A Roadmap to Vocational Education and Training Systems Around the World

46 Pages Posted: 12 Jan 2013 Last revised: 16 Apr 2023

See all articles by Werner Eichhorst

Werner Eichhorst

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Núria Rodríguez-Planas

City University New York (CUNY), Queens College; University of Barcelona - Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB)

Ricarda Schmidl

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Klaus F. Zimmermann

Global Labor Organization (GLO); UNU-MERIT; Maastricht University, Department of Economics; Free University Berlin; University of Bonn; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); Journal of Population Economics

Abstract

With young people among the big losers of the recent financial crisis, vocational education and training (VET) is often seen as the silver bullet to the problem of youth joblessness. This paper provides a better understanding of VET around the world, dealing with three types of vocational systems: school-based education, a dual system in which school-based education is combined with firm-based training, and informal training. We first explore the motivation for these different types of training, before summarizing the institutional evidence, highlighting the key elements of each training system and discussing its main implementation strengths and challenges. We subsequently review the evidence on the effectiveness of VET versus general education and between the three VET systems.There are clear indications that VET is a valued alternative beyond the core of general education, while the dual system tends to be more effective than school-based VET. Informal training is effective, however relatively little is known of its relative strengths compared with other forms of vocational education.

Keywords: informal training, dual VET, vocational education and training

JEL Classification: J24, I25, O17

Suggested Citation

Eichhorst, Werner and Rodriguez-Planas, Nuria and Schmidl, Ricarda and Zimmermann, Klaus F., A Roadmap to Vocational Education and Training Systems Around the World. IZA Discussion Paper No. 7110, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2199793 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2199793

Werner Eichhorst (Contact Author)

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Nuria Rodriguez-Planas

City University New York (CUNY), Queens College ( email )

65-30 Kissena Blvd
Flushing, NY 11367-1597
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://sites.google.com/site/nuriarodriguezplanas/

University of Barcelona - Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB) ( email )

c/ Tinent Coronel Valenzuela, 1-11
Barcelona, 08034
Spain

Ricarda Schmidl

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Klaus F. Zimmermann

Global Labor Organization (GLO) ( email )

Bonn
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://https://glabor.org/

UNU-MERIT ( email )

Keizer Karelplein 19
Maastricht, 6211TC
Netherlands

Maastricht University, Department of Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 616
Maastricht, Limburg 6200MD
Netherlands

University of Bonn

Postfach 2220
Bonn, D-53012
Germany

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

Journal of Population Economics

Tiergartenstr. 17
D-69121 Heidelberg
Germany

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
2,072
Abstract Views
5,586
Rank
14,090
PlumX Metrics