CHAPTER 19

Vocational Secondary Education, Tracking, and Social Stratification

Yossi SHAVIT

WALTER MULLER

INTRODUCTION

Most secondary school systems maintain a distinction between acadeniiic and vocational edu­cation. The specifics may vary from place to place, but in most countries academic education prepares students for college or for a university whereas vocational education prepares them for immediate entry into the labor market. Some sociologists consider such tracking an aspect of the social organization of education that differentiates the life chances of the various social classes. They argue that whereas middle-class and upper class children attend tracks that lead through higher education to the professions, lower class children are more likely to be placed in vocational tracks that reduce their chances to attend a university later on, and that divert them from the more desirable occupations in the labor market (e.g., Shavit, 1990b). Some proponents of this approach would support the abolition of vocational education at the sec­ondary level altogether, arguing that it teaches skills that can easily be acquired on the job rather than through schooling.

This perspective ignores the positive role that vocational education can play in shaping the life chances of its graduates. By focusing primarily on the process by which people gain entry to the most prestigious occupations and on the admittedly negative role of vocational education in this regard, they fail to notice that vocational education can reduce the likelihood of unemployment and of employment in the least desirable jobs.

YOSSI SHAVIT • Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel 69978 WALTER MULLER • Department of Sociology, University of Mannheim, Mannheim D-68131, Germany

Handbook of the Sociology of Education, edited by Maureen T. Hallinan. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York, 2000.

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438 Yossi Shavit and Walter MuUer

This chapter is based on the assumption that the role of education in general, and of vocational education in particular, in the stratification process varies in accordance with its institutional context. It is organized as follows. We first outline the theoretical debate con­cerning the role of tracking and of vocational secondary education. This is followed by a brief discussion of the literature on the labor market outcomes of vocational secondary education. We then summarize the recent literature on the institutional characteristics of educational systems in an attempt to identify those characteristics that determine whether vocational edu­cation is a diversion from rewarding occupations or is a valuable safety net that reduces the risks of unemployment and of employment as unskilled labor. Following that, we summarize the results of an international comparative study that shows that in countries where vocational education provides an effective safety net, it also diverts students from prestigious occupa­tions and that in other countries it does neither. The final section provides a summary of the chapter and lists some prevalent methodological shortcomings of research in the area.

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION: A DIVERSION OR A SAFETY NET?

Many educational systems are faced with a dilemma: on the one hand, they wish to equalize the life chances of their students, whereas on the other hand, they are expected to prepare them for positions in a differentiated labor market. The equalization of life chances requires that students be taught similar curricula in integrated classrooms and schools and experience simi­lar educational environments. By contrast, the preparation of young people for the differentiated labor market requires a differentiation of the educational experience. The labor market re­quires a multiplicity of specific occupational skills corresponding to the many occupations that must be manned by cohorts entering the labor market. The preparation of young people for the labor market requires that curricula be differentiated to suit the diverse occupational destinations of students. The dilemma stems from the fact that the differentiation of curricula by type of skill requires tracking, namely, the differentiation of the student body into distinct groups experiencing different educational environments and leading to different social destinations. Educational systems that offer both academic and vocational training are necessarily tracked.

Scholars are divided between those who view the phenomenon primarily as a matter of vocational training and labor market preparation and those who view it as "tracking," namely the hierarchical differentiation of students into qualitatively distinct groups. Members of the first group perceive vocational education primarily through the prism of human capital theory, which assumes that skills, whether they be vocational or academic in nature, improve one's economic prospects in the labor market (Becker, 1975). These authors (e.g., Bishop, 1989; Blossfield, 1992; Rumberger & Daymont, 1984) assume that vocational education equips students with skills that can enhance their productivity on the job. Therefore, vocationally trained workers are in demand and their chances of gaining employment and decent wages are enhanced, compared to the chances of untrained workers.

The second group of scholars (e.g., Oakes, 1985; Shavit 1990a) draw on theories of class reproduction (Bowles & Gintis, 1976) and social exclusion (e.g., Collins, 1979; Parkin, 1979) and argue that tracking is a mechanism for the reproduction of social inequality across genera­tions. Studies in numerous countries have shown that tracking impedes equality of educational and occupational opportunity. Lower class students are typically placed in lower tracks that, in turn, reduces their chances of attending a university and of subsequently entering the pro­fessions and other high-prestige occupations (e.g., Gamoran & Mare 1989; lannelli, 1997; Shavit, 1990b).

