Rewards to Young People for Education and Training

Author(s):

Johanna Lahja Lasonen

Conference:

ECER 2008

Network:

2. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

02 SES 04B, VET Systems, Reforms and International Development (Part 2)

Paper Session

Time:

2008-09-10

16:00-17:30

Room:

BE 015

Chair:

Ludger Deitmer

Contribution

Earlier empirical and theoretical analyses have showed that the occupations have been ranked on the bases on the rewards of an occupation and its value to society. The classification of occupations has been a part of stratification research. Ganzeboom and Treiman (1996, p. 202) indicated that “… the division of labour is the kernel of social inequality and occupation therefore is the main dimension of social stratification …. stratification researchers have developed ways to derive status measures from information of occupations.” Three main international measures of occupational status: Treiman’s Stanrdard International Occupational Prestige Scale (SIOPS) (Treiman 1977), International Socio-Economic Index of Occupational Status (ISEI) (Ganzeboom, Graaf, and Treiman 1992), and Erikson and Goldthorpe’s class categories (EGP) (Erikson and Goldthorpe !992) have been used to develop a Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO68 and ISCO88) by the International Labor Office (ILO) of the United Nations. Assessments of prestige involve considerations of economic reward (Hope 1982). She used regression analyses to analyse the variance of each vector of occupational assessment and to estimate the regression of its social standing. The findings suggested that there exists a normative consensus. However, this consensus showed weak relation to prestige in its traditional sense. “The traditional prestige which bolsters the elite is a fragile thing, whereas the normative consensus on occupational prestige may constitute an important source of legitimacy of the distribution of social reward” (Hope 1982, p. 1011). Improving attractiveness of VET has been an education and training policy goal since the 1990a in European Union. It is assumed that the esteem of VET in a given system is assessed as equal compared to academic education under the following conditions: (a) VET achieves a high esteem in terms of the determining factors of education systems, curricula development and labour market. (b) VET enjoys a high esteem over a major portion of upper secondary education. (c) High esteem relates to public esteem. The study analyses the recent statistics and research results in attractiveness of VET by searching answers to the following questions: • To what extent have European counties progressed towards parity of esteem between vocational and general/academic education in terms of enrolment, destinations, between genders as well as between different ethnic groups? • To what extent do some indicators of attractiveness in education and training differ between the EU-27 countries? • Which factors contribute to the attractiveness of VET?

Method

A comparative method based on analysing existing statistical data, the EU 27 countries’ official reports to the European Commission and research results is used among European Union Member States. In international comparisons, especially for VET, the EUROSTAT statistics and OECD indicators provide an overview on a rather general level.

Expected Outcomes

In more than half of the 37 countries the students enrol in vocational education programmes at the ISCED 3 levels. In EU-27 countries as well as in candidate and EEA/EFTA countries, vocational education programmes are more popular among male students than among females except in Sweden, the United Kingdom and Ireland. When comparing the popularity of VET by European country clusters we can see that among the EU-15 countries this popularity has risen steadily in this decade and, especially, strongly among male students. At the same time the popularity of academically oriented programmes has slightly decreased, and in 2004 statistics this trend was strongest among the EU-15 countries. In contrast, among the ten new EU countries VET has steadily lost popularity in years 2000-2004, and most strongly among female students. In seventeen out of 35 countries (missing data from Malta and the United Kingdom) more than 50% of upper secondary education students graduate from VET programmes in Europe. There are considerable differences between the unemployment rates for youths (15–24-year-olds) and for adults (25–64-year-olds). On average, youth unemployment (age below 25) has stayed relatively on the same level during years 2000-2005. Youth unemployment seems to be a common challenge in European countries. According to the statistics for 2005, the youth unemployment rate (range 7.9%-38.6%) is in many countries two- or even three-fold compared to unemployment among the older age group (25–64 years; range 1.7%–15.15%). For most countries, the unemployment rate seems to be the lower the higher is the education level. This can be seen in the statistics for individual countries as well as in the group averages of EU-25, EU-15, and EEA-28 countries. An exception to this pattern concerns highly educated women in the Czech Republic, Germany, and Spain. Investing in education brings rewards both to the individual and to society. Better education increases the probability of employment and higher income, although this connection varies between different countries and education levels. Especially women without an upper secondary education have much poorer employment prospects than men who have completed such education. Employment is particularly unlikely among women with a low education level, when compared to low-education men or high-education women (OECD 2006). The future generations may assess educational provision by the kinds of options it offers them with respect to self-fulfilment and identity construction over the span of lifelong learning. The focus of discussion should be shifted from the division between different forms of schooling over to diverse learning environments.

References

Erikson, R. & Goldthorpe, J.H. (1992). The constant flux: A study of class mobility in industrial societies. Oxford, UK: Clarendon. European Commission. (2005). Keydata 2005. Brussels: Eurydice. European Commission (2005). Modernizing education and training: a vital contribution to prosperity and social cohesion in Europe. COM(2005) 549 final/2. Brussels, 30.11.2005. http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/2010/doc/progressreport06_en.pdf European Commission (2005). Vocational training. Special Eurobarometer 216. Brussels: Author European Commission. (2006a). Qualiy assurance in teacher education in Europe. Brussels: Eurydice. European Commission (2006b). Progress towards the Lisbon objectives in education and training. Report based on indicators and benchmarks. SEC(2006) 639. Brussels 16.5.2006 European Commission (2007). Indicators for monitoring the Employment Guidelines. 2006 compedium. Brussels: European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Eurostat. (2006). Database in Population and Social Conditions: Education and Training. [Online available 10.02.2007]. http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page?_pageid=1996,45323734&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL&screen=welcomeref&close=/popul/edtr/educ&language=en&product=EU_MAIN_TREE&root=EU_MAIN_TREE&scrollto=342 . Ganzeboom, H.B.G. & Treiman, D. J. (1996). Internationally comparable measures of occupational status for the 1988 International Standard Classification of Occupations. Social Science Research, 25, 201-239. Ganzeboom, H.B.G., De Graaf, P.M., & Treiman, D.J. (1992). A standard international socio-economic index of occupational status. Social Science Research, 25, 1-56. 1992. Iannelli, C. (2002). Parental education and young people’s educational and labour market outcomes. In I. Kogan, & W. Müller (eds.), School-to- work transitions in Europe: Analyses of the EULFS 2000 Ad hoc Module. (pp. 5-29). Mannheim: Mannheimer Zentrum f¨r Europääische Sozialforschung. Lasonen, J & Gordon, J. (forthcoming). Improving the attractiveness and image of VET. In Cedefop (ed.) Modernising vocational education and training. Fourth report on vocational training research in Europe: background report. Luxembourg: Publication Office. (Cedefop reference series). Available on Internet as working document: http://www.trainingvillage.gr/etv/Projects_Networks/ResearchLab/forthcoming.asp. Lasonen, J. & Manning, S. (2000). Transnational comparisons of parity of esteem between vocational and general education. International Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 8(1-2), 7-21. OECD. (2005). Education at Glance. Paris: OECD. OECD. (2006). Education at Glance. Paris: OECD. Treiman, D. (1977). Occupational prestige in comparative perspective. New York: Academic Press. Wolbers, M. (2002). Job mismatches and their labour market effects among school-leavers in Europe. In I. Kogan, & W. Müller (eds.), School-to- work transitions in Europe: Analyses of the EULFS 2000 Ad hoc Module. (pp. 61-90). Mannheim: Mannheimer Zentrum für Europäische Sozialforschung.

Author Information

Johanna Lahja Lasonen

University of Jyväskylä

Institute for Educational Research