Non-Academic Human Capital Accumulation
RCTReview
Developing economies face high youth unemployment when public secondary systems prioritize academic tracks that fail to equip non-college-bound students with market-relevant vocational skills.
Picture this
Like offering targeted job apprenticeships instead of requiring every student to prepare for university calculus, non-academic vocational training gives students practical tools to enter the workforce immediately after secondary school.
What the evidence says
Providing vouchers for non-academic vocational tracks increased the likelihood of taking the national exit exam by 5 to 6 percentage points (a 25% relative increase) and boosted exam scores by 0.33 to 0.66 standard deviations, mitigating human capital deficits for non-college-bound students.
- Who was studied
- N = 1,176 human secondary school voucher applicants (1995 cohort) in Bogotá, Colombia.
- How
- Longitudinal randomized controlled trial tracking secondary school completion, national exit exam participation, and test scores for voucher lottery winners and losers in non-academic vocational tracks.
What to do
Expand public subsidies for private non-academic vocational education to build practical human capital among non-college-bound youth.
From the source
"Youth unemployment is one of the most pressing social and economic problems facing less developed countries... Many countries, like Colombia, suffer from high youth unemployment, and little is known about how best to smooth the school-to-work transition in less developed countries, or how to boost human capital for those not on the academic schooling track."
Are Educational Vouchers Only Redistributive?