The School-to-Work Transition of High School and Community College Vocational Program Completers: 1990-1992. EQW Working Papers WP27.

The school-to-work transition of high school and community college vocational program completers in 1990-1992 was examined by analyzing administrative records and employment and earnings data of vocational program completers from state education agencies in Colorado, Florida, Missouri, and Washington. A consistently high percentage of vocational program completers at both the high school and postsecondary levels continued an uninterrupted affiliation with the same employer during the bridge period encompassing their last months in school and first few months after leaving school; however, substantial movement between/among employers during the first years after the former students left school was observed. Former students who continued with the same employer through the bridge period were consistently found to have higher earnings than their classmates while they were still in school, shortly after leaving school, and at the end of the postschool reference period. It was concluded that knowledge about a former student's occupational assignment within a place of employment is not needed to predict that employee's earnings; rather, awareness of the person's industry affiliation is an acceptable substitute for that purpose. (Forty tables/figures and 86 endnotes are included. Appended are additional information on the wage-record components examined and calculation of a full-time earnings threshold amount.) (MN)