Transition from Secondary School to Work in St. Vincent

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Transition from Secondary School to Workin St.
Vincent

• Christel Vermeersch

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Goals of the paper/ will discuss

• How do secondary school graduates transition to
  the labor market?
• Post secondary occupation, job search strategies,
  sectors of employment
• Skills
• IT skills, awareness of skills needed,
  communication with employers about skills
• Training
• Who receives on-the-job training?
• Do better CXC qualifications associated with
  better labor market outcomes

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Survey

• Surveyed 400 Vincentian graduates from the 2002
  CSEC exam
• Field work in February 2006
• Very high response rates
• 85 in person, 13 proxy
• Survey content
• Labor market participation, economic activities
  since graduation, formal training, on the job
  training, skills, parental education, perceptions
  of skills

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Transition path from secondary to labor market
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Current job search and employment status among
graduates
Note 4 percent of graduates had permanently
migrated
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Sectors of job search by graduates
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Sources of vacancy information for succesful job
applications
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(No Transcript)
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IT Skills
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Graduates awareness of lack of skills
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Communication between employers and young people
on skills Time since the graduate talked to
any employer about her skills
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Communication with employers on skills

• Only 35.6 percent of respondents reported having
  ever talked to an employer about their skills.
• Only 15 of those who did, had talked to an
  employer about specific skills which they needed
  to update.

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Who receives/gets job-related training
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Are secondary qualifications valued in the labor
market?

• Number of CXC passes
• Score in CXC math and English

?

• Number of months till find first job
• Percentage of time spent looking for a job
• Average wage

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Are secondary qualifications valued in the labor
market?

• Results among graduates who did not undertake
  further studies
• Number of months till find first job no
  difference by CSEC results
• Percentage of time spent looking for a job no
  difference by CSEC results
• Average wage higher for higher CSEC Math
  qualification (80 per level), other CSEC results
  dont matter
• (controlling for gender, mothers education, age)

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Conclusions

• Skills
• Little interaction between graduates and
  employers on skills
• Lack of knowledge on valued skills among
  graduates
• Over-estimation of own IT skills
• 19 of graduates received on-the-job/job-related
  training at least once
• 13 among graduates who went straight to labor
  market
• Relevance of CSEC
• Only Math scores are associated with higher
  earnings