We would like to invite you to the Empirical Seminar series organized by the Institute of Economic Research, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Šancová 56 that will be held in hybrid form (online and at the library of the Institute of Economic Research, Slovak Academy of Sciences). The seminar will take place on March 19th, 2025 at 11.00 (CET).
The speaker will be Katarína Zigová (Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich, Switzerland).
The topic of the seminar is: Vocational Education and Job-Skill Match: Lessons from European Skill Surveys
Authors: Katarína Zigová – Caroline Neuber-Pohl – Giovanni Russo – Giulia Santangelo
Abstract:
Vocational education aims to equip students with a mix of general, occupational, and firm-specific skills—skills that are directly relevant to the “world of work”. In this paper, we investigate whether workers with a vocational background have an advantage in securing jobs that match their skills. We assess this by estimating the effect of vocational education on skill mismatch, using three different European skill surveys, each providing a unique perspective on skills. These surveys allow us to construct multiple self-reported measures of mismatch. In most cases, we find that vocationally educated workers perceive, on average, a lower degree of mismatch compared to those with general education. Examining the mechanisms behind this effect, we find that the lower mismatch is perceived already earlier in their careers and is largely driven by vocational education systems that have stronger linkages to the labour market. To gain further insights, we apply several recent methods to measure actual mismatch and demonstrate that vocational workers are at least on par with generally educated workers in terms of actual skills.
The seminar will be co-chaired by Filip Ostrihoň.
Link: