schooling period (Card 1999 ; Brunello et al. 2017 ). Basic cognitive ability measured years before labour market entry (such as in AFQT or PISA or the family situation during youth) or during adulthood (such as in IALS) may influence earnings potential and career orientation differently for different education tracks, however. It may be argued, for example, that cognitive skills play a larger role for jobs mainly performed by people with an academic education and non-cognitive skills may be more important for jobs performed by employees with a vocational education (Heckman et al. 2006 ; Kahn 2013 ). Another problem of using cognitive test results in order to control for differences in earnings potential and career orientation is that labour market value also is determined by non-cognitive skills (Heckman et al. 2006 ; Schönberg 2007 ; Kahn 2013 ; Mohrenweiser et al. 2020 ). Footnote 16 The importance of non-cognitive skills for earnings potential means that an important and independent dimension of ability is missing in most test indicators. Heckman et al. ( 2006 ) even argue that schooling and ability test scores obtained during and after schooling are correlated and might induce reverse causality (and therefore biases) in earnings estimations. As a consequence, according to our estimation strategy, also in the public training programme evaluation literature and in the returns to postsecondary education literature mainly earnings, individual labour market experience and labour market characteristics just before treatment are used as matching parameters (Heckman et al. 1998 , 1999 ; Mueser et al. 2007 ; Böckerman et al. 2018 ).

Blundell et al. ( 2000 ) and Blundell et al. ( 2005 ) compare returns to education with and without earnings potential indicators. Footnote 17 They find that the inclusion of family background, demographic and ability test information hardly changes the measured returns to education. The inclusion of topical job information (employer size dummies, union status and a public /private sector dummy) however has a strong impact on education returns. Past wage information therefore may be a better indicator of earnings potential and career orientation than ability indicators obtained before entry into the labour market (Kahn 2013 ). We therefore suggest to use previous earnings and labour market indicators instead of ability indicators from the time before the education is obtained as indicators for earnings potential and career orientation (Ryan 2001 ; Stenberg and Westerlund 2015 ; Biewen et al. 2014 ).

By conditioning on information during apprenticeship training such as market value or employer characteristics for our matching, we also control for state dependence that might be crucial for controlling for endogeneity. Early experience in the youth labour market has consequences for later decisions and labour market prospects (Ryan 2001 ). For example, apprentices in high quality apprenticeship training programmes may have a higher propensity to opt for tertiary academic education than apprentices in small firms.

Although we do our best to control for selection into the educational track, we cannot be sure whether unobserved attributes nevertheless drive the earnings potential and career orientation. As a negative selection by ability into the vocational track will be shown later, the ceteris paribus prediction would be lower earnings for participants if vocational studies had no effect. The earnings advantage of the vocational track is therefore likely to be genuine and may be even larger if selectivity bias could be further reduced (Ryan 2001 ).

We use the sum of earnings added from spell data instead of current earnings patterns constructed from yearly average earnings or earnings at a selected day per year. Earnings sums are the preferred measure of returns to education because they avoid life cycle bias incurred by cross-section estimations, compare Bhuller et al. ( 2017 ) or Brunello et al. ( 2017 ). We use longitudinal spell data covering most of the age spectrum, which allows us to disentangle cohort, age and time effects. We take into account that future income has to be discounted. We therefore adjust earnings for inflation and use a discount rate of 2.4% (Bhuller et al. 2017 ).

Quality tests show that the matching procedure is able to balance the distribution of the relevant matching variables in both the control and treatment group. We assessed the standardised bias as suggested by Rosenbaum and Rubin ( 1985 ). The standardised bias for each covariate is defined as the difference of sample means in the treated and matched control subsamples as a percentage of the square root of the average of sample variances in both groups. One problem of this approach is that there is no clear benchmark indicating the success of the bias reduction. However, if the standardised bias is reduced below 5% after matching, the method is considered effective (Caliendo and Kopeinig 2008 ). Figure 2 presents a graphical comparison of group differences before and after matching.The standardised bias for each covariate is lower than 5% after the matching procedure.

Differences in characteristics between academics and vocationally trained before (2.213 foremen and 17.062 academics) and after matching (2.079 matches.) Note: occupations on a 2 digit level and 24 economic sections are included in our matching, but not shown in the graph

We also control for the matching quality using a two-sample t test to check whether there are significant differences in covariate means for both groups (Rosenbaum and Rubin 1985 ). The tests show no significant differences after matching (see Table 2 for details).

The main finding is that the matched employees´ earnings during their apprenticeship training are equal and we therefore assume that apprentices in both groups have comparable earnings ability.

Figure 3 shows the differences in log daily earnings of vocationally educated compared to their matched academics up to 16.5 years after their dual apprenticeship training (198 months). After our successful matching, there are no significant earnings differences during the apprenticeship period (see months −24 to 0). After the end of the apprenticeship, vocationally educated employees earn significantly more than academics. For example, five years (60 months) after the apprenticeship training, vocationally educated employees earn on average 165% more. Even 10 years after their apprenticeship training, the difference between log wages is still 45%. This big advantage in earnings for vocationally educated is mainly a consequence of the fact that academics have a somewhat longer education phase and therefore start their professional working phase later in life. In addition, during vocational tertiary education chances to be employed are higher than during academic education.

