Academic education is generally rewarded by employers, but what happens to
graduates if they are trained for two years less and have to compete with
vocationally trained labor market entrants in a similar field of study?
Focusing on Germany, we analyze labor market entries of individuals eligible
for higher education, who either opted for newly introduced short bachelor’s
degrees, or for well-established vocational degrees. Based on Microcensus
data, we find that bachelor’s degrees from classical universities are
associated with higher earnings and more prestigious jobs than initial
vocational training degrees, and with higher prestige (but similar earnings)
than further vocational degrees. However, bachelor’s degrees from universities
are also related to higher risks of unemployment or fixed-term employment.
Universities of applied sciences, which combine academic and practical
training, offer both high earnings and prestigious jobs as well as low risks
of unemployment or fixed-term employment at the bachelor’s and the master’s
level. Overall, ‘general’ academic education provides advantages over
vocational education, despite these structural changes. Variations by field of
study are reported