IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jlabrs/v52y2018i1d10.1186_s12651-018-0248-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The role of vocational education in the transmission of gender segregation from education to employment: Switzerland and Bulgaria compared

Author

Listed:
  • Melina Heiniger

    (University of Bern)

  • Christian Imdorf

    (Norwegian University of Science and Technology NTNU
    Bulgarian Academy of Sciences)

Abstract

Previous comparative research has uncovered considerable cross-country differences in occupational gender segregation. There is, however, a lack of research on the role of educational systems in the creation of gender segregation and gendered school-to-work transitions. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of vocational education and the strength of the education–employment linkage in the transmission of horizontal gender segregation from education into the labour market. Transition system literature points to a stronger linkage between education and employment in countries where initial vocational education and training dominates the educational offers, and to a weaker linkage in countries with a stronger focus on general education. Moreover, research on gender segregation in education shows that segregation is especially pronounced in educational systems with a strong vocational education and training sector on the upper secondary level. Based on these insights, we hypothesize that gender segregation in education and its transmission to employment is more pronounced the more distinct a country’s initial vocational education and training system is. To test our assumption, we compare individual school-to-work transitions in Switzerland and Bulgaria, with the vocational principle being more prevalent in the structuring of Swiss educational offers. We use data from the Swiss Youth Panel Survey TREE (N = 3215) and the Bulgarian School Leaver Survey BSLS (N = 885). Following recent developments in multi-group segregation research, entropy-based measurements are calculated to study the school-to-work linkages and the transmission of gender segregation in the two select countries. The empirical results confirm a more pronounced educational gender segregation in Switzerland, which is transferred more strongly into the labour market due to the tighter linkage in that country between education and employment compared to Bulgaria.

Suggested Citation

  • Melina Heiniger & Christian Imdorf, 2018. "The role of vocational education in the transmission of gender segregation from education to employment: Switzerland and Bulgaria compared," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 52(1), pages 1-21, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jlabrs:v:52:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1186_s12651-018-0248-6
    DOI: 10.1186/s12651-018-0248-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s12651-018-0248-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1186/s12651-018-0248-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:iab:iabjlr:v:52:i:1:p:art.15 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. By Barbara Mueller & Jürg Schweri, 2015. "How specific is apprenticeship training? Evidence from inter-firm and occupational mobility after graduation," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 67(4), pages 1057-1077.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yao Lu & Xiaoguang Li & Benjamin Elbers, 2024. "Education-Occupation Linkage in the Highly-Educated Workforce: Patterns and Sources of Difference by Race/Ethnicity," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(2), pages 461-482, April.
    2. Christian Imdorf & Matthias Pohlig, 2021. "La sélection sur le marché du travail selon les ruptures dans le parcours antérieur comparaison Suisse et Bulgarie," Post-Print halshs-03364147, HAL.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maïlys Korber, 2019. "Does Vocational Education Give a Labour Market Advantage over the Whole Career? A Comparison of the United Kingdom and Switzerland," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(3), pages 202-223.
    2. repec:bdp:wpaper:2015001 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Peter Hoeschler & Uschi Backes-Gellner, 2017. "The Relative Importance of Personal Characteristics for the Hiring of Young Workers," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0142, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW), revised Jan 2018.
    4. Eggenberger, Christian & Rinawi, Miriam & Backes-Gellner, Uschi, 2018. "Occupational specificity: A new measurement based on training curricula and its effect on labor market outcomes," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 97-107.
    5. Juerg Schweri & Annina Eymann & Manuel Aepli, 2020. "Horizontal mismatch and vocational education," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(32), pages 3464-3478, June.
    6. Maria Esther Oswald-Egg & Michael Siegenthaler, 2021. "Train drain? Access to skilled foreign workers and firms' provision of training," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0186, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    7. Fitzenberger, Bernd & Licklederer, Stefanie & Zwiener, Hanna, 2015. "Mobility across firms and occupations among graduates from apprenticeship," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 138-151.
    8. Haverkamp Katarzyna & Seibert Holger & Wesling Mirko, 2020. "Sektorale und berufsspezifische Ausbildungsstrategien und Übergangsmuster nach der dualen Ausbildung," Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 69(1), pages 44-68, May.
    9. Irene Kriesi & Juerg Schweri, 2019. "Types of Education, Achievement and Labour Market Integration over the Life Course," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(3), pages 58-64.
    10. Kuhn, Andreas & Schweri, Jürg & Wolter, Stefan C., 2022. "Local norms describing the role of the state and the private provision of training," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    11. Luca Moretti & Martin Mayerl & Samuel Muehlemann & Peter Schloegl & Stefan C. Wolter, 2017. "So similar and yet so different: A comparative analysis of a firm's net costs and post-apprenticeship training benefits in Austria and Switzerland," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0137, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW), revised Apr 2018.
    12. Luca Moretti & Martin Mayerl & Samuel Muehlemann & Peter Schlögl & Stefan C. Wolter, 2017. "So Similar and yet so Different: A Comparative Analysis of a Firm's Cost and Benefits of Apprenticeship Training in Austria and Switzerland," CESifo Working Paper Series 6711, CESifo.
    13. Maria Esther Oswald-Egg & Michael Siegenthaler, 2021. "Train drain? Access to skilled foreign workers and firms' provision of training," KOF Working papers 21-495, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    14. Damiano Pregaldini & Uschi Backes-Gellner, 2021. "How Middle-Skilled Workers Adjust to Immigration: The Role of Occupational Skill Specificity," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0193, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    15. Uschi Backes-Gellner & Patrick Lehnert, 2021. "The Contribution of Vocational Education and Training to Innovation and Growth," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0177, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    16. Pontus af Buren & Jurg Schweri, 2024. "Firms' training processes and their apprentices' education success," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0225, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    17. Kuhn, Andreas, 2022. "The Geography of Occupational Choice: Empirical Evidence from the Swiss Apprenticeship Market," IZA Discussion Papers 15679, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Oswald-Egg, Maria Esther & Siegenthaler, Michael, 2023. "Train drain? Access to foreign workers and firms’ provision of training," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    19. Oswald-Egg, Maria Esther & Siegenthaler, Michael, 2023. "Train Drain? Access to Foreign Workers and Firms' Provision of Training," IZA Discussion Papers 15902, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Ludwig-Mayerhofer, Wolfgang & Pollak, Reinhard & Solga, Heike & Menze, Laura & Leuze, Kathrin & Edelstein, Rosine & Künster, Ralf & Ebralidze, Ellen & Fehring, Gritt & Kühn, Susanne, 2019. "Vocational Education and Training and Transitions into the Labor Market," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 3, pages 277-323.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender segregation; Vocational education; Labour market; Education–employment linkage; Bulgaria; Switzerland;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • P36 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions - - - Consumer Economics; Health; Education and Training; Welfare, Income, Wealth, and Poverty
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jlabrs:v:52:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1186_s12651-018-0248-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.