20. Are recent IVET graduates more likely to be in employment than those from the general stream?

To contextualise the labour market outcomes of recent IVET graduates, the following indicator compares their employment rate with that of recent graduates from the general stream of education. The indicator is defined as the difference between the employment rates of IVET graduates at a medium level of education attainment (ISCED 3-4) and the rate for those who graduated, at the same ISCED levels, from the general education stream. 

The rate for recent IVET graduates is defined as in the previous section: the employment rate of 20- to 34-year-olds with a vocational qualification at ISCED 3-4 as their highest educational level who graduated one to three years before the survey and are no longer in formal or non-formal education and training. Subtracting the employment rate of general stream graduates from the employment rate of IVET graduates gives the premium. Both employment rates exclude graduates in further formal or non-formal education and training and refer to 20- to 34-year-olds. The difference is in percentage points. 

Employment premium for recent IVET graduates (over general stream) (%) 

Source: Cedefop calculations based on Eurostat data, EU Labour Force Survey (LFS).

Key points

In 2020, the employment rate for EU recent IVET graduates with a medium level of education attainment (ISCED 3-4) was 17.4 percentage points higher than for those who graduated from the general stream of education at the same levels. Recent IVET graduates enjoyed a positive employment premium (a higher employment rate) in most EU countries (21 out of 27 EU countries). Cyprus (-9.8%), Greece (-4.7%) and Latvia (-2.7%) are the countries where the largest negative premium. Data for Luxembourg in 2020 are not available. 

During 2015-20, in the EU, the employment premium for recent IVET graduates over those from the general stream of education increased, on average, by 3.8 percentage points. Countries’ had mixed patterns of change over the same period. Important increases can be observed in France (29.5%) and Czechia (20%), largest falls are instead detected in Cyprus (-40.0%) and Estonia (-16.4.%). However, estimates for Czechia, Estonia and Cyprus are flagged as not reliable. A break in time series for data for 2020 for Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Malta, Netherlands, Poland and Sweden means that they cannot be reliably compared with data for 2015.  

Among the non-EU countries for which data were available, the employment premia for recent IVET graduates were positive in Switzerland and Norway (3.1% and 0.5%, respectively), while negative for Turkey (-3.4%)

Table 20. Employment premium for recent IVET graduates (over general stream) (%) 

Source: Cedefop calculations based on Eurostat data, EU Labour Force Survey (LFS). Notes: (b) ‘break in time series’; (p) ‘provisional’; (u) ‘unreliable’, data are not presented when they are not available and/or do not support sufficiently reliable comparisons across countries or over time.