Earnings differences between matched vocationally and academically educated people after completed apprenticeship (N = 2079 matched pairs)

A comparison of cumulative earnings differences in both groups shows that individuals with vocational tertiary education hold a substantial advantage in earnings (the maximum is at 122.000€, see Fig. 4 ). This advantage is higher than several average yearly earnings for both groups and it is only gradually reduced in later career years. Footnote 18 As a consequence of the fact that entry earnings of those who just completed vocational tertiary education are higher than their academic matching partner, on average the turning point from which the earnings advantage starts to get reduced is only reached about thirteen years after the completion of apprenticeship training of the matched individuals (see Fig. 4 ). Even at the end of the observation period of more than 16 years after apprenticeship training, foremen have a substantially higher life time earnings level. More specifically, 16 years after apprenticeship training, foremen on average have an advantage in cumulative earnings of 107.000€ compared to the academically educated employees matched to them.

Differences in cumulative earnings between matched foremen and academics (N = 2079)

If we assume that the decline in the financial advantage of master craftsmen between the years 13 and 16 continues at the same pace, the financial advantage would have disappeared more than 20 years later or about 35 years after the end of the apprenticeship training. The foremen and academically educated employees in our dataset would be 57 years old by then.

Robustness checks

We first compare our main results with a calculation of cumulative earnings without any matching procedure but still using a sample of academics with a completed apprenticeship training as comparison group. Footnote 19 As shown in Appendix Figs. 5 and 6 , the earnings advantage of foremen is a lot smaller (max. 61,300€) and declines already eight years after the apprenticeship training. 16 years after the apprenticeship, the financial advantage of foremen declined to not even 8500€. The big differences between matched and unmatched samples may be a result of the fact, that without an adequate matching procedure, foremen are compared with academics in actually not comparable occupations, at different times in their working career, and without comparable earnings potential already during the apprenticeship.

Earnings differences between vocationally and academically educated people after completed apprenticeship (2213 foremen and 17,062 academics)

Differences in cumulative earnings between foremen and academics after completed apprenticeship before matching (2213 foremen and 17,062 academics)

To make sure that our results are not driven by specific individuals in our matching sample, we also calculate earnings differences of matched sub-samples such as university (732 matches) and polytechnic (1365 matches) academics. The matching in these sub-samples works effectively and we have similar earnings of foremen and their matched academics during the apprenticeship training. The log wage differences pattern looks similar to our results of the whole sample. The comparison of cumulative earnings between university academics and foremen shows that the higher earnings especially at the beginning of their career leads to a substantial advantage of 123.000 € after 10 years and about 166.000€ after 16 years (see Appendix Fig. 7 ). Compared to polytechnic academics, the earnings advantage of foremen is still substantial but lower. After 10 years foremen earn 99.000€ more and after 16 years the earnings advantage is still 83.000€ (see Appendix Fig. 8 ). The sub-sample comparison suggests, that university academics might reach higher earnings than foremen, but later (after our observation phase) in their working careers.

Differences in cumulative earnings between matched foremen and university academics (N = 732)

Differences in cumulative earnings between matched foremen and polytechnic academics (N = 1365)

Additional sub-samples such as vocationally educated employees with highest education at the tertiary level with and without higher secondary schooling background ( Abitur ), apprentices in certain occupations or industries confirm our results (due to sample size restrictions, no detailed results are shown).

As we compare future earnings, discount rates have to be taken into account. Academics have higher earnings later in their career and therefore the discount rate might have an effect on the earnings comparison. We used different discount rates (see the results for zero and 5% discount in Appendix Figs. 9 and 10 ). The results are only slightly affected by discount rates and we therefore chose a discount rate of 2.4% that has also been used in the previous literature (Bhuller et al. 2017 ).

Differences in cumulative earnings between matched foremen and academics with discount rate 0% (N = 2079)

Differences in cumulative earnings between matched foremen and academics with discount rate 5% (N = 2079)

In addition to the nearest neighbour matching method described above, we also compare earnings differences between vocationally and academically educated employees who completed their apprenticeship within the same year, in the same training establishment, and in the same occupation (on a two digit level). In our matching model, we do not use exact matching on these variables and therefore matched employees may come from different employers (we only match on employer size, location and sector, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be the exact same employer) and have different occupations, for example. If we assume that the “formative years” during apprenticeship are decisive for the earnings potential, an exact matching on occupation and employer gives us a more adequate earnings comparison. The robustness check of course has the disadvantage that the number of comparable observations is strongly reduced and mainly comes from large training firms. In our twin sample we have 181 foremen and 350 academics because we only can include establishments with at least two apprentices who end their apprenticeship within the establishment in the same year and in the same occupation. The “new comparison confirms our previous findings and leads to an even higher financial advantage of foremen until the end of our observation period. More specifically, five years after the apprenticeship training, future foremen already earn 182% more than their academic counterpart. Thus, the earnings advantage is 17% bigger than in our previous findings (see Appendix Fig. 11 ). The comparison of cumulative earnings of our new comparison groups shows, that 10 years after the apprenticeship, foremen hold a financial advantage of 117,500€ (almost 10,000€ more than before). Thus, 16 years after the end of the apprenticeship training, the earnings advantage of foremen is about the same as in our matching sample (106,300€ instead of 107,000€). Appendix Fig. 11 reveals that we however get wide confidence intervals in our new comparison because the sample size is small.

Earnings differences between alternative comparison groups (181 foremen and 350 academics)

Policy choices lead to institutional differences in the provision of academic and vocational education and to differences in shares of people who choose one of the tracks and the labour market outcomes of these choices (Hanushek et al. 2017 ).

We match individuals who are as similar as possible during their formative first labour market years, i.e. during their apprenticeship training. We therefore compare earnings of foremen with selected academics who have the same earnings capacity and career intentions during the period in which they decide whether to choose a tertiary vocational or academic education. The rich information about daily earnings plus the high quality matching results during the apprenticeship period allow us to interpret differences in the earnings developments during the tertiary education phase and after the first employment as foreman or academic as causal earnings effects of a tertiary level vocational vs. an academic education for employees in our sample.

