Do Apprenticeships Pay? Evidence for England

Abstract

The importance of apprenticeships for early labour market transitions varies across countries and over time. In recent times, there has been a policy drive to increase the number of people undertaking apprenticeships in England. This is regarded as important for addressing poor productivity. We investigate whether there is a positive return to undertaking an apprenticeship for young people. We use detailed administrative data to track recent cohorts of young school leavers as they transition to the labour market. Our results suggest that apprenticeships lead to a positive average earnings return (at least in the short run), although there is stark variation between sectors. This is an important driver of the gender gap in earnings. © 2020 The Authors. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics published by Oxford University and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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Author Affiliations

Centre for Educational Research, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom

Centre for Educational Research, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, United Kingdom, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom

Funding & Acknowledgements

Economic and Social Research Council, ESRC

Grant: ES/M010341/1, ES/S000097/1

This work has been funded under the CVER programme of research (which is an independent research centre funded by the Department for Education) and the Centre for Economic Performance's \u2018Informing the Industrial Strategy\u2019 project (ESRC ES/S000097/1). This work also draws on work done for the Sutton Trust on the payoff to apprenticeships. We thank participants at seminars and conferences in the following locations: Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex; SFIVET VET Congress in Berne 2017, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham. We thank Stefan Wolter for helpful comments.

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Do Apprenticeships Pay? Evidence for England

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