The employment consequences of secondary occupational and academic courses for minorities and females

The purpose of this study was to determine the long-term effect of participation in secondary vocational education and Co-operative Education for non-college attending high school graduates in general, and selected ethnic minorities and females specifically. Minority individuals represented in the study were African-American and Hispanic-American high school graduates from the 1980 sophomore cohort of the High School and Beyond, Fourth Follow-up. While previous research has purported to show that secondary vocational education has short-term economic benefit for non-college attending youth, these benefits have been mixed and/or nonexistent for minority youth. Few studies have examined the long-term benefit of participation in vocational education during high school.

Path analysis was used to examine the long-term direct and indirect effects of secondary vocational education on the post secondary labor market experiences of non-college attending females and selected minorities. A causal model was devised to determine the influence of taking vocational education courses and participation in Co-op during high school on length of employment and annual income for young people entering the labor force with only a high school diploma.

For non-college attending youth, these analyses found no long-term effect on their post graduation labor market experiences as a result of taking secondary vocational education courses and/or participating in Co-op during high school.