The Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant represented an unprecedented investment by the federal government in integrated postsecondary education and workforce training offered primarily by community and technical colleges. Between 2011 and 2018, 256 grants totaling nearly $2 billion were awarded through…

There is a lack of distinction and definition around how the vocational education and training (VET) sector in Australia might effectively recruit and retain suitably qualified teachers, trainers and assessors. The logic is clear: in order to enable and develop an immediate pool of competent and qualified workers for new and developing industries,…

A large body of research, especially from the 1990s, demonstrates the positives of Career and Technical Education (CTE). The research shows that associate degree holders enjoyed average earnings 20-30 percent higher than high school graduates (while baccalaureate degree holders had average earnings 30-40 percent higher than those of high-school…

The most prominent theories of unemployment that have emerged since 1960 are search, disequilibrium, implicit contracts, efficiency wage, and insider/outsider models. Search models assume that it takes time and effort for employers and potential employees to find each other. A "partial-partial" equilibrium approach focuses on one side of…

Economic data comparing apprenticeship to full-time vocational education and to the youth labor market suggests that, in advanced economies, apprenticeship is a source of more stable employment for young male adults. Its value for females is low in some countries. (SK)

This document, a review of labor market effects of human capital, focuses on two related topics. Part I describes the following early findings of the research on effects of education and job training on the wage structure, labor turnover, and unemployment: decline of training with experience, positive and significant effects of training on length…

A recent study showed that high school students who are not planning to attend college full time should combine vocational and academic course work to maximize their success in the labor market. In a study of non-college bound youth (based on the High School and Beyond Survey data) that examined the impact of high school curriculum, grades, and…

This bulletin examines the labor market experience of youth in the United States and eight other industrial countries from the early 1960s to the late 1970s. The analysis focuses upon unemployment, the most visible and measurable form of labor underutilization. The report highlights the size of the youth unemployment problem and discusses some of…

A survey of over 3,800 employers found that school-provided vocational training was required for 9.5 percent of the jobs studied and "important but not required" for another 37.9 percent. In this study, new employees with relevant vocational education exhibited these characteristics: (1) were 6.5 percent more productive 6 to 36 months after being…

Based on data concerning disabilities that were obtained from the 1981 and 1982 Current Population Surveys (CPS), it appears that the average working-aged disabled American is about 50 years old, has a high school education, is not in the labor force, and subsists on a low level of income. Also evident is the fact that disability is much more…

What is known about proprietary schools and their effects on wages and earnings is summarized, with particular attention to aid to proprietary school students and student characteristics. Overall, findings provide little support for proprietary schools. One implication is that assumptions necessary for student loans are not met. (SLD)

A study of the training opportunities of high school graduates (about 825,000 in 1988) who work immediately after leaving school identified which members of that group get trained, by whom, and with what earnings consequences, based on the experiences of a sample of graduates from their graduation in 1972 until 1986. The following are among the…

A literature review was conducted to determine the impact of secondary vocational education on females. Literature on the following topics was reviewed: women in the labor market (wages and occupations, the role of women's wages in family income, and the future labor market); the vocational education system (issues and problems in vocational…

The principal justification for the federal government's long-term and substantial support of vocational education programs is the need to provide opportunities for American workers, particularly those without marketable skills from lower income and minority families, to develop job-related skills. In recent decades, Congress has enacted several…

After more than three decades of development and two decades of evaluation, career academies have been found to be effective in improving the performance of students in high school, particularly for students at greatest risk. Career academies have become the most durable and best-tested component of a high school reform strategy that includes…