Vocational Secondary Education, Tracking, and Social Stratification 439

Vocational tracks inhibit further educational attainment in several ways. First, attending a class alongside highly motivated and academically successful students enhances ones own chances of success (Coleman, et al., 1966; Hallinan & Williams, 1990). Because vocational tracks are usually attended by academically weaker students, they are deprived of the benefi­cial effect of a more favorable milieu. Second, vocational tracks offer a more restricted cur­riculum (Gamoran, 1987; Oakes, 1985) and their students are less likely to take advanced courses. Third, in the less selective tracks, less time is devoted to actual instruction (Oakes, 1985), and instruction is conducted at a lower level of intellectual complexity (Metz, 1978). Consequently, students in the lower tracks learn less than those in the upper tracks and are less likely to succeed in college admission tests. Fourth, being placed in a lower track or ability group signals to students that they are less worthy, which in turn dampens both their expecta­tions of what they can achieve and their aspirations for the future (Vanfossen, Jones, & Spade, 1987). Thus, vocational track placement at the secondary level reduces students' chances of continuing on to college.

Bowles and Gintis (1976) argued that tracking contributes to the reproduction of class inequality by differentiating the socialization of the different social classes. Students of work­ing-class origins typically attend vocational tracks where they are socialized in accordance with the values that correspond to those that will shape their lives as members of the prole­tariat. Academic tracks, in contrast, socialize their predominantly middle-class students in accordance with the values of managerial and professional occupations.

Proponents of the critical approach to vocational education tend to downplay the rel­evance of school knowledge for job performance and argue that occupationally relevant skills are acquired primarily on the job. They often cite the Signaling Theory (Spence, 1974; Thurow, 1975), which alleges that schools are simply sorters and signalers, with school performance being an indicator of various characteristics of job applicants. Good students are assumed to be hard working, disciplined, intelligent and, most important, fast learners of new skills. In their attempt to cut training costs, employers hope to recruit fast-learning employees. Voca­tional qualifications may signal to them that the job applicant has a low aptitude, or is a troublemaker, for why else would he or she have attended a vocational track rather than an academic one?

It is important to point out that this critique of vocational education is presented from a decidedly middle-class perspective. It evaluates vocational education from the point of view of its effects on university attendance and on the chances of finding prestigious occupations when entering the labor market. However, the effect of vocational education on the opportuni­ties of its students should also be evaluated by the extent to which it serves as a safety net that reduces the probability of unemployment and of employment in the lowest paying jobs (Arum & Shavit, 1995). From the point of view of working-class youths these are real risks, and educational alternatives should be evaluated according to their effectiveness in re­ducing them.

Several American studies evaluated the effects of vocational education on these and other labor market outcomes, and reported significant, if small, effects. Hotchkiss and Dorsten (1987) found statistically significant effects of vocational high school curricula on various early ca­reer outcomes such as unemployment, occupational prestige, and earnings. Similarly, Rumberger and Daymont (1984) found that the accumulation of both academic and vocational credits increases the chances of employment, reduces the duration of unemployment, and increases earnings. Bishop (1989) found that vocational courses increase the earnings and the chance of employment for men and women. Arum and Shavit (1995) found that although vocational education reduces the likelihood of students attending postsecondary education and subse-

440 Yossi Shavlt and Walter Miiller

quently of finding employment in the professions and in managerial occupations, it also reduces the risk of unemployment and increases the chances of employment as skilled workers.

The effects of vocational education on the future attainments of students appear to vary consistently between men and women, with women benefiting more from it than men. Analyz­ing the High School and Beyond data set, Lewis, Heam, and Zilbert (1993) found that com­pared with secondary education, postsecondary vocational programs relatively enhance the mean future earnings of their students. However, the effects were much more pronounced for women than for men.

Using the same data set, Arum and Shavit (1995) examined the effects of various voca­tional programs on the occupational attainment of men and women. They found that voca­tional programs play a doubly important role for women. Vocational business programs, where women are largely concentrated, enhance the likelihood of finding routine nonmanual em­ployment, whereas trade and technical programs, which have a smaller number of women enrolled in them, provide a path into skilled manual occupations, which are still sex-typed as masculine occupations.

In their exhaustive review of the empirical literature on vocational education and training in the United States, Boesel and his associates (Boesel, Hudson, Deich, & Masten, 1994; chapter 6) found consistent differences between men and women. Vocationally trained women had higher income and better employment chances than both their male counterparts and women who had attained comparable levels of academic education. The advantages are most pro­nounced for women who had attended vocational education in business, in health, and in home economics, the traditional fields of training for women. Because these are traditional fields of employment for women, training in them is often relevant to job requirements, and therefore, it enhances earnings.

The quality of training that vocational programs offer is another factor that accounts for the differences in the effects of vocational education. Arum (1997) showed that financial support for vocational programs varies greatly between states. Differences between states in the level of funding is strongly related to differences between them in the degree to which vocational education affects labor market outcomes such as income and the chances of being employed. In states such as California and New York, which invest less resources in these programs, enrollment in vocational programs decreases an individual's likelihood of doing well in the labor market. However, in states that spend more on these programs, such as Penn­sylvania and Michigan, enrollment in vocational programs dramatically improves student out­comes.

