19.07.2019
School systems usually differentiate among vocational and general (or academic) tracks. Vocational education will prepare rather directly for specific occupations and train the students in the skills needed in these occupations. General education teaches more general, more basic abstract skills not directly related to tasks in particular occupations.
Comparing 6 cohorts, 1951-56,1957-61,1962-67,1968-70,1971-79 e 1980-95, the figure presents wage gaps of 5, 7, 10, 3 and 0%, respectively. In other words, there is a U-shaped pattern in the wage disadvantage for vocational secondary education by birth year: it first increases and then decreases, to the extinction for the youngest cohort.
For further details see Joop Hartog, Pedro Raposo, e Hugo Reis, “Vocational high school graduate wage gap: the role of cognitive skills and firms”, Banco de Portugal working paper No. 3/2019, January 2019.
Prepared by Hugo Reis and Pedro Raposo. The analyses, opinions and findings expressed above represent the views of the authors and not necessarily those of Banco de Portugal or the Eurosystem.
If you want to receive an e-mail whenever a new “Economics in a picture” is published send your request to info@bportugal.pt.