Publications
Browse our papers, briefing notes and responses to government consultations and inquiries
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CVER Research Paper
Immigration and vocational training: Evidence from England
Firms have two ways to ensure access to a skilled workforce: they can train their employees to the required level of skill or they can hire workers who are already skilled. Training is costly and an increase in the avail...Read more...
Alan Manning, Sandra McNally and Guglielmo Ventura
10 January 2024
CVER Research Paper
The Recent Evolution of Apprenticeships: participation and pathways
The number of apprenticeship starts in England has reduced dramatically in recent years following government reforms and the COVID-19 pandemic. The composition has also shifted from almost complete domination by low and ...Read more...
Chiara Cavaglia, Sandra McNally and Guglielmo Ventura
8 December 2022
CVER Research Paper
On Track to Success? Returns to vocational education against different alternatives
Many countries consider expanding vocational curricula in secondary education to boost skills and labour market outcomes among non-university-bound students. However, critics fear this could divert other students from mo...Read more...
Sönke Hendrik Matthewes and Guglielmo Ventura
11 November 2022
CVER Research Paper
Do Management Practices Matter in Further Education?
Further Education colleges are a key way in which 16-19 year olds acquire skills in the UK (much like US Community Colleges), especially those from low income backgrounds. Yet, little is known about what could improve pe...Read more...
Sandra McNally, Luis Schmidt and Anna Valero
8 March 2022
CVER Research Paper
The Effects of College Capital Projects on Student Outcome
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 l...Read more...
Stephen Gibbons, Claudia Hupkau, Sandra McNally and Henry G. Overman
23 November 2021
CVER Research Paper
The impact of the Apprenticeship Levy on Apprenticeships and other training outcomes
Since April 2017, UK employers with an annual pay bill above £3 million have contributed to the Apprenticeship Levy. In this paper we use a matched firm-learner dataset to explore changes in apprenticeship and other trai...Read more...
Gavan Conlon, Andy Dickerson, Steven McIntosh and Pietro Patrignani
14 April 2021
CVER Research Paper
Trends in job-related training and policies for building future skills into the recovery
The trends outlined in this paper and the broader evidence suggest that new or enhanced policies to increase the quantity and quality of job-related training are required, particularly for younger workers or those with l...Read more...
Jiaqi Li, Anna Valero and Guglielmo Ventura
16 December 2020
CVER Research Paper
Gender, achievement, and subject choice in English education
In common with other OECD countries, there is a gender gap in educational achievement in England favouring girls. This carries through to tertiary education. On the other hand, boys are far more likely to engage in STEM ...Read more...
Chiara Cavaglia, Stephen Machin, Sandra McNally and Jenifer Ruiz-Valenzuela
20 October 2020
CVER Research Paper
Closing the Gap Between Vocational and General Education? Evidence from University Technical Colleges in England
Some countries, notably those which have long had a weak history of vocational education like the UK and the US, have recently seen a rapid expansion of hybrid schools which provide both general and vocational education....Read more...
Stephen Machin, Sandra McNally, Camille Terrier and Guglielmo Ventura
14 October 2020
CVER Briefing Note
Post-18 education – who is taking the different routes and how much do they earn?
This paper describes the educational trajectories and labour market outcomes for people who completed their GCSEs between 2002 and 2006. Our long span of longitudinal data enables us to follow these individuals through t...Read more...
Jack Britton, Hector Espinoza, Sandra McNally, Stefan Speckesser, Imran Tahir and Anna Vignoles
11 September 2020
CVER Research Paper
Where versus What: College Value-Added and Returns to Field of Study in Further Education
Enrolling in vocational education and training programs constitutes a natural response to the current dynamics of the labour market, which is being reshaped by routinisation, automation, and outsourcing. We estimate the ...Read more...
Esteban M. Aucejo, Claudia Hupkau and Jenifer Ruiz-Valenzuela
23 June 2020
CVER Research Paper
Gender and Socio-Economic Differences in STEM Uptake and Attainment
The underrepresentation of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) occupations is a world-wide phenomenon and a concern for policy makers. This is the case in the UK where a shortage of STEM skills is ...Read more...
Emily McDool and Damon Morris
20 March 2020
CVER Research Paper
The long-term impact of improving non-cognitive skills of adolescents: Evidence from an English remediation programme
In this paper, we estimate the long-term labour market effects of Entry to Employment (E2E), an intervention designed to improve the non-cognitive skills of low-achieving adolescents in England. Using an instrumental var...Read more...
Vahé Nafilyan, Stefan Speckesser and Augustin de Coulon
13 March 2020
CVER Research Paper
Post-Compulsory Education Pathways and Labour Market Outcomes
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 ...Read more...
Andy Dickerson, Emily McDool and Damon Morris
7 February 2020
CVER Briefing Note
Exploring trends in apprenticeship training around the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy: emerging evidence using a matched apprentice-employer dataset
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Alice Battiston, Gavan Conlon, Gavan Conlon, Andy Dickerson, Steven McIntosh and Pietro Patrignani
27 January 2020
CVER Research Paper
Peer Effects and Social Influence in Post-16 Educational Choice
This paper investigates the impact of peers' ability on an individual's post-compulsory educational choices in terms of whether they select an academic route or a vocational route. In order to overcome the common problem...Read more...
Alice Battiston, Sophie Hedges, Thomas Lazarowicz and Stefan Speckesser
7 January 2020
CVER Briefing Note
Inequality in education and labour market participation of young people across English localities:An exploration based on Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) data
Currently, 792,000 16-24-year olds in the UK – 11.5% of the age group – are Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET), but not much is known about how this differs by local area. In this Briefing Note, we provide c...Read more...
Janine Boshoff, Jamie Moore and Stefan Speckesser
25 November 2019
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