Quality Vocational Training

Relation to social mobility

According to many assessment studies, quality vocational training increases employment prospects and earning capacity, thus providing an alternative route to social mobility for young people who have not acquired academic an education or whose education does not provide them access to quality employment. In Israel, the vocational training channel is ineffective: CBS analyses indicate that participation in vocational training (two years or more) hardly differentiates among the groups of the various populations. This is in contrast to academic education, which has been found to be a major variable in the distinction among all populations. This finding corresponds to the data about: (1) low demand – in the field of vocational-technological education, only about 12,000 students per year begin a training program at technological colleges (2) the low graduation rate – in the field of vocational/technological education, only about 50% receive a diploma (3) Less than 50% of the students integrate into employment in the field they studied (4) The average salary of graduates of vocational training is significantly lower than the average salary in the economy.