Turning qualifications into jobs

UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IS designed to act as a slipway, launching students into the wider world in the expectation that the currents will guide them into a job. In practice, many people get stuck in the doldrums because employers demand evidence of specific experience even from entry-level candidates. Whether this counts as a skills gap is a matter of debate. “If I cannot find a powerful, fuel-efficient, easy-to-park car for $15,000, that doesn’t mean there is a car shortage,” says Peter Cappelli of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. But whether the fault lies with the educators or the employers, there is a need for pathways that lead individuals into jobs.

Sometimes those pathways are clearly defined, as in medicine and the law. Vocational education combines classroom and work-based learning to prepare young people for specific trades. In many European countries, one-third to half of later-stage secondary schoolgoers are on a vocational path (see chart). Britain is due to introduce an apprenticeship levy in April.

But pathways are needed to smooth transitions in other countries (America, for example...