Vocational education and training is good for you: …

The social benefits of VET for individuals

Cedefop (European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training) Research Paper No 17

The Executive Summary is four pages long so I’ve chosen to pick the Foreword for you.

Foreword

The Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth, foresees increasing people’s knowledge, skills and competences as one of the main growth engines to propel Europe out of the present deep economic crisis.

Vocational education and training (VET) plays a central role in Europe’s response to the unparalleled socioeconomic and technological challenges facing it. VET systems have to endow workers with the right mix of skills and competences, as preventing skill shortages will enable Europe to achieve its full growth potential.

To fulfil their role, VET providing institutions will have to reach out to workers and learners of all ages and social backgrounds. The Bruges communiqué recognises that a new impetus for VET in Europe is needed and that a key strategic objective lies in improving the quality and efficiency of VET as well as its attractiveness and relevance to learners.

The magnitude of the economic and social returns associated with it is an important determinant of attractiveness of VET. While there is extensive evidence on the economic returns on education, only a small, but distinguished, set of findings exists on the social returns. Very little is known about the social and economic returns associated specifically with VET.

The present study is part of a wider research effort by Cedefop to fill this knowledge gap. Over the past four years, Cedefop has investigated the social and economic returns on VET for economic systems, workplaces and individuals. This report complements Cedefop’s findings on the economic benefit of VET accruing to individuals, by focusing on wider social benefits such as health, civic participation, and satisfaction with job and income.

This report provides evidence of positive social outcomes generated by VET in terms of increased civic participation and improved health, and that workers in their early career can experience strong positive returns from VET participation. National institutional set-ups are, however, identified as key mediating factors for the realisation of social benefits of VET, i.e. the nature of the social benefits of VET will change depending on the type of system and, hence, according to country. Comparing the social outcomes of continuing vocational training with other types of adult learning (of a general nature) demonstrates that all forms of continuing education and training generate positive social outcomes for individuals and that these are of the same nature and magnitude whatever the type of adult learning.

I trust this research paper, and Cedefop’s work on VET benefits, will help policy-makers in continuing to make the case for increasing the attractiveness of VET among learners of all ages and demonstrating that VET is a crucial pillar of European productivity growth and social cohesion.

Christian F. Lettmayr
Acting Director of Cedefop

Full paper (PDF 116pp)

Despite the length of this paper I believe that it is worth reading in full. If you really can't face that then do, please, read the Executive Summary.

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