Vocational education also road to success

TALLINN - A fresh study by Statistics Estonia, Success in the Labor Market, an overview of the average gross monthly income of persons with vocational and higher education and their social status on the labor market, indicates that vocational education is not a dead-end in the labor market as is often thought, reports LETA.

Statistics Estonia used the data from the Estonian Education Information System, the Estonian Tax and Customs Board, the Population Register and the Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund to assess the success of graduates from vocational and higher education. The main indicators used are the gross monthly income from employment according to the Tax and Customs Board and the social status (working, living abroad, studying, on parental leave). This is a unique dataset that allows a comparison of different schools and fields of study.

Analyst Kaia Kabanen compared the average gross monthly income of graduates from different levels of vocational and higher education by field of study and school. The results show that graduates in fields of study related to computers, transport, engineering, national and public defense are the most successful on all levels of education.

“An education in these specialties pays off, since the higher the level of education, the higher the income. For example, the average income of persons with a Master’s degree in computer science is more than 500 euros higher than the average income of those with a professional higher education diploma in computer sciences,” explained Kabanen.
Leading Statistician Koit Meres studied the social status of graduates with different levels of education as another indicator of labor market success. Meres mentioned that “In the case of vocational education, people going abroad have mainly acquired occupations that are not very well-paid. In higher education, income does not have such an impact on the decision to go abroad, other factors are more decisive.”

Unemployment depends both on the level of education and on the field of study, said Meres. “For example, persons with a vocational education in health have a lower unemployment rate than persons with a Master’s degree in agriculture,” he added.