This paper shows that employees with a tertiary vocational education earn more during the first years of their career than comparable academics. This is a strong result because it demonstrates that a vocational tertiary education is an attractive alternative to a more general academic education for comparable groups of employees. Our calculation includes the earnings advantages of tertiary vocational education obtained from better earnings opportunities during education and the shorter education period in comparison to an academic education. Our approach therefore deviates from many studies on returns to education that compare earnings levels after the completion of an education track, for example on the basis of the classical Mincer earnings equation. We however think that a life time earnings approach better depicts the relevant individual decision situation of young people who have both options, vocational and academic tertiary education. The vocational career options at the tertiary level also may increase the attractiveness of vocational training at the upper-secondary level given the path dependence in educational choices and advantages (Böckerman et al. 2018 ). Education options at the tertiary level with a strong vocational content could therefore help to avoid that vocational training at the upper secondary level is seen as a dead-end for low achievers such as is frequently the case for example in France, the USA or the UK (Ryan 2001 ). An apprenticeship instead may be attractive for young people who are uncertain whether a vocational or academic track is the right choice for them because they can use it as a career phase in which they can learn about their skills and preferences without giving up the option to get into an academic track (Ryan 2001 ). Tertiary vocational education also could be an efficient alternative for academic training in countries without a developed vocational education system at the level. Vocational tertiary education is relatively cheap in comparison to academic tertiary education (see the Tables B1 in OECD 2008 ) and it nevertheless produces comparable individual returns on the labour market and a comparable productive value on the labour market in the first half of the career. Especially in countries with a weak labour market performance of tertiary educated academics and/or strongly increasing tuition costs and the accumulation of large student debts, tertiary vocational education may be a good education option (Reyes et al. 2016 ).

This paper concentrates on the internal validity of measuring accumulated earnings for people with tertiary vocational training in comparison to academic training. We cannot generalize our findings to the bigger question of the returns of vocational vs. academic training in Germany or the (hypothetical) earnings effect of introducing tertiary vocational training in countries that do not have this option so far. In order to reduce biases of earnings differences to a minimum (rigor), we decided to select a sample of academics with completed apprenticeship training and therefore trade off some external validity of our findings (relevance).

We find that foremen earn significantly more during the first years after completing apprenticeship training than academics. Their financial advantage flattens off relatively fast, however. We show that foremen have on average achieved a cumulative earnings advantage of 122,000€. Even 16 years after the apprenticeship, foremen still have an earnings advantage of 107,000€. We also show that foremen start in an adequate job when they are about one year younger than academics. The age difference until an adequate job after tertiary education is found additionally increases the gap in cumulative earnings academics have to close during their working lifetime.

It remains a topic for future research whether also the lifetime income of foremen is higher in comparison to their comparison group of academics because our data cover only the first 16 years after completing apprenticeship training. If we assume that the reduction in the financial advantage of foremen decreases at the same pace as during the first years after the peak advantage for foremen, we obtain a reduction of the financial advantage to zero at about 57 years of age. Academics with a completed apprenticeship training therefore on average have a higher lifetime income than foremen.

Availability of data and materials

The data used in this contribution (LIAB9310) are publicly accessible at the Research Data Centre (FDZ) of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) in Nuremberg, Germany.

The shares can be constructed by dividing the number of people participating in further training provided by the chambers of commerce or chambers of craft by the number of people who completed an apprenticeship training, compare DIHK ( 2018 ). The exact figures are 23% for 1995 and 21% for 2017.

A full-time foreman education costs about 5000€, BMBF ( 2019 ).

See https://www.bundesregierung.de/Content/DE/Artikel/2015/10/2015-10-14-dritte-novelle-meister-bafoeg.htm .

Some academic institutions even offer academic education specifically for apprenticeship completers without university entrance exams, for example the so-called cooperative study with integrated apprenticeship training ( Kooperatives Studium mit integrierter Ausbildung ).

Before the introduction of the Bachelor and Master system, vocational tertiary education was classified at the same level as a diploma from Universities of Applied Sciences ( Fachhochschulen ). After the introduction of both academic levels during the Bologna process, they are classified at the same level as a Bachelor’s degree at universities and a Master’s degree at universities of applied sciences.

Concentrating on tertiary vocational and academic education has the additional advantage in comparison to studies on the returns to education of employees with secondary education that the education obtained usually is the highest education. We cannot exclude that earnings later during the career are influenced by differences in learning on the job and continuing training participation. These differences in personnel development are regarded as part of the package included by the education track choice, however. Cörvers et al. ( 2011 ) argue that employees with general training may profit more from training than vocationally trained employees.

For the sake of briefness, we will call those working adequately with vocational degree at the tertiary level “foremen”.

We cannot exclude mis-reporting by employers with respect to occupational status and therefore there might be some employees who are indicated to work in a foremen position without having obtained a formal foremen certificate.

Censored income observations are below 2% in our sample.

Males have relatively stable aggregate labour-force participation patterns. Our sample therefore avoids biases in returns to education because there are cohort-specific changes in work selection by females, see Hanushek et al. ( 2017 ).

The relatively low share of foremen in our sample in comparison to the share of people with a foreman certificate relative to academics with an apprenticeship certificate in the total population can be explained by two specificities of our sample: more foremen than academics found their own business and entrepreneurs drop out of the sample because it only covers employees. In addition, more foremen than academics do not work in an adequate occupational or professional position.

See Table 1 for detailed descriptive information before matching.

Matching with replacement can be helpful in settings with smaller control groups, see Dehejia and Wahba ( 1999 ).

