This Anglo-German network is being set up to explore the dynamics of the school-to-work transition and its consequences across the life course in the context of educational expansion and technological change. Educational expansion, in particular of higher education, changes school-to-work transition patterns and individual career development in the labour market. At the same time, technological change affects the school-to-work transition by altering the process of individual skill acquisition and the fields of training and study available. The implications of these macro developments for social and educational inequality remain unclear.
The benefit of an Anglo-German comparison in this context is the different timing and degree of educational expansion and technological change in their respective labour markets. Aligning research strategies using German and British data will enable us to generalise our findings given the different institutional settings. The first meeting of the network will focus on innovative empirical designs and on longitudinal data to provide new insights to these broad themes.
Participants in the network should be close to completing a PhD or be within seven years of receipt of a PhD. They should be quantitative education or labour market researchers (economists, sociologists, psychologists, or a related social science discipline) and carry out research on the school-to-work transition and its consequences in the UK or Germany using (quasi-)experimental designs or longitudinal data. Ten will be based in Germany and 10 in the UK.
A successful academic career relies on building strong international networks; however, opportunities for early career researchers to do this are limited. At the same time, there is uncertainty about how Brexit will affect the research funding landscape, particularly for international collaborations. The United Kingdom and Germany have strong research institutions and excellent sources of longitudinal data that can be used to answer questions about education, skills, and life outcomes.
A follow-up workshop will take place at University College London in the autumn.
Senior academics
- Prof. Michael Gebel (University of Bamberg)
- Prof. Sandra McNally (University of Surrey and London School of Economics)
Date
4.4.2019 - 5.4.2019
Venue
Institute for Employment Research (IAB)
Regensburger Strasse 100
Room E10
90478 Nuremberg
Germany
Programme
THURSDAY, 4 APRIL 2019
- 12:00 p.m. Welcome lunch buffet at the IAB
Welcome, introduction, purpose of the workshop
Nikki Shure, UCL and Alex Patzina, IAB - 1:00 p.m. Research, Policy and Making a Difference
Professor Sandra McNally, University of Surrey and LSE - 1:45 p.m. Session I: vocational and general schooling
- Educational attainment in Germany and Great Britain: Tracking and Comprehensive System compared
Marie Wohlbrandt, University of Potsdam - Students’ Behavioural Responses to a Fallback Option – Evidence from Introducing Interim Degrees in German Schools
Larissa Zierow, ifo - Increased Compulsory School Leaving Age Affects Secondary School Track Choice and Increases Dropout Rates in Vocational Training Schools
Anna Adamecz-Volgyi, UCL - Early careers of dropouts from vocational training: Signals, human capital formation, and firm characteristics
Alex Patzina, IAB
- Educational attainment in Germany and Great Britain: Tracking and Comprehensive System compared
- 3:30 p.m. Coffee break
- 3:45 p.m. Session II: non-cognitive skills, aspirations, life satisfaction
- Different Counselors, Many Options: Career Guidance and Career Plans in Secondary Schools
Annette Hillerich-Sigg, ZEW - You’re in the Army Now: The Disruptive Effect of Compulsory Service on Life Satisfaction and its Channels
Matthias Collischon, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg - Effects of Timing and Reference Frame of Feedback: Evidence from a Field Experiment
Mira Fischer, WZB
- Different Counselors, Many Options: Career Guidance and Career Plans in Secondary Schools
- 5:00 p.m. Session III: labour market returns
- An analysis of medium-term labour market and earnings effects of university compared to higher technical education
Hector Espinoza, NIESR - Postsecondary and Labour Market Outcomes of Vocational vs. General Higher Secondary Pupils
Markus Zimmermann, HU Berlin - Income after Labour Market Entry: Do institutional characteristics of training occupations matter?
Miriam Gronning, EHB - The labour market returns to social mobility: first in the family university graduates in England
Nikki Shue, UCL - 6:45 p.m End of the workshop
- 7:30 p.m. Informal drinks and dinner at Dorfschulze, Bärenschanzstr. 121, 90429 Nuremberg
- An analysis of medium-term labour market and earnings effects of university compared to higher technical education
FRIDAY, 5 APRIL 2019
- 9:30 a.m. The role of temporary employment in the early career: A research agenda
Professor Michael Gebel, University of Bamberg - 10:15 a.m. Session IV: labour market policy and trends
- The Role of Social Welfare Benefits for Young People’s Transitions from School to Work
Kerstin Jahn, IAB - Policy Evaluation Under Biased Job Search
Jonas Fluchtmann, Aarhus University
- The Role of Social Welfare Benefits for Young People’s Transitions from School to Work
- Session V: inequality
- What young English people do once they reach school- leaving age: A cross-cohort comparison for the last 30 years
Jake Anders, UCL - The influence of parents’ social capital on their children’s transition to vocational training in Germany
Tobias Roth, University of Mannheim - Inequalities in university match
Stuart Campbell, UCL - Demand matters: spatial inequality in the school-to-work transition
Katy Morris, EUI
- What young English people do once they reach school- leaving age: A cross-cohort comparison for the last 30 years
- 12:45 p.m. Lunch at the IAB
- 1:45 p.m. IAB data presentation: The future of linked survey-administrative data in Germany
IAB - 2:15 p.m. Breakout session, Coffee available
- 5:30 p.m. Wrap-up and outlook
- 6:00 p.m. End of the workshop
- 7:30 p.m. Workshop dinner at Restaurant Herr Lenz, Kernstr. 29, 90429 Nuremberg