The effectiveness of vocational education also varies by its specificity and relevance to employers', requirements. Boesel and his associates (1994) stated that

[D]espite the mixed results regarding overall returns to secondary vocational education there is evidence of beneficial employment outcomes whenever students find jobs related to their field of study. The strongest, most consistent finding throughout the literature is that improved earnings do accrue in situations where vocational training is directly related to job tasks, (p. 137)

They also found that

. . . Students who concentrate in a single area of course work have better economic outcomes than those who take courses in a variety of subjects . . . The effects of course concentration . . . appear to influence outcomes via the link between training and related jobs. That is, taking more courses in a major subject pays off only if work is in a related field, (p. 139)

These findings would put into question the view, cited earlier, that vocational education is of little relevance to job performance and is not rewarded in the labor market. In fact, they are

Vocational Secondary Education, Tracking, and Social Stratification 441

consistent with the view that employers prefer workers who have specific vocational skills that are relevant to the requirements of their jobs, presumably because such workers require less on-the-job training and can be productive soon after they are hired. As we show in the following section, this view is also supported by the results of an international comparative research on the effects of vocational education on occupational outcomes.

INTERNATIONAL VARIATIONS

The literature cited previously suggests that the extent to which vocational education enhances the future attainments of its students varies. It tends to be greater for women than for men, and it is related to the specificity of the curriculum and to its relevance for job performance. It is also greater in states that invest more heavily in their vocational education programs. In the present section we focus on international differences in the effects of vocational education on occupational attainment.

In recent years, we have seen a new wave of comparative international studies on varia­tions in the role of education in the process of stratification. (For an excellent review, see Kerckhoff, 1995.) This literature builds on, and extends, the agenda of an earlier wave of research that has been stimulated by Turner's (1960) typological distinction between the American and the British educational systems. Studies in the earlier wave (e.g., Kerckhoff, 1974; Treiman & Terrell, 1975) tested the hypothesis that in the British system of sponsored mobility, there is less equality of educational opportunity than in the American system of contest mobility. The hypothesis was refuted, but the premise, that the role of education in the stratification process is conditioned by its institutional context, stands fast. The new wave of research is based on a more elaborate typology of educational institutions and suggests that it does condition the attainment process in consistent ways (e.g., Allmendiger, 1989; Hannan, Raffe, & Smyth, 1997; Kerckhoff, 1995; Shavit & Miiller, 1998a). In the present section we review some of this literature with specific reference to the issue of vocational secondary education and its role in the occupational attainment process.

Organization and Qualification Spaces

A very influential study in this new wave was Maurice, Sellier, and Silvestre's (1986) com­parison of French and German firms and their labor practices. Through a detailed analysis of work organization, job recruitment, and mobility patterns in French and in German firms, the authors showed that the characteristics of the educational system in these countries have pro­found effects on the social organization and the management of labor.

The authors refer to the German system as a qualification space, whereas the French one is described as an organizational space. In Germany, most young workers begin their working life with an apprenticeship. These apprenticeships are organized as a "dual system," which combines on-the-job training with instruction in public vocational schools. Apprentices spend several days a week in the firm, performing various tasks through which they learn the practi­cal aspects of the occupation for which they are trained. On other days they attend classroom instruction in which they are taught theoretical knowledge related to their occupational spe­cialization and more general skills that cut across occupations. The apprenticeship system is maintained through a cooperation between three kinds of organizations: the State, business organizations (chambers of trade, industry, and commerce), and the trade unions. These orga-

442 Yossl Shavit and Walter Miiller

nizations jointly design the training programs, negotiate the specific slcills which are taught, negotiate the standards of instruction, determine the examination procedures, and attempt to meet the demand for both training opportunities and trained workers (Crouch, Finegold, & Sako, 1999, chapter 5).

This institutional structure leads to highly standardized qualifications in the German workforce. German employers know which skills are taught in the various apprenticeship programs and can rely on vocational qualifications to indicate mastery of these well-defined skills. Consequently, employers can organize work and production in accordance with the availability of skill pools.

Maurice, Sellier, and Silvestre (1986) label the German system as a qualification space because it is segmented by vocational qualifications. Qualified workers have a clearly defined occupational identity and as a result, mobility between occupations, which require different qualifications, is not very common. And yet, due to the standardization of vocational qualifi­cations, qualified workers can move between firms with relative ease.

Furthermore, because training takes place before bona fide labor force entry, young workers already have well-defined occupational skills, and they can contribute to the firm from the start. As a result, they do not suffer a substantial disadvantage when compared with experi­enced workers and can find employment with relative ease. Indeed, youth unemployment rates in Germany are low.

Part of the corporatist agreements between unions and employers is that unskilled work­ers can not be hired for jobs that require vocational qualifications. Thus, workers without certified vocational qualifications, except university graduates, stand at a marked disadvan­tage in the labor market. Their unemployment rates are high and they are consigned to un­skilled work.