Nearest neighbour matching with replacement and different specifications of kernel matching have been performed. As the results remain robust, we chose the most straight forward 1:1 nearest neighbour matching without replacement.

It has been shown, that the selection of relevant covariates is more important than the selection of the propensity score matching method (Cook et al. 2008 ; Pohl et al. 2009 ; Shadish et al. 2008 ).

Heckman et al. ( 2006 ) for example show on the basis of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 (NLSY79) that non-cognitive skills measured by the Rotter Locus of Control Scale and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale have a comparable impact on for example earnings as cognitive ability measured by the Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT).

They use detailed test scores at age 7 and 11, mother’s and father’s education, age, father’s social class when the child was 16, mother’s employment status when the child was 16 and the number of siblings the child had at 16 and school variables to control for ability.

The earnings advantage amounts to about 4 2/3 yearly entry earnings for academics (27.444€, compare Appendix Table 1 ).

The alternative calculation is based on the sample described in Table 1 .

Acemoglu D, Pischke S (2000) Certification of training and training outcomes. Eur Econ Rev 44:917–927

Article Google Scholar

Adda J, Dustmann C, Meghir C, Robin J-M (2013) Career progression, economic downturns, and skills. NBER Working Paper 18832, Cambridge, MA

Alda H, Bender S, Gartner H (2005) The linked employer–employee dataset created from the IAB Establishment Panel and the process-produced data of the IAB (LIAB). Schmollers Jahrbuch 125:327–336

Google Scholar

Bildungsberichterstattung A (2018) Bildung in Deutschland. wbv, Bielefeld

BMBF (2019) Aufstiegs-BAföG. Das Aufstiegsförderungsgesetz, Berlin

Bennett R, Glennerster H, Nevison D (1995) Investing in skill: expected returns to vocational studies. Educ Econ 3:99–117

Bhuller M, Mogstad M, Salvanes K (2017) Life-cycle earnings, education premiums, and internal rates of return. J Labor Econ 35:993–1030

BIBB (2016) Datenreport zum Berufsbildungsbericht 2016: Informationen und Analysen zur Entwicklung der beruflichen Bildung. Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung, Bonn

Biewen M, Fitzenberger B, Osikominu A, Paul M (2014) The effectiveness of public sponsored training revisited: the importance of data and methodological choices. J Labor Econ 32:837–897

Bishop J, Mane F (2004) The impacts of career-technical education on high school labour market success. Econ Educ Rev 23:381–402

Blundell R, Dearden L, Goodman A, Reed H (2000) The returns to higher education in Britain: evidence from a British cohort. Econ J 110:F82–F99

Blundell R, Dearden L, Sianesi B (2005) Evaluating the effect of education on earnings: models, methods and results from the National Child Development Survey. J R Stat Soc Ser A 168:473–512

Böckerman P, Haapanen M, Jepsen C (2018) More skilled, better paid: labour-market returns to postsecondary vocational education. Oxf Econ Pap 70:485–508

Brunello G, Rocco L (2017) The labor market effects of academic and vocational education over the life cycle: evidence based on a British cohort. J Hum Cap 11:106–166

Brunello G, Weber G, Weiss CT (2017) Books are forever: early life conditions, education and lifetime earnings in Europe. Econ J 127:271–296

Büchel F, Helberger C (1995) Bildungsnachfrage als Versicherungsstrategie: der Effekt eines zusätzlich erworbenen Lehrabschlusses auf die beruflichen Startchancen von Hochschulabsolventen. Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung 28:32–43

Caliendo M, Kopeinig S (2008) Some practical guidance for the implementation of propensity score matching. J Econ Surv 22:31–72

Card D (1999) The causal effect of education on earnings. In: Ashenfelter O, Card D (eds) Handbook of labor economics, vol 3. North Holland, Amsterdam, pp 1801–1836

Cook TD, Shadish WR, Wong VC (2008) Three conditions under which experiments and observational studies produce comparable causal estimates: new findings from within study comparisons. J Policy Anal Manag 27:724–750

Cörvers F, Heijke H, Kriechel B, Pfeifer H (2011) High and steady or low and rising? Life-cycle earnings patterns in vocational and general education. ROA-RM-2011/7, Maastricht University

Dearden L, McIntosh S, Myck M, Vignoles A (2002) The returns to academic and vocational qualifications in Britain. Bull Econ Res 54:249–274

Dehejia R, Wahba S (1999) Causal effects in nonexperimental studies: re-evaluating the evaluation of training programs. J Am Stat Assoc 94:1053–1062

Dehejia R, Wahba S (2002) Propensity score-matching methods for nonexperimental causal studies. Rev Econ Stat 84:151–161

Dellas H, Sakellaris P (2003) On the cyclicality of schooling: theory and evidence. Oxf Econ Pap 55:148–172

DIHK (2018) Aus- und Weiterbildung in Zahlen, Berlin

Eichhorst W, Rodríguez-Planas N, Schmidl R, Zimmermann K (2015) A road map to vocational education and training in industrialized countries. Ind Labor Relat Rev 68:314–337

Fersterer J, Pischke J-S, Winter-Ebmer R (2008) Returns to apprenticeship training in Austria: evidence from failed firms. Scand J Econ 110:733–753

Fitzenberger B, Osikominu A, Völter R (2005) Imputation rules to improve the education variable in the IAB employment subsample. Schmollers Jahrbuch 126:405–436

Flake R, Werner D, Zibrowius M (2016) Karrierefaktor berufliche Fortbildung—Einkommensperspektiven von Fortbildungsabsolventen. IW Trends 1, Bonn

Gartner H (2005) The imputation of wages above the contribution limit with the German IAB Employment Sample. FDZ Methodenreport 02/2005, Nürnberg

