Volume 2, Number 1 (Winter) 1967
Corazzini, A. J. 1967. "When Should Vocational Education Begin?" Journal of Human Resources 2(1):41-50.
This is a study of the costs and benefits of two competing vocational training programs. The public and private direct, implicit, and opportunity costs of the two programs are computed and compared with the probable increase in lifetime income resulting from completion of the training.
Since one program is conducted at the high school level and the other at the post-high school level, both public authorities and private individuals are faced with a clear choice as to when the investment ought to be undertaken. The author's general conclusion is that the graduate of post-high school vocational training has made a relatively poor investment if he chooses to train in the same skilled trades open to vocational high school students. The return to that investment improves somewhat if the post-high school student undertakes semi-professional training during his thirteenth and fourteenth years of study. In all these considerations payback periods are computed, and the author uses the results of these computations in drawing some implications for educational planning.
The author is Assistant Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College. This research was supported by funds provided under Title 4(c) of the Vocational Education Act of 1963 and carried out while the author was a member of the research staff of the Industrial Relations Section at Princeton University. The author wishes to thank the Office of Education and the Director of the Industrial Relations Section at Princeton, Frederick Harbison, for making this work possible. In addition, he wishes to thank Loren A. Ihnen for his comments on an earlier draft of this paper. The paper was presented at the Conference on Research in Vocational Education held by the Center for Studies in Vocational and Technical Education at The University of Wisconsin, June 10-11, 1966.
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