By contrast, in France, as in many other countries, education is centered on the provision of general, rather than vocational, education. To the extent that vocational education is of­fered, it is given mainly in schools rather than in firms.* Vocational education has a residual character—it is intended for students who do not do well in school. The major shortcoming of school-based training is that it does not provide students with the same degree of hands-on experience as do apprenticeships. Graduates of school-based training often complain, when entering the workplace, that they had not been taught "what it's really like" (Blossfeld, 1992; Erbes-Seguin, Gilan, & Kieffer, 1990). Another problem of school-based training is that it tends to lag behind technological and other developments in the economy and is often obso­lete. In a world of rapid change, it takes time to convert new technologies to training curricula and for schools to acquire the equipment necessary for their instruction.

Human capital theory (Becker, 1975) distinguishes between firm-specific and general skills. The former refers to skills that are useful only to a particular firm, whereas the latter are transferable between firms. In an economy where workers are free to move between firms, employers are reluctant to invest in workers' general skills because the investment is lost once workers move on to another firm. However, in a system such as the French one, employers cannot draw on ready-made skills and have no choice but to train their workers.

The ideas developed by Maurice et al (1986) are closely related to the literature on seg­mented labor markets (Doeringer & Piore, 1971) and, in particular, to the recent distinction between firm-internal and occupational labor markets (Marsden, 1990). In countries such as

*Although, in very recent years, there has been a growing involvement of French firms and of employer's organi­zations in the provision of vocational training and apprenticeships (Goux & Maurin, 1998; Crouch, Finegold, & Sako, 1999, chapter 4).

Vocational Secondary Education, Tracking, and Social Stratification 443

France, where vocational training is not well developed, firms that require substantial job-specific training for job performance create internal promotion ladders and tend to pay wages and salaries above the market rate, all in an attempt to reduce worker turnover. In such firm-internal labor markets young workers would find it difficult to enter the qualified jobs and will suffer from higher job instability and unemployment rates than older workers. However, once they gain entry, and are trained, at the expense of their employers, they are likely to remain in the organization for long periods. Hence the label "organizational space."

Other things being equal, the prevalence of occupational labor markets, such as in Ger­many, in an economy should grow as the vocational training is more occupationally specific. The more specific the training, the bigger the impact of vocational qualifications on the labor market prospects of workers. Indicators of occupational specificity are the number of occupa­tional specializations that are taught and the proportion of cohorts who receive such occupa­tionally specific training. Countries vary to a large degree in the characteristics of their educa­tional systems. Some offer general education (e.g., Ireland or the United States); others offer specialized vocational training for hundreds of different occupations and for large proportions of each cohort (e.g., the German-speaking countries, the Netherlands, and Denmark); still others (such as Sweden) take an intermediate approach providing vocational education under broad headings, such as metalwork, and teach basic principles while avoiding narrow special­ization.

Standardization and Stratification

Several recent comparative studies of educational systems have distinguished between differ­ent systems on the basis of their degree of stratification and standardization (e.g., AUmendinger, 1989; Blossfeld, 1992; Kerckhoff, 1995; Muller & Shavit, 1998). The term "stratification" refers to the extent and form of tracking that is pervasive in the educational system. In highly stratified systems (e.g., Germany and Switzerland), students are separated early on into tracks that differ greatly in their curricula and in the probability of students continuing to the tertiary level. In these countries there is also little or no mobility between tracks. By contrast, in less stratified educational systems, such as the American and the Irish ones, tracking begins at a later age, the curricula of the various tracks are less distinct, there is more intertrack mobiliy, and consequently, there are smaller differences between tracks in the probability of continuing to tertiary education.

Clearly, the stratification of an educational system is closely related to the specificity of its vocational education. Where vocational education is highly specific, as it is in qualification spaces, the curricula taught in the different tracks are very distinct from one another, and as a result, intertrack mobility is limited. Where stratification is high, credentials provide detailed signals about the educational achievements of job applicants and therefore serve as an impor­tant basis for hiring and for the occupational allocation of workers.

Standardization is defined as the degree to which the quality of education meets the same standards nationwide. Variables such as teacher training, school budgets, curricula, and the uniformity of school-leaving examinations are relevant in measuring standardization. Several authors have argued (AUmendinger, 1989; Blossfeld, 1992) that the coupling of educational qualifications and occupational attainment is stronger in highly standardized systems because employers can rely on credentials to represent skill content reliably. In systems with a low degree of standardization, employment decisions are less likely to be based on education because credentials are a less reliable indication of employee qualifications.

444 Yossi Shavit and Walter MuUer

Linkages

Another characteristic of vocational education systems that determines their effectiveness in the occupational allocation of graduates is the extent to which they are "linked" to employers. Linkages can take a variety of forms (Hannan et al., 1997). As noted earlier, in some coun­tries, most notably in Germany, in Switzerland, and in Austria, training is managed jointly by firms, by employers' organizations, and by the educational system. These institutions are jointly responsible for the training, and together they determine the skill requirements of specified occupations in the labor market. As noted, employers can rely on vocational qualifications to represent well-defined skills that are relevant to job requirements.