Golsteyn B, Stenberg A (2017) Earnings over the life course: general versus vocational education. J Hum Cap 11:167–212

Hall C (2016) Does more general education reduce the risk of future unemployment? Evidence from an expansion of vocational upper secondary education. Econ Educ Rev 52:251–271

Hanushek EA, Schwerdt G, Woessmann L, Zhang L (2017) General education, vocational education, and labor-market outcomes over the lifecycle. J Hum Resour 52:48–87

Heckman JJ, Ichimura H, Todd P (1998) Matching as an econometric evaluation estimator. Rev Econ Stud 65:261–294

Heckman JJ, LaLonde R, Smith J (1999) The economics and econometrics of active labor market programs. In: Ashenfelter O, Card D (eds) Handbook of labor economics, vol 3. North Holland, Amsterdam, pp 1865–2097

Heckman J, Stixrud J, Urzua S (2006) The effects of cognitive and noncognitive abilities on labor market outcomes and social behavior. J Labor Econ 24:411–482

Heckman J, Humphries J, Veramendi G (2018) Returns to education: the causal effect of education on earnings, health and smoking. J Polit Econ 126:197–246

Jacobebbinghaus P, Alda H (2007) LIAB-Datenhandbuch: version 2.0. Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg

Kahn L (2013) Asymmetric information between employers. Am Econ J Appl Econ 5:165–205

Krueger D, Kumar K (2004) Skill-specific rather than general education: a reason for US–Europe growth differences? J Econ Growth 9:167–207

Lechner M (2002) Program heterogeneity and propensity score matching: an application to the evaluation of active labor market policies. Rev Econ Stat 84:205–220

Lewin K, Minks K-H, Uhde S (1996) Abitur-Berufsausbildung—Studium: Zur Strategie der Doppelqualifizierung von Abiturienten. Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung 29:431–454

Malamud O, Pop-Eleches C (2010) General education versus vocational training: evidence from an economy in transition. Rev Econ Stat 92:43–60

Meer J (2007) Evidence on the returns to secondary vocational education. Econ Educ Rev 26:559–573

Mohrenweiser J, Wydra-Somaggio G, Zwick T (2020) Information advantages of training employers despite credible training certificates. Oxf Econ Pap 72:651–671

Mueser P, Troske K, Goriaslavsky A (2007) Using state administrative data to measure program performance. Rev Econ Stat 89:761–783

OECD (2008) Education at a glance. Paris

OECD (2015) ISCED 2011 operational manual-guidelines for classifying national education programmes and related qualifications. OECD Publishing, Paris

Pischke J-S, von Wachter T (2008) Zero Returns to compulsory schooling in Germany: evidence and interpretation. Rev Econ Stat 90:592–598

Pohl S, Steiner P, Eisermann J, Soellner R, Cook T (2009) Unbiased causal inference from an observational study: results of a within-study comparison. Educ Eval Policy Anal 31:463–479

Reyes L, Rodríguez J, Urzúa S (2016) Heterogeneous economic returns to postsecondary degrees: evidence from Chile. J Hum Resour 51:416–460

Rosenbaum P, Rubin D (1983) The central role of the propensity score in observational studies for causal effects. Biometrika 70:41–55

Rosenbaum P, Rubin D (1985) Constructing a control group using multivariate matched sampling methods that incorporate the propensity score. Am Stat 39:33–38

Rubin D (1973) Matching to remove bias in observational studies. Biometrics 29:159–184

Ryan P (2001) The school-to-work transition: a cross-national perspective. J Econ Lit 39:34–92

Rzepka S (2018) Labor market returns to college education with vocational qualifications. Educ Econ 26:411–431

Schönberg U (2007) Testing for asymmetric employer learning. J Labor Econ 25:651–692

Shadish WR, Clark MH, Steiner P (2008) Can nonrandomized experiments yield accurate answers? A randomized experiment comparing random to nonrandom assignment. J Am Stat Assoc 103:1334–1344

Smith J, Todd P (2005) Does matching overcome LaLonde’s critique of non-experimental estimators? J Econom 125:305–353

Soskice D (1994) Reconciling markets and institutions: the German apprenticeship system. In: Lynch LM (ed) Training and the private sector: international comparisons. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 26–60

Stenberg A, Westerlund O (2015) The long-term earnings consequences of general vs. specific training of the unemployed. IZA J Eur Labor Stud 4:22

Stuart E (2010) Matching methods for causal inference: a review and a look forward. Stat Sci Rev J Inst Math Stat 25:1

Tuor S, Backes-Gellner U (2010) Risk-return trade-offs to complete educational paths: vocational, academic and mixed. Int J Manpow 31:495–519

Verhaest D, Baert S (2018) The effects of workplace learning in higher education on employment and match quality: is there an early-career trade-off? Empir Econ 55:1229–1270

von Wachter T, Bender S (2006) In the right place at the wrong time: the role of firms and luck in Young Workers’ careers. Am Econ Rev 96:1679–1705

Winkelmann R (1996) Employment prospects and skill acquisition of apprenticeship-trained workers in Germany. Ind Labor Relat Rev 49:658–672

Wolter S, Ryan P (2011) Apprenticeship. Handb Econ Educ 3:521–576

Wolter A, Banscherus U, Kamm C, Otto A, Spexard A (2014) Durchlässigkeit zwischen beruflicher und akademischer Bildung als mehrstufiges Konzept: Bilanz und Perspektiven. Beiträge zur Hochschulforschung 36:8–39

Zilic I (2018) General versus vocational education: lessons from a quasi-experiment in Croatia. Econ Educ Rev 62:1–11

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are indebted to Hubert Ertl, Christopher Jepsen, Sylvi Rzepka, Stefan Speckesser, Gesine Stephan, and Arne Warnke for helpful comments on earlier versions of the paper.

