The Benefits, Costs, and Financing of Technical and Vocational Education and Training

The TVET is particularly an innovative application field of educational economic “Costs-Benefit-Quality”-research. This chapter gives an overview of the accumulating empirical evidence on the benefits, costs, and financing of selected TVET programs. Before examining the findings of individual studies, the author considers the context for studying TVET. The first step is to ask, what are the reasons for conducting researches on TVET’s benefits, costs, and financing? Then he discusses frameworks for thinking about TVET and the methodologies for estimating TVET’s costs and benefits. Finally, he turns to a review of studies of TVET costs and benefits from the perspectives of workers, employers, taxpayers, and the broader public. The research spans several countries and a variety of TVET systems and programs. The final sections summarize the findings and consider implications for policy.