Expertise and Excellence. Working Paper 95-13.

The research literature on the preparation of young people for work proves that policy recommendations are based on two false premises--academic skills are good substitutes for occupation-specific skills and increases in job turnover and skill obsolescence rates have caused a decline in the return to occupation-specific training by schools. Analyses provide strong evidence that both generic technical competence and occupation-specific competencies have large effects on worker productivity and other indicators of labor market success. The decline in occupational turnover means the social returns to occupational skills training have increased. The rapid obsolescence of skills implies greater need for occupational skills development, not reduced need. If vocational students learn less mathematics and science than many academic students, it is because they take less demanding, not fewer, academic courses. School-based occupational training produces four effects: within-job productivity, technology-skill transfer, job access, and job stability. Because getting a training-related job is essential for the training to pay off, greater emphasis needs to be given to ensuring that graduates find such employment. The payoff to teaching computer applications is very large. Most high school vocational students could develop their skills more rapidly if their program presented greater challenges and expected more of them. (Includes 12 figures and 18 tables. Appendixes contain 172 references and 38 endnotes.) (YLB)