In Simple Words
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.
Vocational school applicants
- Lost voucher lottery
- Comparison group
- Won voucher lottery
- 5–6 percentage points more took the exam
ICFES participation about six years later, used as a completion proxy. The 5–6-point range spans matching methods, not a confidence interval; estimates are imprecise (standard errors 2.8–3.0 percentage points).
See source →Research question
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.
Participants
N = 1,176 human secondary school voucher applicants (1995 cohort) in Bogotá, Colombia.
Study Design
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.
Results
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.
Takeaway
Expand public subsidies for private non-academic vocational education to build practical human capital among non-college-bound youth.
Source and citation
See source →Read alongside the research
Plain-English glossary
Original explanations, informed by the references below. Examples are illustrations, not data from the studies above. The research text stays unchanged.
- Longitudinal study
A study that checks the same group of people at different times. This lets researchers examine how things change over time.
ExampleResearchers ask the same workers about their wellbeing at the start, after three months and after six months.
NICE · Longitudinal study ↗Read more about longitudinal study →- Percentage points
The difference between two percentages.
ExampleA rise from 40% to 50% is 10 percentage points. Relative to the starting value, that is a 25% increase.
Office for National Statistics · Percentages ↗Read more about percentage points →- Randomized controlled trial
A study that uses chance, like drawing lots, to decide who receives each option being compared. Researchers compare the groups’ outcomes to estimate the effect of those options.
ExampleA lottery assigns volunteers to a training programme or a comparison group. Researchers then compare their outcomes.
GET-IT glossary · Randomized study ↗Read more about randomized controlled trial →