There is no external funding received for this research.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

University of Würzburg, Chair for Human Resource Management and Organisation, Sanderring 2, 97070, Würzburg, Germany

Veronika Lukesch & Thomas Zwick

Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, Germany

Thomas Zwick

Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA), Maastricht, The Netherlands

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Both authors contributed by equal parts to this paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thomas Zwick .

Ethics declarations

Competing interests.

There are no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

See Table 3 and Figs. 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 .

Rights and permissions.

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Lukesch, V., Zwick, T. Does tertiary vocational education beat academic education? A matching analysis of young men’s earnings developments. Empirical Res Voc Ed Train 12 , 16 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40461-020-00104-w

Download citation

Received : 02 December 2019

Accepted : 10 November 2020

Published : 16 November 2020

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s40461-020-00104-w

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Tertiary education
Vocational education
Academic education
Earnings development
Propensity score matching

Assessing the Accuracy of IQ Tests

This essay about the debate surrounding IQ tests, discussing their role in assessing cognitive abilities and their limitations. Advocates argue that IQ tests provide a standardized measure of intelligence, aiding in academic and vocational placements. They emphasize the tests’ structure and ability to measure various cognitive domains. Detractors, however, challenge the notion that intelligence can be captured by a single metric, pointing to different forms of intelligence and cultural biases. They raise concerns about socioeconomic disparities and situational factors affecting test performance. Despite criticisms, IQ tests remain widely used but should be complemented with other assessments for a more comprehensive understanding of human cognition.

How it works

The aptitude quotient assessments, alternatively labeled as IQ tests, have perennially stood as a cornerstone of psychological evaluation, proffering a numerical appraisal of an individual’s cerebral prowess. They wield substantial influence in scholastic placements, vocational evaluations, and psychological inquiries. Despite their pervasive application, the veracity of IQ tests in appraising intelligence engenders contentious debate, with adherents and detractors embroiled in fervent discourse over the reliability and equitability of these evaluations.

Advocates of IQ tests posit that these appraisals furnish a standardized gauge of cognitive capacity, concomitant with triumph across manifold spheres of life, encompassing academic attainment and occupational efficacy.

They underscore that IQ scores portend scholastic accomplishments, innovativeness, and vocational triumph to a marked degree. From this vantage, the tests emerge as invaluable instruments for identifying intellectual proficiencies and deficiencies, thus facilitating scholastic assistance and allocation.

Furthermore, proponents assert that IQ tests are meticulously structured to mitigate cultural biases and tender a broadly veracious appraisal by centering on cogent ratiocination, pattern discernment, and quandary resolution proficiencies. Contemporary IQ tests frequently encompass an array of subtests delving into specific cognitive domains, encompassing spatial ratiocination, mnemonic retention, and verbal comprehension. This holistic approach engenders a multifaceted comprehension of intellect transcending mere rote memorization.

Conversely, detractors impugn the very foundation of IQ evaluation, contending that intellect is excessively intricate to be encapsulated within a solitary metric. They cite Howard Gardner’s postulation of diverse intelligences, delineating distinct forms of intellect such as linguistic, logical-mathematical, and interpersonal, eluding encapsulation by IQ tests. Detractors posit that by foregrounding logical ratiocination and quandary resolution, IQ tests neglect other intellectual modalities equally imperative in pragmatic contexts, inclusive of creativity, emotive intelligence, and pragmatic aptitudes.

Moreover, cultural and socioeconomic biases furnish another impediment to the precision of IQ evaluations. Detractors asseverate that even judiciously devised IQ tests may evince favoritism towards individuals from particular milieus, perpetuating systemic disparities. For instance, progeny hailing from affluent households frequently avail themselves of superior educational amenities and preparatory tutelage, endowing them with an advantage over their less privileged counterparts. In this vein, detractors contend, IQ evaluations risk cementing extant societal strata rather than revealing objective cerebral potential.

Beyond partiality, examination trepidation and circumstantial exigencies may also impinge upon IQ appraisals. An individual beset by anxiety, fatigue, or infirmity during assessment may evince suboptimal performance, engendering an inaccurate portrayal of their intrinsic capabilities. Furthermore, queries subsist regarding the stability of IQ scores over temporal epochs, conspicuously during juvenility, as cerebral development persists and cognitive adeptnesses undergo metamorphosis.

Notwithstanding these censures, IQ evaluations persist as ubiquitous metrics in educational and psychological arenas, and their efficacy eludes dismissal. They proffer invaluable insights when construed with sagacity, furnishing illumination upon specific facets of cerebral functioning. However, to verily discern an individual’s potentialities and capabilities, it is imperative to conflate IQ scores with alternative evaluations whilst factoring in idiosyncratic, cultural, and environmental influences.

In summation, whilst IQ tests furnish a standardized barometer of certain cognitive capacities, their fidelity is circumscribed by biases, the intricate nature of intellect itself, and circumstantial exigencies. They may yield instructive data when judiciously employed but ought not to be enshrined as the quintessential measure of cerebral acumen. As our comprehension of intellect evolves, prospective evaluations must strive for enhanced inclusivity and reflective acuity concerning the multiplicity of human potentialities. Ultimately, a holistic approach to cerebral appraisal, one that attends to the manifold facets of human cognition, shall yield a far more profound comprehension than any solitary evaluation can impart.