Another form of linkage between schools and the labor market is the involvement of teachers in the job placement process. In some countries, most notably Japan, schools serve as job placement offices. In a series of papers, Rosenbaum and his various associates (Rosenbaum & Kariya, 1991; Rosenbaum, Kariya, Settersten, & Maier, 1990) compared the school-to-work transition process in Japan and in the United States. They demonstrated that in Japan there is a strong institutional linkage between school and universities on the one hand and firms on the other. Schools and universities refer students to specific employers. These rela­tionships have important implications for the role of education in job placement. Characteris­tically, Japanese employers rely on school grades in the same way that employers in other countries rely on letters of recommendations. Schools do not recommend students lightly because they have to maintain their credibility with the employers. Employers will continue the relationship because they value the screening that trusted partner-schools perform for them. In a very recent study Rosenbaum (1998) found a similar phenomenon in America. He showed that vocational school teachers in the Chicago area maintained very close ties with employers and played an important facilitating role in the job placement of their students, much like the Japanese teachers did. However, it seems that in the United States these schools are more the exception than the rule.

A Comparative Study

In the previous section we discussed some of the institutional characteristics of educational systems that may have an impact on the role of vocational education in the occupational at­tainment process. In the present section, we present comparative data on the relationship be­tween vocational secondary education and various occupational outcomes and examine how they vary according to institutional context. Specifically, we were interested in identifying the institutional characteristics of educational systems that determine the extent to which voca­tional education diverts its students from prestigious occupations and in identifying those characteristics that enhance its role as a safety net. We also wanted to know in which countries vocational education is a diversion and in which it is a safety net.

We drew on data that was generated recently by our comparative study on educational qualifications and occupational destinations (Shavit & Miiller, 1998a). The objective of that study was to examine a series of hypotheses concerning differences between countries regard­ing the way educational qualifications affect occupational attainment and employment. Re­search teams from 13 countries participated in the project: Australia, Great Britain, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United States. Each team studied the relationship between educational qualifications and oc­cupational attainment early in the careers of men and women, as well as their labor force

Vocational Secondary Education, Tracking, and Social Stratification 445

participation and unemployment rate. The 13 studies maintain a common research design, used similar operational definitions of variables, and employed similar data sets and statistical methods and are, therefore quite comparable.

We measured educational qualifications on the CASMIN (Comparative Analysis of So­cial Mobility in Industrialized Societies) educational schema (Braun, Miiller, & Steinman, 1997; Miiller, Luettinger, Koenig, & Karle, 1989). The schema was developed through inten­sive study of the educational systems in many countries and is now widely used in compara­tive studies of education and of social stratification. The schema, its categories, and their definitions are shown in Table 19.1. With some minor adaptations, it is applicable to a wide variety of educational systems. All educational systems are differentiated into primary, sec­ondary, and tertiary levels, and virtually all systems distinguish between vocational and aca­demic, or general, tracks. The CASMIN schema combines these two dimensions. It distin­guishes between primary, secondary, and postsecondary education, and within each level, it also distinguishes between academic and vocational education. In the present discussion, we focused primarily on the occupational outcomes for persons with vocational secondary quali­fications (2a), academic secondary qualifications that do not qualify for university admission (2b), and academic secondary qualifications that do grant access to universities (2c).

Occupational attainment early in the career was measured in two ways: first, on occupa­tional prestige scales, or their equivalents, which are available for virtually all countries (see, e.g., Treiman, 1977). Each occupation is assigned a score, which represents its social standing or prestige relative to other occupations. In addition, we measured the odds ratio of entering the labor force as a skilled worker rather than an unskilled one.

The individual country studies estimated the effects of educational qualifications on the occupational prestige of first jobs, and on the odds of entering the labor force as skilled work­ers rather than unskilled workers rather than unskilled ones. Differences between countries in these effects were then related to differences between them in the institutional characteristics of their national educational systems.

Four characteristics of the education systems were considered, of which the first three were discussed in the previous section. These are as follows:

TABLE 19.1. The CASMIN Educational Schema

Qualification Description

lab This is the social minimum of education. Namely, the minimal level that individuals are expected to have obtained in a society. It generally corresponds to the level of compulsory education.

Ic Basic vocational training above compulsory schooling. In Germany, in Switzerland, and in similar countries, this category corresponds to short apprenticeships that are taken after compulsory school­ing. In most other countries this category does not exist.

2a This category represents vocational secondary education or, where applicable, apprenticeships for teenagers, which combine firm-based training supplemented with school instruction.

2b Academic tracks at the secondary level. In the American case, this category refers to the general track.

2c Full matriculation diploma (e.g., the Abitur, Matriculation, Baccalaureate, A-levels). In the American study, this category was assigned to graduates of college preparatory tracks in high school.

3a Lower level tertiary degrees, generally of shorter duration and with a vocational orientation (e.g., American junior colleges, technical college diplomas, social worker or, nonuniversity teaching certificates).

3b The completion of a traditional, academically oriented college or university education.

