SECONDARY VOCATIONAL-EDUCATION AND THE TRANSITION FROM SCHOOL TO WORK

This article reevaluates the effects of high school vocational educati on on students' odds of being unemployed and students' occupational at tainment in the transition from school to work. The question posed is whether vocational secondary education actually benefits its clientele or is simply the crude mechanism of social exclusion that some claim it to be. The authors find that although vocational education inhibits students' likelihood of attending college and subsequently of finding employment in the professions and managerial occupations, it also red uces the risk of unemployment and increases students' chances of emplo yment as skilled workers. Therefore, for students who are unlikely to continue on to college, vocational education is a safety net that redu ces the risk of falling to the bottom of the labor queue.