The Power of Self-Interest: Effects of Education and Training Entitlements in Later-Life

Cain Polidano (), Justin van de Ven and Sarah Voitchovsky

Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series from Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne

Abstract: Education and training among the working-age population has become an increasingly important policy issue as working lives have lengthened and the pace of technological change has quickened. This paper describes the effects of a reform that replaced a supply-driven model, in which government selected the number and providers of publicly subsidised Vocational Education and Training (VET), with a demand-driven approach that broadened access to adult training and gave working-age individuals greater freedom of VET course choice. Difference-in-differences analysis reveals that the large-scale reform, which was introduced in the Australian state of Victoria from 2009, substantively increased participation in VET among the population aged 25-54, and corresponded with an improved match between VET courses taken and objective ex ante measures of labour market demand. Indeed, the scheme was so popular that it resulted in a budget over-run by 2012 of $400 million (AUD, on a total budget of $1.3 billion).

Keywords: Adult education; voucher; entitlement; Vocational Education and Training (VET); demand-driven subsidy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H31 I22 I28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 55pp
Date: 2017-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/__data/as ... 358484/wp2017n12.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:iae:iaewps:wp2017n12

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series from Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010 Australia. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sheri Carnegie ().