When people think of New York, Wall Street and Broadway theaters come to mind most often but in fact the New York area is also a major center for higher education. Indeed, the New York metropolitan area is home to more than 240 private colleges and universities employing about 97,000 workers and attracting students and faculty from around the…

How important are subsistence concerns in a family's decision to send a child to work? We consider this question in Ecuador, where poor families are selected at random to receive a cash transfer that is equivalent to 7 percent of monthly expenditures. Winning the cash transfer lottery is associated with a decline in work for pay away from the…

This paper traces the evolution of Australia's apprenticeship and traineeship system since permanent European settlement in 1788. The system was imported from Great Britain; it has evolved and diverged in some areas but retains many of the features of the British model. Most major changes have occurred in the last 25 years. The apprenticeship…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how important the choice of theoretical perspective is on the analyses of empirical data from a Danish case study. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical bases for the analyses are qualitative, longitudinal case studies of school leadership in the International Successful School Principalship…

This paper investigates some of the economic outcomes of education in Pakistan with a view to understanding if education can act as a vehicle for labour market success. Data from a purpose-designed survey of more than 1000 households in Pakistan are utilised. Earnings functions are estimated for agricultural workers, the self-employed and wage…

In most advanced countries, young people are now expected to remain in education until the age of 18 and, in a context of poor opportunities for those who leave at an early stage, there are concerns about those who are being left behind. In this paper we use comparable survey data to focus on the destinations of young people in two contrasting…

Vocational education and training (VET) has in recent years enjoyed a revival for two major reasons. Firstly, it is regarded as a suitable means of promoting economic growth. Secondly, it is seen as a potentially powerful tool for fostering social inclusion. In this review, these assumed effects are critically examined on the basis of the vastly…

This article examines whether rising tuition fees for post-secondary education are a contributing factor in students' labour market decisions. When labour market decisions for total number of working hours and for participation were measured, the results suggested that concerns about increased tuition fees leading to more work and compromising…

Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, has said his three priorities in office will be "localism, localism and localism". What does localism mean for local democracy and, with swingeing funding cuts in the offing, what can one do to ensure the relevance of adult learning to the localism agenda is…

While several types of mental illness, including substance abuse disorders, have been linked with poor labor market outcomes, no current research has been able to examine the effects of childhood ADHD. As ADHD has become one of the most prevalent childhood mental conditions, it is useful to understand the full set of consequences of the illness.…

This report provides a statistical overview of vocational education and training (VET) and lifelong learning in European countries. Data are presented in the form of statistical snapshots, one for each of the 31 selected indicators. To the extent allowed by data availability, data are presented for the 27 European Union (EU) Member States and for…

Following the collapse of the US investment bank Lehmann Brothers in September 2008, the world economy began a downward spiral, with many countries falling into recession. Australia experienced significant stock market losses and unemployment rates began to climb. This briefing paper considers how young people fared in previous downturns and…

This paper proposes a theoretical framework where "within graduates" wage inequality is related to overeducation/educational mismatch in the labor market. We show that wage inequality may arise because of inefficient self-selection into education in the presence of ability-complementary technological progress and asymmetric information…

Using a survey of a cohort of UK graduates, linked to administrative data on higher education participation, this paper investigates the labour market attainment of recent graduates by subject of study. We document a large heterogeneity in the mean wages of graduates from different subjects and a considerably larger one within subject with…

Since 2003, Chinese university students have faced a dangerous level of unemployment after graduation. Current trends indicate that the situation is likely to remain at this level for some time. This article argues that it is difficult to generalize that there has been a decline in the competitiveness of all university students in the job market…