Higher education graduates with work experience enter the labour market more smoothly. This study analyses how work experience from vocational education and training (VET) affects labour market outcomes after higher education. To account for selection into VET, we use the regional enrolment rate as an instrument for upper-secondary VET. Results suggest that work experience gained during VET leads to significantly higher wages of 7% to 19% one year after graduation from higher education and two months less search time for first employment but does not significantly lower the probability of an internship in the post-graduation year. However, these positive effects do not persist: the effect is no longer robustly significant for wages, unemployment or employment position after five years. The effect operates through the human capital (specific and general), screening and signalling channels, not the social network channel. Our results suggest that upper-secondary VET is an equivalent pathway to academic education, not merely the second-best, for individuals planning on higher education.

具有工作经验的高等教育毕业生可以更顺利地进入劳动力市场。本研究分析了职业教育和培训（VET）的工作经验如何影响高等教育后的劳动力市场成果。为了考虑选择VET，我们使用地区入学率作为高中VET的工具。结果表明，在职业教育与培训期间获得的工作经验使高等教育毕业后一年的工资显着提高了7％至19％，首次就业的搜索时间缩短了两个月，但并未显着降低毕业后实习的可能性年。但是，这些积极影响不会持续下去：五年后，这种影响对于工资，失业或就业状况不再具有明显的意义。效果通过人力资本（特定的和一般的），筛选和信令渠道而不是社交网络渠道来运作。我们的结果表明，对于计划进行高等教育的个人，高中职业教育与培训是一条学历教育的等效途径，而不仅仅是第二高等。