Cite this page

Assessing the Accuracy of IQ Tests. (2024, May 12). Retrieved from https://papersowl.com/examples/assessing-the-accuracy-of-iq-tests/

"Assessing the Accuracy of IQ Tests." PapersOwl.com , 12 May 2024, https://papersowl.com/examples/assessing-the-accuracy-of-iq-tests/

PapersOwl.com. (2024). Assessing the Accuracy of IQ Tests . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/assessing-the-accuracy-of-iq-tests/ [Accessed: 15 May. 2024]

"Assessing the Accuracy of IQ Tests." PapersOwl.com, May 12, 2024. Accessed May 15, 2024. https://papersowl.com/examples/assessing-the-accuracy-of-iq-tests/

"Assessing the Accuracy of IQ Tests," PapersOwl.com , 12-May-2024. [Online]. Available: https://papersowl.com/examples/assessing-the-accuracy-of-iq-tests/. [Accessed: 15-May-2024]

PapersOwl.com. (2024). Assessing the Accuracy of IQ Tests . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/assessing-the-accuracy-of-iq-tests/ [Accessed: 15-May-2024]

Don't let plagiarism ruin your grade

Hire a writer to get a unique paper crafted to your needs.

Our writers will help you fix any mistakes and get an A+!

Please check your inbox.

You can order an original essay written according to your instructions.

Trusted by over 1 million students worldwide

1. Tell Us Your Requirements

2. Pick your perfect writer

3. Get Your Paper and Pay

Hi! I'm Amy, your personal assistant!

Don't know where to start? Give me your paper requirements and I connect you to an academic expert.

short deadlines

100% Plagiarism-Free

Certified writers

IMAGES

Vocational Education Essay
The Benefits of Vocational Education
Vocational Education Essay
Essay On Vocational Education
Essay on Vocational Education
Vocational Education Essay

VIDEO

||Vocational Education Essay In English||Essay On Vocational Education||
Education System Exposed
Unlock Your Potential: The Power of Vocational High Schools [Full Video in Description]
Vocational Education Essay in English || Essay on Vocational Education in English
व्यवसायिक शिक्षा पर निबंध /essay on Vocational Education in Hindi/ Vocational Education Par nibandh
आंतरराष्ट्रीय साक्षरता दिन भाषण निबंध International Literacy Day SpeechEssay #Literacy Day

COMMENTS

Essay on Vocational Education for Students and Children
Essay on Vocational Education - It refers to a skill-based program that enables students to obtain knowledge, training, and practical skills of a specific trade. It is often referred to as technical or career education as it helps students develop skills in a particular discipline.
How to Write an Essay on a Vocation
Writing an essay on a certain career or vocation is similar to writing essays on other subjects; the only difference is that the subject of this essay will be on a certain type of career or profession. Formulating a research question or thesis statement is an important part of writing an essay of any kind.
PDF Vocational Education: An International Perspective
Vocational education is formal education about work, and vocational programs of study typically target a narrow subset of middle-income occupations. In this chapter, we trace vocational education from competing 20th century education philosophies to its varied structures throughout the 21st century world. We then review the body of economic ...
How to Teach Vocational Education: A theory of vocational pedagogy
13. How to teach vocational education: A theory of vocational pedagogy. 1.1 The need for a. vocational pedagogy. The effec tiveness of all e ducation s ystems. depends cri tically on t he qualit y ...
Why Should We Care About Vocational Education?
The absence of excellence in many technical and vocational fields is also costing us economically as a nation. In the early sixties, John Gardner, in his classic book Excellence, talked about the importance of vocational education and of developing excellence across all occupations for the social and economic health of our society.
The teaching vocation
The vocational nature of teaching has been eroded by successive government initiatives and we need to take action to preserve it, says Alex Alexandrou, chair of the International Professional Development Asscociation. In his 1869 lecture John Ruskin, 'The Future of England', John Ruskin said: My interpretation of this statement is that society cannot put a …
PDF Vocational Pedagogy
such means vocational pedagogy can directly impact on the quality of teaching and learning. But you cannot develop a plausible description or theoretical underpinning for vocational pedagogy unless you are prepared to ask and answer some fundamental questions about vocational education. The figure below indicates our line of thinking.
Vocational education in high school: What you need to know
In a quality vocational program, students take all standardized tests and classes their district requires. This makes them eligible for a standard diploma. As part of your research, ask about job placement and what types of colleges the graduates attend. Vocational education in high school can prepare students for high-quality jobs and for college.
PDF Selby Exploring Vocation Essay
Exploring VocationExploring Vocation Finding Your Heart's True CallingFinding Your Heart's True Calling Gary SelbyGary Selby elcome to Pepperdine!
What Is a Vocational School?
Published on June 17, 2020. A vocational school is one that prepares a student for a specific type of job. In other words, a vocational education provides the skills needed for a career in a particular trade or craft. A student who attends a vocational school (sometimes called a trade school) will focus almost entirely on that target career.
The Doctrine of Vocation
The Reformers formulated the doctrine of vocation in response to the Roman Catholic insistence that "vocation" or "calling" was reserved for those entering the service of the church through the priesthood or a monastic order. Those doing so would renounce marriage, secular work, and economic advancement through taking vows of celibacy ...
Full article: The value of vocational education and training
The time has come after eight years to pass the editorial baton to new editors. It is fitting therefore that the papers included here should speak to the value of vocational education and training (VET) and VET research. Issues on this theme continue to be raised and debated frequently in most countries, and in almost all (exceptions being the ...
Vocational school: A complete guide
A vocational school is a good option only if it aligns with your desired career path. You prefer a focused curriculum directly related to your career goals rather than a broad range of general education courses. Vocational programs offer targeted, hands-on training in skills and knowledge relevant to a specific profession.
Holland's Theory of Vocational Choice
Conclusion. Holland's theory of vocational choice is a staple among contemporary career-development professionals' thinking about the world of work and methods of promoting clients' career aims. It is among the most widely researched and applied vocational choice theories. Its longevity and appeal likely relate to its parsimony, its ...
Differences Between Vocational and Academic Study
A widespread view held by many, seems to support the belief that vocational study is a preference for the less able i.e. the non-academic students, while academic study is meant for the students who are more capable of achieving results in an academic environment i.e. studying at university. Choosing a future occupation is a complex challenge ...
Vocational education
The John F. Ross Collegiate Vocational Institute is an institution of vocational learning in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, considered one of the first in the country. Oregon Agricultural College vocational education exhibit at the Oregon State Fair, 1922. Vocational education is education that prepares people for a skilled craft as an artisan, trade as a tradesperson, or work as a technician.
Essay on Importance of Vocational Education (1456 Words)
Importance of Vocational Education. Vocational Education is beneficial not only for the students but for the adults as well. It is because of vocational education that people become more specialized. This later helps people to choose the specific field they want to work later on. By this it becomes easier for the people to choose in which ...
Essay on Vocational Education for Children and Students in English
Essay on Vocational Education - Essay 1 (200 words) Vocational education is the education that trains people to work in various jobs such as technician, trade and craft. It refers to the career and technical education that prepares students for a specific career. The vocational programs provide students with hands-on instruction and training ...
Essay on Vocational Education
Vocational Education Essay 10 Lines (100 - 150 Words) 1) The education that aims to prepare students for jobs is termed as vocational education. 2) Vocational education provides more practical knowledge to the students. 3) It is also referred to as career-oriented technical education. 4) Vocational education helps students in opening more job ...
Vocational well-being
A piece of the well-being puzzle. Vocational wellness is connected to other dimensions of wellness and to the overall level of wellness someone experiences. Having a satisfying work-life positively impacts physical and emotional wellness. Engaging in professional development enhances intellectual wellness. Working collaboratively and positively ...
Does tertiary vocational education beat academic ...
Brunello and Rocco (2017, p. 106) summarize the discussion on differences between the returns to vocational and academic training as follows: "Education economists often point out that individuals with a vocational education face a trade-off between short term benefits and long term costs.In the short term, this type of education facilitates the transition from school to the labour market by ...
Vocational Education Essay 300, 200, 500 Words
Essay on Vocational Education - Essay 1 (200 words) Vocational education is the education that trains people to work in various jobs such as technician, trade and craft. It refers to the career and technical education that allows students to get ready for specific career.
How to identify your career calling (essay)
A calling is when you feel drawn to do a certain type of work and you feel personally and strongly tied to your work. On the other end of the spectrum, someone with a job orientation sees work primarily as a means for financial gain. A career orientation is when you think of work in terms of the next step or the next promotion.
Assessing the Accuracy of IQ Tests
This essay about the debate surrounding IQ tests, discussing their role in assessing cognitive abilities and their limitations. Advocates argue that IQ tests provide a standardized measure of intelligence, aiding in academic and vocational placements. They emphasize the tests' structure and ability to measure various cognitive domains.

