ABSTRACT Some countries have certifying institutions for competence acquired at the workplace. These institutions provide incentives for workplace training that may have favourable effects on productivity, earnings and labour market participation. We present evidence on the earnings effects of attaining vocational qualifications in adulthood through two alternative routes: (1) apprenticeship and (2) recognition and testing of vocational competence acquired through relevant work experience. Drawing on longitudinal administrative data from Norway and tracking the labour market careers of individuals without completed upper secondary education by age 25, we estimate the impacts of acquiring vocational qualifications on future labour earnings. To allow for differential labour market trajectories of those who do and do not acquire qualifications, we account for unobserved individual heterogeneity in both levels and earnings growth. Without a rich representation of unobserved heterogeneity, estimated earnings effects are exaggerated. We find that vocational qualifications from both the apprenticeship and the experience-based routes boost earnings of men and women. Certification of already acquired skills has some value in itself, but adult apprenticeships have more positive effects on future earnings, as they involve greater individual skills development.

中文翻译：

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成人职业资格的经济回报

摘要一些国家/地区拥有在工作场所获得能力证明的机构。这些机构提供了对工作场所培训的激励措施，这些措施可能对生产率，收入和劳动力市场参与产生有利影响。我们通过两种替代途径提供关于成年后获得职业资格的收入影响的证据：（1）学徒制；（2）通过相关工作经验认可和测试职业能力。利用来自挪威的纵向行政数据并跟踪到25岁之前未完成高中教育的个人的劳动力市场职业，我们估计获得职业资格对未来劳动力收入的影响。为了使有资格和没有资格的人的劳动力市场轨迹不同，我们在水平和收入增长方面都考虑了未观察到的个体异质性。如果没有丰富的未观察到的异质性表示，估计的收益影响就会被夸大。我们发现，通过学徒制和基于经验的途径获得的职业资格都可以提高男女的收入。对已经获得的技能进行认证本身具有一些价值，但是成人学徒制对未来的收入具有更积极的影响，因为它们涉及更大的个人技能发展。