446 Yossi Shavit and Walter Miiller

1. The extent to which vocational students are taught specific occupational skills, as opposed to more general ones.

2. The extent to which the curricula, and certificates awarded in the systems, are stan­dardized.

3. The degree of stratification of secondary education in the different countries. 4. The proportion of recent cohorts who attained postsecondary qualifications.

We found that the effects of education in the occupational attainment process were sys­tematically related to some of the institutional characteristics. The effects of education on occupational outcomes were stronger in countries with a high degree of occupational specific­ity of vocational education, highly stratified secondary education, and standardized educa­tional systems. In a related study (Shavit & Miiller, 1998b), we found that in these countries there are also strong linkages between the educational system and labor market organizations.

We also found that the effects of education on labor allocation tended to be weaker in countries with a large sector of tertiary education. We suspect that the reason for this finding is the following: in countries, such as the United States, where vocational education is not well developed, there is a built-in incentive for young people to acquire more and more education so they can stay ahead in the competition for jobs, but as more people obtain diplomas, their value in the labor market declines. In contrast, in countries where vocational education is specific, the value of a diploma does not derive (solely or primarily) from its position in the hierarchy of credentials but also from the specific skills it represents. Thus, in such qualifica­tion spaces there is less pressure to attain ever higher certificates and diplomas. When com­paring Switzerland and Germany, two typical qualification spaces, with the United States and Japan, two organization spaces, we found (Miiller & Shavit, 1998, pp. 12-13) that in the former, only about 10% to 15% attain tertiary degrees, as compared with over 30% in the latter. Thus, organization spaces tend to produce an excessive supply of secondary and postsecondary graduates, thereby lowering the value of these credentials in the labor market. By contrast, in occupational spaces, the value of educational credentials is preserved because it is mediated by skill rather than by the relative ranking of workers in a quantitative educa­tional queue.

Vocational Education as a Safety Net

Having discussed more general implications of institutional characteristics of school systems, we now turn to several more specific issues of the relationship between vocational secondary education and occupational attainment in early career. In Table 19.2 we present three indica­tors of that relationship. The first refers to vocational education as a safety net. The numbers in the first column show the log odds ratios for men with secondary vocational education, compared with the lowest educational category, of getting a first job as a skilled worker, rather than as an unskilled one.* The larger the number, the more beneficial is vocational education in the competition for employment as skilled workers. This variable measures the extent to which vocational secondary education serves as a safety net in the sense that it reduces the odds of entering the labor market in the least desirable occupation.

There are clear national differences in the magnitude of this safety-net effect. It is stron­gest in Germany, in Austria and in Switzerland, and weakest in Taiwan, in Sweden, and in

*In order to save space, we have presented data for men only. The results for women are similar but not identical.

Vocational Secondary Education, Traclting, and Social Stratification 447

TABLE 19.2. Country Differences in the Effects of Vocational Secondary Qualifications on Men's Occupational Outcomes.

The effect of vocational secondary education,

compared to no secondary education, on the log

chances of entering the labor

Countries

1. Australia (AUS) 2. Britain (GB) 3. France (F) 4. Germany (D) 5. Ireland (IRL) 6. Israel (IL 7. Italy (I) 8. Japan (J) 9. Netherlands (NL)

10. Sweden (S) 11. Switzerland (CH) 12.Taiwan (TAI) 13. USA

force as a skilled, rather than an unskilled worker.

(1)

2.53 1.72 1.54 3.05 n.a. 0.64 1.11 n.a. 1.14 0.59 2.35 0.20 0.71

The effect of vocational secondary, compared to

academic secondary education on the log chances of entering the labor market as a skilled, rather than an

unskilled worker. (2)

2.57 0.62 0.45 n.a. n.a. 1.00 0.22 n.a. 1.10 0.52 0.32 -.26 0.20

The effect of vocational secondary education.

compared to the matriculation diploma.

on the occupational prestige of first job (in

units of standard deviation). (3)

0.04 -.15 -.28 -.30 n.a. -.43 -.16 n.a. -.36 -.51 -.34 0.03 -.11

Israel. It tends to be large in countries where vocational secondary education has a strong occupationally specific component and where the system of secondary education is highly stratified. It is weak in those where vocational education is more general and where stratifica­tion is low.

We now present a more stringent test of the benefits of vocational secondary education in the occupational attainment process. Rather than comparing its effects with those of elemen­tary education, we compared it with the effects of academic secondary education, on the log odds of entering the labor market as a skilled worker rather than an unskilled one. The results are shown in Column 2 of Table 19.2. It is striking that in 9 out of the 10 countries for which data is available, vocational education is a more effective safety net than academic education of a comparable level. In all countries except Taiwan, the chances of entering the labor market in the lowest occupational class are greater for those with just a 2b qualification. This pattern is consistent with the rationale of vocational education, which is to improve the occupational prospects of those who are not likely to continue past the secondary level. It also underscores the risk involved in attending the academic track for students who, for various reasons such as low scholastic aptitude or motivation, are not likely to obtain a diploma of matriculation (or in the American case, to graduate from the college track). In virtually all countries, academic education without a diploma is associated with a greater risk of entering the labor force through the least desirable jobs.

