Attractiveness is in the eye of the beholder

Russo, Giovanni; Serafini, Marco; Ranieri, Antonio

doi:10.1186/s40461-019-0082-2

Empirical Research in Vocational Education and Training

Table 8 The effect of VET on social positioning on the whole sample and by broad age group. Weighted data, OLS (clustered standard error in brackets)

From: Attractiveness is in the eye of the beholder

	Whole sample
(Perceived) quality of education (latent)	0.018 [0.032]
(Perceived) labour market outcomes (latent)	0.071 [0.030]^a
VET enables people to continue to higher education
Tend to agree	− 0.023 [0.036]
Tend to disagree	− 0.011 [0.045]
Totally disagree	− 0.073 [0.110]
Don’t know	− 0.266 [0.082]^a
VET does not provide soft skills
Tend to agree	− 0.016 [0.039]
Tend to disagree	− 0.086 [0.069]
Totally disagree	− 0.060 [0.066]
Don’t know	− 0.167 [0.102]
VET does not lead to well-regarded jobs
Tend to agree	0.063 [0.056]
Tend to disagree	0.104 [0.046]^a
Totally disagree	0.131 [0.072]
Don’t know	0.112 [0.079]
Likelihood of finding a job (relative to people with general education)
Equally likely	0.075 [0.034]^a
Less likely	0.072 [0.049]
Don’t know	− 0.146 [0.114]
Being accepted in VET (relative to general education)
Slightly easier	0.029 [0.043]
No difference	− 0.096 [0.066]
Slightly more difficult	0.000 [0.046]
Much more difficult	− 0.141 [0.112]
Don’t know	− 0.123 [0.097]
Education
ISCED level 1	0.025 [0.114]
ISCED level 2	0.140 [0.109]
ISCED level 3	0.350 [0.134]^a
ISCED level 4	0.470 [0.143]^a
ISCED level 5	0.628 [0.158]^a
ISCED level 6	1.192 [0.116]^a
Don’t know	0.441 [0.113]^a
Attended VET (recently or in the past)	− 0.066 [0.027]^a
Father’s education
General secondary education	0.194 [0.031]^a
Vocational education and training	0.178 [0.044]^a
Higher education	0.248 [0.063]^a
Refusal	0.018 [0.309]
Don’t know	0.081 [0.063]
Difficulties in making ends meet
From time to time	0.670 [0.132]^a
Almost never/never	1.319 [0.150]^a
Refusal	0.835 [0.142]^a
Woman	0.018 [0.027]
Age class
25–34	− 0.166 [0.078]^a
35–44	− 0.186 [0.075]^a
45–54	− 0.127 [0.058]^a
55–64	− 0.037 [0.104]
65+	− 0.014 [0.083]
Number of persons in the household
2	0.097 [0.055]
3	0.219 [0.061]^a
4	0.234 [0.054]^a
Current labour market position
Manager	0.039 [0.059]
Other white collar	− 0.176 [0.077]^a
Manual worker	− 0.316 [0.071]^a
House person	− 0.439 [0.083]^a
Unemployed	− 0.681 [0.092]^a
Retired	− 0.465 [0.111]^a
Student	− 0.199 [0.137]
Area
Small or middle size town	0.002 [0.045]
Large town	0.165 [0.079]^a
Don’t know	− 0.351 [0.134]^a
Country dummies	Yes
Constant	4.419 [0.334]^a
Number of observations	20,055
R squared	0.279

^aSignificant at 5%. The reference group of the variable is in parentheses: Vet does not lead to well-regarded jobs (totally agree), Education (no education), VET enables people to go on to university (totally agree), VET does not provide students with soft skills (totally agree), likelihood of VET graduates finding a job compared to GE graduates (more likely), ease of being accepted on a VET course (much easier), age group (15 to 24), current occupation (self-employed), Father’s Education (no education), Difficulties in making ends meet (most of the time), Area (rural area), and number of people in the household (1 person)

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