Does updating education curricula accelerate technology adoption in the workplace? Evidence from dual vocational education and training curricula in Switzerland

Tobias Schultheiss and Uschi Backes-Gellner
Additional contact information
Tobias Schultheiss: University of Zurich

The Journal of Technology Transfer, 2024, vol. 49, issue 1, No 8, 235 pages

Abstract: Abstract In an environment of accelerating technological change and increasing digitalization, firms need to adopt new technologies faster than ever before to stay competitive. This paper examines whether updates of education curricula help to bring new technologies faster into firms’ workplaces. We study technology changes and curriculum updates from an early wave of digitalization (i.e., computer-numerically controlled machinery, computer-aided design, and desktop publishing software). We take a text-as-data approach and tap into two novel data sources to measure change in educational content and the use of technology at the workplace: first, vocational education curricula and, second, firms’ job advertisements. To examine the causal effects of adding new technology skills to curricula on the diffusion of these technologies in firms’ workplaces (measured by job advertisements), we use an event study design. Our results show that curriculum updates substantially shorten the time it takes for new technologies to arrive in firms’ workplaces, especially for mainstream firms.

Keywords: Technology diffusion; Technology adoption; SMEs; Text as data; Innovation policy; Education curricula (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I25 J23 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10961-022-09971-9 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Does updating education curricula accelerate technology adoption in the workplace? Evidence from dual vocational education and training curricula in Switzerland (2022)
Working Paper: Does Updating Education Curricula Accelerate Technology Adoption in the Workplace? Evidence from Dual Vocational Education and Training Curricula in Switzerland (2022)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:jtecht:v:49:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s10961-022-09971-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... nt/journal/10961/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10961-022-09971-9

Access Statistics for this article

The Journal of Technology Transfer is currently edited by Albert N. Link, Donald S. Siegel, Barry Bozeman and Simon Mosey

More articles in The Journal of Technology Transfer from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().