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We employ sequence analysis techniques to evaluate the myriad of different pathways individuals take through the education system into the labour market. Using data from the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE), matched to administrative records from the National Pupil Database (NPD), we compare the trajectories of individuals through compulsory and post-compulsory education and examine their early labour market outcomes, measured at age 25. We employ cluster analysis to identify groups of individuals who experience more similar education-employment transitions and examine the characteristics that could potentially be used to target those who are more at risk of poorer education and early labour market outcomes. As well as [General Certificate of Secondary Education] GCSE performance at age 16, particularly in Maths and English, we find that parental advice and aspirations, and attitudes towards HE formed by age 14, are all important in predicting individuals' pathways through post-compulsory education and into work.

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The importance of apprenticeships for early labour market transitions varies across countries and over time. In recent times, there has been a policy drive to increase the number of people undertaking apprenticeships in England and there are plans to dramatically change the post-16 system, which would include making apprenticeships a more important part of it. This raises the question as to how beneficial apprenticeships are to young people currently - especially in the context of a country without an existing broad-base of apprenticeship provision. In this paper, we use administrative data to track students through their schooling and into the labour market. We analyse the payoff to apprenticeships for young people in the short term (when they are around 23 years old) and after a few years in the labour market (when they around 28 years old). We ask whether there is a payoff for young men and women in terms of employment and earnings. Our results suggest a positive earnings differential on average which has a causal interpretation. However, there is huge variability in the estimated earnings differential between sectors and this has important implications for the gender earnings gap because of the different choices made by men and women.

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In this study, we investigate the value of progression associated with different vocational qualifications disaggregated by subject area of study. Previous analyses of labour market outcomes by subject of study demonstrated that estimates of labour market outcomes vary considerably by subject area, but this is in part as a result of the choice of counterfactual. In particular, the choice of the adjacent level of qualification (not controlling for subject of study) captures an 'average' return using learners with qualifications at the level below in any subject area in the counterfactual group. This approach does not take into account that learners tend to self-select in specific subject areas depending on their (observed and unobserved) characteristics and that transitions between completely different subject areas are unlikely to happen due to admissions criteria.

The analysis of the value of progression confirms that in the majority of subject areas, the degree of specialisation increases as we move up in the qualifications framework, and that as such, comparing outcomes of individuals on particular subject pathways against anyone in possession of the adjacent level of qualification may not may not fully reflect the options concretely available to students and the associated expected gain from progressing to further study. If we consider earnings trajectories within the same subject areas, earnings differentials associated with 'Construction', 'Engineering' and 'Business and Law' are strong and positive (but lower in magnitude compared to analyses using the counterfactual of all learners with qualifications at the level below), while subject areas with typically zero earnings differential in previous analysis (such as 'Arts and Media') are associated with positive earnings differentials when considering progression within the same subject area.

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The general debate on the relationship between school resources and student outcomes is an old and controversial one (for reviews see, for example, Hanushek, 1989, 1997 and Gibbons and McNally, 2013), although there is less evidence on the effect of capital expenditure. This paper provides new evidence by studying the effect of capital expenditure in Further Education (FE) Colleges in England. These colleges provide post-compulsory schooling education, similar to US Community Colleges. About half of school leavers in England attend FE colleges, though they are generally considered the poor relation of schools and universities, enrolling lower achieving students and with less resources per student (Britton et al. 2019). Capital investment projects in these colleges have the potential to improve educational outcomes for large numbers of disadvantaged students and thus to facilitate social mobility. These colleges also have an important role to play in providing the intermediate and higher technical skills which are widely regarded as being in short supply in Britain.

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This paper investigates whether the educational choices that young people make after the completion of their GCSEs (at age 16) are influenced by their peers. More specifically, it takes advantage of the variation in peer groups that arises when students move from primary to secondary school in order to isolate the impact of secondary school peers on the choice of educational trajectory. These trajectories are broadly classified as academic, vocational, a combination of the two, or no education at all. In order to overcome the common problems associated with the identification of peer effects, the ability of the primary school peers of secondary school peers, who are not going to the same secondary school, is used as an instrument for secondary school peer group quality. These 'peers of peers' did not go to the same primary or secondary school as the individual of interest and so cannot have had any direct impact on them.

Our results show that higher ability peers reduce the likelihood that an individual will choose a vocational course at age 16 after controlling for the individual's own ability. We also find a very strong effect of household income on education choices, showing that the more deprived a student's background is, the more likely they are to opt for a vocational trajectory over an academic one.

