Does pre‐vocational education work?

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Abstract
Whether pre‐vocational education improves young people's prospects in the labour market and whether it should have a place in the school curriculum at all have been at the centre of a long‐standing debate in education. This study supplements data from the ESRC 16‐19 Initiative to address these questions. In the core study of the 16‐19 Initiative, over three and a half thousand young people in two cohorts (aged 15–16 and 17‐18) selected from school records in three British towns, Swindon, Sheffield and Liverpool, were followed up with annual questionnaire enquiries for two years. The schools they attended were contacted about their vocational education policies, and classified in terms of vocational emphasis. Analysis of the data relating curriculum emphasis to labour‐market outcomes showed that the most vocationally oriented schools were catering for the early leavers and that boys were benefiting marginally in getting full‐time jobs at 16 years. Curriculum experience differed for these leavers with more exposure to administrative and clerical subjects and computing, but other than a slightly stronger commitment to work, there was no significant difference in their values. The findings are discussed in relation to others from TVEI evaluations and some conclusions are drawn about the place of pre‐vocational education in the 11‐18 curriculum.

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