Closing the Gap Between Vocational and General Education? Evidence from University Technical Colleges in England

Camille Terrier, Stephen Machin, Sandra McNally and Guglielmo Ventura

No 15456, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: England introduced University Technical Colleges (UTCs) in 2010, hybrid schools which combine general and vocational education. We use an instrumental variable approach to evaluate the causal effect of attending a UTC on student academic and vocational achievement and on their labour market outcomes. For pupils who enter at age 14, UTCs dramatically reduce their academic achievement on national exams at age 16. For students who enter at age of 16, UTCs boost vocational achievement without harming academic achievement. They also improve achievement in STEM qualifications, enrolment in apprenticeships, employment prospects (by age 19) and probability of studying STEM at university.

Keywords: Technical education; Tracking; School value-added (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 I21 I28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Closing the gap between vocational and general education? Evidence from University Technical Colleges in England (2025)
Working Paper: Closing the Gap Between Vocational and General Education? Evidence from University Technical Colleges in England (2023)
Working Paper: Closing the Gap Between Vocational and General Education? Evidence from University Technical Colleges in England (2020)
Working Paper: Closing the Gap between Vocational and General Education? Evidence from University Technical Colleges in England (2020)
Working Paper: Closing the Gap between Vocational and General Education? Evidence from University Technical Colleges in England (2020)
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