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Following a number of policy changes, there has been a significant decline in apprenticeship starts and change in their composition over the last few years. In this report, we describe how apprenticeships have evolved between August 2014 and July 2020 and what characterises apprentices themselves in terms of their demographic background. We use information available in administrative data - the Individualised Learner Record and the National Pupil Database. We interpret what this may imply for inequality and social mobility along various dimensions.

The number of apprenticeship starts in England has reduced dramatically in recent years following government reforms and the [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic. The composition has also shifted from almost complete domination by low and intermediate level apprenticeships to one where higher and degree apprenticeships constitute a significant share (26 per cent in 2020). Even though the number of apprenticeships has decreased, policy changes have likely improved their average quality. One might characterise the changes (at least up until the pandemic) as a substitution of quantity for quality. But this might have come at the cost of less equitable access with, for example, those living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods losing out from these changes.

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The study investigates the impact of socioeconomic background on the academic match of students in post-compulsory upper-secondary education making use of detailed individual-level linked administrative data from schools, colleges and tax authorities in England. Academic match occurs when student quality matches the quality of the qualification that they take and is measured using a continuous variable which defines undermatched, matched and overmatched students based on the distance between each student's prior attainment in age 16 high-stake examinations and the median prior attainment of the other students who achieved their chosen academic or vocational qualification. Students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds are found to be more likely to be exposed to academic undermatch compared to their more advantaged peers and this effect is identified to be greater among the highest achieving students. Also, the study demonstrates that undermatched students are more likely to be found in schools with lower proportions of high achieving students and higher proportions of disadvantaged students. Among the highest achieving students, 80 per cent of the identified socio-economic gap in academic match can be explained by such differences in the schools that those students from differing backgrounds attend. In addition, the study identifies indications that significant masses of undermatched students are more likely to be found in rural districts with higher rates of youth unemployment and higher proportions of poorly educated residents. Finally, the study establishes a positive relationship between academic assortative matching and labour market income returns. Non-university participating girls who were one standard deviation less undermatched earned 17 per cent more at age 25 while non-university participating boys earned 5 per cent more.

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This paper analyses how employers in three countries, Germany, the UK and Spain, experience and view apprenticeship. The focus is a single occupation - Vehicle Maintenance and Repair (Car Service) based on case studies and a representative employer survey carried out in the three countries. Apprenticeship is well-established in Germany and is strongly promoted by the UK government. In Spain, Car Service courses are full-time college courses which include a workplace internship.

German and UK firms are satisfied with the practical and theoretical content of apprenticeship programmes but case study evidence reveals that the workplace training element of apprenticeship makes heavy demands on firms' resources. Spanish courses demand less of employers but skills are less well-developed. While German Car Service firms train more apprentices than they immediately require, UK firms under-invest in apprenticeship citing the heavy time demands on experienced employees. Local employer associations in Germany ensure that firms act cooperatively to procure an adequate skill supply.

In the UK firms incur high recruitment costs as a result of skill shortages but refrain from apprenticeship through fear of poaching. Spanish firms value the internship period as a way of screening potential employees. Full-time college courses with a short internship are inadequate as a preparation for multi-skilled employment in an occupation with a strong technical knowledge base and electro-mechanical skills content. The UK should consider a different financing model for technical apprenticeships. In addition, increased labour market regulation and employer cooperation could encourage investment in apprenticeship.

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It has been argued that vocational education facilitates the school-to-work transition but reduces later adaptability to changing environments. Using the recent international [OECD's Programme of International Assessment of Adult Competencies] PIAAC data, [the authors] confirm such a trade-off over the life-cycle in a difference-in-differences model that compares employment rates across education type and age. An initial employment advantage of individuals with vocational compared to general education turns into a disadvantage later in life. Results are strongest in apprenticeship countries that provide the highest intensity of industry-based vocational education.

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In recent times, there has been a policy drive to increase the number of people undertaking apprenticeships in England. In this paper we examine the characteristics of young people who start an apprenticeship and we look at whether there is an earnings premium a few years later. Specifically, we use administrative data in England to track students through their education and into the labour market. We analyse the earnings differential to starting an apprenticeships after a few years of experience (at the age of 28). Starting an apprenticeship is associated with a positive earnings differential on average. This is much larger for men than for women, mainly reflecting the different sectors in which they start their apprenticeship. Our analysis also suggests barriers to opportunity for accessing apprenticeship in the first place - for example, for those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

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