SOCI 235 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Numeracy, Skilled Worker, Credit Risk
8 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
SOCI 235 – Technology and Society
Assessing performance of educational and training systems
Germany system
• Often argued that advantage to their system is that they deliver young people rather
directly to employment
Pathways of Alberta Youth….
• Krahn and Hudson present picture of Alberta transitions of education
• Looked at high school graduates from 1996 in 2003 – they were around the age of 25
• 88% enrolled in post-secondary at some point
• 60% at least 1 post-secondary diploma
o 32% university
o 15% community college
o 15% technical school
o 4% certificate of apprenticeship
• Avg. = held 5.6 jobs, ½ when they were students
o 50% been unemployed at least once – avg. duration of 6 months
o 34% still not completed formal education by age of 25
o 71% employed in single job, 14% held multiple jobs, 6% unemployed and 9% ot
of the labour force
• 1/3 thought they were overqualified for their jobs
• Students with post-secondary education had rate lower by 3% of unemployment than
those without a post-secondary education
• 63% of total were working in managerial, professional, or skilled occupations – 70% of
those with a post-secondary education
Canadian performance re. apprenticeships:
• Laporte and Mueller – 2007 National Apprenticeship Survey
o # of apprenticeships more than doubled between 1995 and 2007 – partly as
result of increases in # of trades covered
Reasons for failure of young enrolment in apprenticeships:
• perceived lack of job stability
• lower incomes
• lower status of blue collar occupations relative to the alternative
• lack of information
• unappealing looking workplaces
• cost of training to the trainee and employer
Evidence suggests that proportion of apprentices completing their program has fallen from
10% in 1995 to 7% in 2007
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Reasons for failure to complete an apprenticeship:
• apprentices are old – avg. age of 27 and have family responsibilities
• penalty for non-completion is often modest, training in first part of apprenticeship may
yield all or almost all the pay increase the trainee is likely to secure
Returns on all training outside of schools is likely to improve where the recipients have better
cognitive skills
OECD been involved in collection of cross-national data on cognitive skills
1. Program for international assessment of adult competence
• Studied working age adults and used cognitive tests administered in the official
languages of the country or regions studied
• RESULTS: scores of less educated are poor in both USA and CAN
o US scores better for educated students are quite good
o Germany actually scored for the poorly educated, better than CAN but bellow
the OECD average
• FINDINGS: overall productivity depends on cognitive skills across educational range,
large gap between performance of more and less educated students is a sign of a
problem in the functioning of the educational system
• When interpreting these results, we need to keep in mind that tests are administered in
their official languages – large % of immigrant population whose 1st language is different
than country = lower averages (CAN & US have large immigrant populations)
• EXPLANATION: scores include those who were educated decades ago, possibility that
performance of educational institutions has changed
• Those aged 20-29 → US pattern similar to what it is for entire working age population,
CAN improves a bit, GERM moves above the OECD mean
2. Program for international student assessment (PISA)
• Used tests more demanding than study above, they assessed cognitive skills of 15-year-
old high school kids
• Any effect of immigration is reduced for 15-year-olds
o Performance of some has been influenced by recent immigration
o Most have had all/bulk of education in host country institutions
• RESULTS: Canada comes out on top of sample of included countries, GERM does well,
US improve ranking but remains in lower part
• Youth unemployment rates = commonly used gauge of performance of school → work
transition process
o US – lowest youth unemployment
o CAN – fairly high
o GERM – higher than average rate
WHAT DOES THIS SHOW? In terms of performance of transition from school to work, variation
exists depending on which indicator is used – especially for cognitive scores to youth
unemployment rates
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Germany system: often argued that advantage to their system is that they deliver young people rather directly to employment. Canadian performance re. apprenticeships: laporte and mueller 2007 national apprenticeship survey, # of apprenticeships more than doubled between 1995 and 2007 partly as result of increases in # of trades covered. Evidence suggests that proportion of apprentices completing their program has fallen from. Returns on all training outside of schools is likely to improve where the recipients have better cognitive skills. Us improve ranking but remains in lower part: youth unemployment rates = commonly used gauge of performance of school work transition process, us lowest youth unemployment, can fairly high, germ higher than average rate. In terms of performance of transition from school to work, variation exists depending on which indicator is used especially for cognitive scores to youth unemployment rates. Produced more technically advanced/higher quality products: 2. Machines were managed by fewer employees: 5.
