The Middle East and North Africa region has the world's lowest returns to education. This paper examines what the value of a degree is using nationally representative labour market surveys from Egypt (2012), Jordan (2010) and Tunisia (2014). Specifically, the authors estimate Mincer models for levels and years of schooling. They find that returns…

The aim of this study was to investigate the status of equal opportunity in education and employment in Saudi Arabia. Analyses of existing data show that the country has made a remarkable progress in educational enrollment at all levels (K-12 and higher education). However, challenges remain in terms of academic achievement for males,…

OECD data show that in some countries the earnings of workers with tertiary vocational education are lower than those of workers with secondary education, in particular for the 25-34 years age group. Israel is one of those countries, and in this study we extend the analysis of this apparent anomaly using a quantitative methodology of multiple…

In this paper, we analyse the effects of workers' self-rated attitudinal skills and their performance on vocational skills tests on their wage. The survey was conducted with garment workers who had experience of less than three years in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The constituting elements of attitudinal skills were examined using the questionnaire for…

This paper engages with current debate on the role of the university following COVID-19, exposing the ongoing corruption of traditional values of the tertiary sector, and the shift in teaching and learning expectations across the academy. It highlights the negative impact of the huge decline in government funding since the 1990s, salary inequity,…

This paper explores whether training programs were effective in improving labor market performance of individuals, in particular wages and employment probability, in South Korea. The regression analyses using the data from Korean respondents in the Program for the International Assessment of Adults Competencies (PIAAC) survey show the strong…

In Canada, immigrants represented more than half of the population in the prime working ages with at least a bachelor's degree in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields of study in 2016. They accounted for three-quarters of engineering and computer science graduates with a master's or doctorate degree. This paper…

In-work training is generally regarded as beneficial for employees and in Britain it continues to offer significant gains in earnings. However, little previous research has tested whether training also leads to higher levels of job satisfaction or 'happiness'. Employers need to retain trained employees in order to make training cost-effective, but…

Purpose: The aim of this study is to evaluate five job qualification programs for young apprentices, in Goiás, a Brazilian State. We expect to contribute to the improvement and strengthening of the job training programs in developing countries. Design/methodology/approach: We applied propensity score matching and extensions such as the generalized…

Changes in wages and other job characteristics during an individual's career are often the result of job mobility. Using a sample of Bavarian university graduates, this work analyses the effects that employer changes have on men's and women's wages. For this, employer changes are grouped into three categories in order to account for different…

Policy makers expect increasing numbers of PhDs to find employment in the private sector. However, the incentive structure for completing a PhD and subsequently seeking private sector employment has not been adequately assessed in the literature. This paper investigates the financial incentives for this career choice of recent Danish PhD…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a measure of soft skills suitable for use in a large survey of Australian adolescents. Design/methodology/approach: A survey was conducted with N = 4,704 Australians aged 15-19 over 2 years. Principal components analysis was performed on 14 self-report items, followed by generalised linear mixed…

Vice-chancellor salaries have been a topic of media interest and scholarly research for decades. In recent years, however, the media's interest and criticism of vice-chancellors' salaries has escalated, as negativity surrounding university performance and administration has led to a significant increase in articles concerning these matters. This…

Education is key to development strategies in Africa. We use overeducation and undereducation to analyse the effectiveness of education in preparing individuals for employment in Kenya and Ghana, using the Skills Towards Employment and Productivity Survey. Systematic differences in wages between matched, overeducated and undereducated workers hold…

Industry reports show that fresh engineering and non-engineering graduates from Indian universities are not readily employable. The Government-owned Andhra Pradesh Information Technology Academy (APITA) seeks to equip graduates from the state's degree and engineering colleges with industry-relevant skill sets for gainful employment. This study…