The magnitude of the contrast between the effects of vocational and academic secondary education varies between the countries in our sample. It is greatest in Australia, followed by Great Britain, Israel, and the Netherlands, it is small in the United States and in Switzerland, and is negative in Taiwan. We were not able to identify any consistent covariation between the size of the contrast and the institutional characteristics of the national educational systems.

448 Yossi Shavit and Walter MuUer

Vocational Education as a Diversion

As noted at the outset, the major criticism directed against vocational education is that it diverts students away from the more prestigious occupations. Studies in many countries have shown that vocational track placement lowers students' chances to attain higher education and prestigious occupations (e.g., Breen, lannelli, & Shavit, 1998; Shavit, 1990a). However, we also know that many of those who turn to vocational tracks are unlikely to have continued on to college or to a university even if they had selected the academic track while in secondary education (e.g., Shavit, 1984). It is interesting, therefore, to compare the occupational costs and benefits associated with vocational secondary education with those secured by graduates of academic education who enter the labor market with a matriculation diploma (or its equiva­lent), but without any tertiary education.

In Column 3 of Table 19.2, we compare the effects of having a vocational secondary education or of having obtained a matriculation diploma (i.e., qualification 2c) on the occupa­tional prestige of first jobs. Positive figures mean that the average prestige scores of first jobs are higher for graduates with vocational qualifications than for graduates from the academic route; negative figures indicate the contrary. In all but 2 of the 10 countries for which data is available, vocational education returned less prestigious jobs than a matriculation diploma, but the magnitude of this negative effect varies between countries. In Sweden, for example, the mean occupational prestige attained by graduates of vocational education is lower by about half a standard deviation than that attained by workers holding a matriculation diploma. The prestige difference between the two educational categories is lowest in the English-speak­ing countries in our sample: Australia, Great Britain, and the United States, as well as in Taiwan.

To sum, and this perhaps is an unexpected result, the disadvantage, in occupational pres­tige, associated with vocational secondary education tends to be large especially in those countries where vocational education provides the most effective safety net (e.g., Germany and Switzerland) and small in those with the least effective net (e.g., Taiwan and the United States).

SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION

This chapter is concerned with one of the more persistent debates in the sociology of educa­tion: What is the role of vocational education in the process of occupational attainment? Many scholars, especially neo-Weberians and neo-Marxists, subscribe to the position that the skills that are taught in most vocational tracks are of little value to employers and to employees and that vocational education is simply a diversion of working-class students from the high road leading to higher education and the professions. These scholars consider vocational second­ary education as an organizational aspect of education, which serves to reproduce social in­equality between generations. Human capital theorists, on the other hand, argue that voca­tional education can teach students skills that might be valuable to employers and can enhance employability and the attainment of both earnings and desirable occupations.

We began with the assumption that the role of vocational secondary education in the stratification process—a safety net or diversion—varies between countries in ways that are consistently related to the way these countries organize their educational systems. We have seen that the effects of vocational secondary education on labor market outcomes in the United States are generally small, especially for men, but that they vary in interesting ways. Voca-

Vocational Secondary Education, Tracking, and Social Stratification 449

tional secondary education appears to be effective when it is well focused, occupationally specific, and relevant to the requirements of jobs. It is more effective for women than for men, probably because women are more likely to be trained in areas closely related to their future occupations.

Drawing on the recent international comparative literature on educational institutions, we identified four systemic variables that might determine the extent to which vocational education enhances or inhibits the occupational attainment of its students. Briefly, they are the following: the extent to which the national educational system is standardized; the extent to which secondary education in the different countries is stratified; the extent to which voca­tional secondary education teaches specific rather than general skills; and, finally, the extent to which there is a linkage between schools and firms, which facilitate the job placement of graduates. We hypothesized that these four variables affect the role vocational education plays in the occupational attainment process.

These hypotheses were examined using data on the relationship between educational qualifications and occupational attainment early in the careers of men in 11 countries that have diverse educational institutions. We found four interesting results. First, in all countries secondary vocational education reduced the chances of a worker entering the labor force as an unskilled worker. Vocationally trained workers were more likely than workers without sec­ondary education to enter the labor force as skilled workers rather than as unskilled ones. Second, the advantages associated with vocational education were most pronounced in coun­tries where vocational secondary education is specific rather than general, and where it is highly stratified. Third, in most countries, graduates of vocational secondary education at­tained lower occupational prestige than that attained by graduates of academic secondary education. Finally, this disadvantage of vocational education appears to be most pronounced in countries where vocational education also serves as an effective safety net. It was least pronounced in the United States and in Taiwan where it does not provide a safety net. This is an important finding because it suggests that both groups of scholars, human capital theorists as well as Neo-Weberians and Neo-Marxists, are correct. Vocational education and tracking can both provide a safety net and be a mechanism of social exclusion.

