This research examines the impact vocational high school's school-to-work programs has on the
student's ability to enter the labor market upon graduation. Expecially, we focused on the cooperative
education (co-op) type of program, which is wide-spread among Korean vocational high schools. We
analyzed follow-up data (2004-2005) from the Korean Education & Employment Panel (KEEP) of
students in vocational high schools who were seniors in 2004 and who in 2005 were either
employed and not attending college or were unemployed. The labor market outcomes were measured
by employment (vs. unemployment), full-time job (vs. part-time job), large firm entrance (vs. small
or medium firm), and matching job (vs. mismatching job).
As a result, we failed to find statistically positive effects of co-op programs on the job outcome
for high school graduates. High school graduates in co-op programs did not experience lower
unemployment rate nor higher rates for full-time job, large firm entrance, or a matching job with
their field of major. However, dropping out in the middle of a co-op program had a very significant
effect on future employment. If students completed the whole co-op program, they were four times
less likely to be unemployed and four times more likely to enter a large firm than co-op drop-outs.
And the company worked for and the particular task carried out during the co-op program did not
have a significant overall impact on employment, but it did have a positive impact on large firm
entrance in the first year after school. A student participating in a co-op program of a large firm
was 9.5 times more likely to be employed in a large firm, and students who participated in a co-op
program of a manufacturing company was 3.3 times more likely to be employed by a large firm.