Modeling Completion of Vocational Education: The Role of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills by Program Type

Abstract

This study provides evidence of the importance of cognitive and noncognitive skills to completion of three types of vocational training (VET): education and health, technical, and business. Math and language exam scores constitute the key measures of cognitive skills; teacher-assigned grades the key measure of noncognitive skills. The data consist of two 9-year panels of youth completing compulsory education in Denmark. Estimation of completion proceeds separately by gender and VET type, controlling for selection and right censoring. The authors find that all skills are inversely related to VET enrollment, even controlling for family-specific effects. Estimates for completion vary considerably by program type, demonstrating the methodological importance of distinguishing among different VET courses. Math scores are positively related to certification for all VET tracks, though with very different magnitudes; language skills are inversely related for the nonbusiness tracks; and noncognitive skills appear important primarily for the business track. © 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.

Keywords

Author Keywords

Vocational education Ability Completion Enrollment vocational certifcation

Index Keywords

Author Affiliations

Department of Economics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, United States

Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus Universitet, Aarhus, Midtjylland, Denmark

Danmarks Institut for Pædagogik og Uddannelse, Copenhagen, Hovedstaden, Denmark

Department of Sociology, Western University, London, ON, Canada

Funding & Acknowledgements

Grant: 2139-08-0020

Thanks to Anders Trolle and James Stratton for research assistance and thanks to seminar participants at the 2015 Society of Labor Economists annual meeting, the 2014 EALE Conference in Ljubljana (especially Anders Stenberg), and the College of William & Mary. The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the Danish Strategic Research Council (grant no. 2139-08-0020).

College of William and Mary, W&M

Thanks to Anders Trolle and James Stratton for research assistance and thanks to seminar participants at the 2015 Society of Labor Economists annual meeting, the 2014 EALE Conference in Ljubljana (especially Anders Stenberg), and the College of William & Mary. The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the Danish Strategic Research Council (grant no. 2139-08-0020).

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Modeling Completion of Vocational Education: The Role of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills by Program Type

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