Essay on Vocational Education for Students and Children

Benefits of Vocational Training

Growing Need for Vocational Education

FAQs about Essay on Vocational Education

Customize your course in 30 seconds

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Download the App

How to Write an Essay on a Vocation

How to Write a Dissertation Summary

Thesis Statement

Supporting Details

Conclusions

Related Articles

How to Write a Report about a Famous Person

How to Write a Good Personality Essay

How to Make a Strong Argument in an Essay

Types of Introductions in a Research Paper

How Do Reflective Essays Differ From Analytical Essays?

What Is the Credibility Statement in Writing?

How to Write an Essay for an Internship

How to write a humanities paper

Why Should We Care About Vocational Education?

Blue-Collar Stigma in White-Collar Society

Vocational Education Groundswell

What Is a Vocational School?

The Vocational School Experience

What Can You Do With a Vocational School Degree?

The Pros and Cons of Attending Vocational School

Most Popular

U.S. Edition

To All The World

The Doctrine of Vocation

Introduction and Definition

The Three Arenas

The Purpose of Vocation

Vocation as the Mask of God

Further Reading

Custom Writing Services

Holland’s Theory Overview

Practical Applications of Holland’s theory of Vocational Choice

References:

Differences between vocational and academic study

Essay on Importance of Vocational Education (1456 Words)

What do you mean by Vocational Education?

Importance of Vocational Education

Personal experience on the concept of Vocational Education

Reader Interactions

Top Trending Essays in March 2021

Brilliantly

Essay for Students

Scholarships for Students

STAY CONNECTED

Scholarships

Essay on Vocational Education for Children and Students in English

Long and Short Essay on Vocational Education in English

Essay on Vocational Education – Essay 1 (200 words)

Essay on Vocational Education in India – Essay 2 (300 words)

Essay on Importance of Vocational Education – Essay 3 (400 words)

Essay on Growing Need for Vocational Education – Essay 4 (500 words)

Essay on Benefits of Vocational Education – Essay 5 (600 words)

Long Essay on Vocational Education – Essay 6 (800 Words)

Related content

Essay on Vocational Education

Short and Long Essays on Vocational Education in English

Vocational Education Essay 10 Lines (100 – 150 Words)

Essay 1 (250 Words) – Vocational Education

Essay 3 (400 Words) – Vocational Education: Need and Challenges

Essay 3 (500 – 600 Words) – Vocational Education versus Academic Education and Its Benefits

FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions

Related Posts

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

Introduction

Tertiary vocational education in Germany

Previous literature on returns to vocational and academic training

Data, sample and description

Empirical method

Robustness checks

Availability of data and materials

Acknowledgements

Author information