Time to first significant job for vocational graduates in Spain

ABSTRACT

In this paper we analyze the transition from vocational education to a first significant job for Spanish young people. The data comes from the Survey on Education and Labor Market Transitions, targeting various collectives who finished their non-university studies. Discrete duration models are estimated to identify the determinants of the time-to-first significant job. The main results show that, contrary to what is expected, there are no significant differences for students graduating in intermediate or in advanced vocational training. Nonetheless, vocational education is characterized by a high specialization by gender, which is translated into differences in the transition to employment. Furthermore, previous professional experience in precarious jobs does not improve access to quality employment, whereas internships performed within studies, when evaluated by the young as satisfactory, have a positive impact. Other subjective aspects, such as a high value assigned to work or family or a priority focused on achieving a stable job lead to a smoother school-to-work transition.

KEYWORDS:

• Vocational education
• school-to-work transition
• first significant job
• discrete time duration model
• human capital

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• J24
• I21
• C41

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Helena Corrales-Herrero http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6256-021X

Notes

1. The definition of the first significant job was introduced by Eurostat in ad-hoc module included in the European Labor Force Survey in 2000.

2. Variations of the log-rank test, derived by applying different weights at the jth failure time, such as Wilcoxon-Breslow, Tanore-Ware and Peto-Peto tests have also been performed. All of them lead to the rejection of the null hypothesis of equality by gender.

3. We do not incorporate simultaneously the level of education of both parents because they are highly correlated and lead to serious problems of multicollinearity. We differentiated between ‘elementary education or below’ and ‘more than elementary education’ since compulsory education in the preceding educational system was until 14 years old (elementary education).

4. Various factors may explain the extent and persistence of these divergences in the Spanish regions, such as diverse sectorial specialization, geographical peculiarities and different social and human capital. The areas defined are South (Andalucía, Murcia and Canarias), East (Cataluña, Comunidad Valenciana and Baleares), Center (Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla-León and Extremadura), Northeast (País Vasco, Navarra, La Rioja y Aragón), Northwest (Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria) and Madrid.

5. In this respect, vast empirical literature exists which shows that Spain has suffered a problem of over-education, mainly in the services sector, involving many young people with a university degree in jobs which require less qualifications (Dolado, Felgueroso, and Jimeno 2000; Budría and Moro-Egido 2008).

6. The main results can be summarized by important differences by professional fields attended. Whereas females display faster integration only within more service oriented vocational tracks, males show a more diverse pattern. In particular, for them, manufacturing, building and agricultural specializations perform better in the transition to a first significant job.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Andalusian Government (Junta de Andalucía) [grant number P09-SEJ-4859].