The role of AI use and AI training in school-to-work transitions

Roman Theiler, Patricia Palffy and Uschi Backes-Gellner

No 256, Economics of Education Working Paper Series from University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW)

Abstract: This paper examines how signaling AI use and systematic AI training in job vacancy postings affect adolescents' application intentions at the school-to-work transition. We implement a randomized survey experiment with 3,347 users of a large Swiss apprenticeship platform, varying the workplace information in vacancies for three middle-skilled occupations selected to vary systematically in gender composition: IT support (male-dominated), medical assistance (female-dominated), and office administration (gender-balanced). Vacancies mention established work practices (baseline), emphasize AI use, or combine AI use with systematic AI training. Emphasizing AI use reduces application intentions only in IT support and medical assistance. Systematic AI training fully offsets this negative effect in IT support, does so partially in medical assistance, but produces no detectable effect in office administration. The effect of signaling AI use and the compensatory role of AI training thus depend on the occupation's gender composition. Findings indicate that information on AI use and AI training is a firm-level policy lever shaping labor supply at market entry.

Keywords: AI adoption; AI training; adolescents; occupational choice; school-to-work transition; survey experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 J24 M12 M53 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2026-05
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iso:educat:0256

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