Clearly, the role of vocational education varies between countries in complex ways, which are not fully captured by the institutional variables that we have studied. And yet, a simplified picture of our results would distinguish between two ideal-typical worlds of educational insti­tutions, closely corresponding to the distinction made by Maurice, Sellier, and Silvestre (1986) between qualification spaces and organizational spaces. The former includes countries such as Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, in which secondary education is highly strati­fied, where vocational education offers occupationally specific training, and where institu­tional links between training institutions and employers are prevalent. The other includes coun­tries in which there is little stratification, where vocational education is general rather than specific, and where links between the two kinds of institutions are not very common.

In the first world, vocational education seems to serve a dual purpose: on the one hand, it enhances the chances of students to find a job as skilled workers and reduces their chances of slipping to the bottom of the occupational ladder. On the other hand, it has a strong negative effect, compared with academic secondary education, on the chances of attaining a presti­gious occupation early in one's career. In these countries vocational secondary education is a double-edged sword. It is both an effective safety net and an effective mechanism of diversion from desirable occupations.

By contrast, in the world of organizational spaces, the distinction between vocational and academic secondary education is less consequential either way. Vocational education is less

450 Yossi Shavit and Walter Miiller

valuable as a safety net because it is general rather than specific. However, it is also less effective as a mechanism of exclusion because stratification is less pronounced, and students are not locked into a trajectory early on.

Before concluding, we would like to discuss methodological shortcomings which seem to recur in the literature we reviewed. First, most studies on the labor market outcomes of vocational education focus on the career beginnings of young men and women (Boesel et al., 1994, chapter 6). Recent research has shown that the advantages of vocational training in the occupational and income attainment processes are short-lived (Grubb, 1996) and tend to dis­appear after several years in the labor force. This may be due to the following reasons: Aca­demic education prepares students for a wide range of occupations in the labor market. This increases their flexibility and enables them to shift between occupations in search of a better job. In contrast, an emphasis on specific skills in the curriculum increases the probability that students will gain entry into related jobs but reduces their chances of mobility into better ones or of finding employment outside the band of their qualifications. This logic suggests that vocationally trained workers benefit from their specific skills in the early stages of their career but are then unlikely to move to better jobs. In contrast, those trained in general education may find it more difficult to gain entry into good jobs but can improve their occupations and earn­ings over time, as they shift between jobs and occupations (Keijke, Koeslag, & Van der Velden, 1997). Thus, future research should study the effects of vocational qualifications at several points during a career.

Second, most studies on the subject, ours included, distinguish between vocational and academic (or general) education but fail to identify distinct areas of specialization. Some studies differentiate between broad fields of study but do not identify individual programs. There is clear evidence, from a variety of countries, that different vocational programs affect the attainment process in distinct ways. For example, Kerckhoff and Bell (1998) compared the labor market outcomes for American graduates of vocational posttsecondary programs with the outcomes attained by those holding an associate's degree. They found that the status levels of the jobs held by those with vocational degrees were usually lower than the status levels of the jobs held by the associate's group. The exceptions were the jobs held by graduates of the vocational programs in computer-related occupations. These were higher status on the aver­age than the status of the associate's group. Similar differences among distinct types of voca­tional programs in their effects on occupational and income attainments have also been shown by Dronkers (1993) in his description of vocational education systems in the Netherlands, and by Erikson and Jonsson (1998), who studied the school-to-work transition in Sweden. Future studies should try and use detailed classifications of education and training programs.

Finally, there is, as always, the general issue of definition—what counts as vocational education and/or training. Most studies on education and social stratification have focused on school-based education and ignore training in out-of-school settings. In some countries, espe­cially in the German-speaking world, in the Netherlands, and in Denmark, out-of-school train­ing is highly formalized and is therefore measured by students of stratification. However, in other countries practices vary. For example, American studies of stratification usually mea­sure the traditional, school-based variety of education, despite the fact that since the 1960s more and more of it is taking place in community colleges, in technical institutes, and in area vocational schools. In addition, there has been a proliferation of job-training programs, which are often targeted at specific high-risk populations, such as the unemployed or recipients of welfare (Grubb, 1996, pp. 1^). Clearly, future research on the labor market outcomes of education should take cognizance of all forms of formal education, whether in school or out of school, and at both the secondary and the postsecondary levels.

Vocational Secondary Education, Tracking, and Social Stratification 451

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: This paper was prepared for the Handbook of Sociology of Education (Maureen T. Hallinan, Editor). Its preparation was supported by a grant from the Japan Foun­dation. We thank Richard Arum, Hanna Ayalon, Adam Gamoran, Alan Kerckhoff, Noah Lewin-Epstein, Susanne Steinmann, and Abraham Yogev for their helpful comments on an earlier draft. We also thank David Berkhoff for his editorial assistance.

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