Closing the Gap between Vocational and General Education? Evidence from University Technical Colleges in England

University Technical Colleges (UTCs) were introduced in England in 2010. They are hybrid schools which combine general and vocational education and have conventional and unconventional entry ages. Their introduction provides an opportunity to study the impact of technical education offered by these new schools on academic and vocational education and on the short-term workforce outcomes of students they enrol. An instrumental variable approach is adopted to evaluate the causal effect of attending a UTC. This takes advantage of geographic and cross-cohort variation in exposure to UTCs. For pupils who enter at the unconventional age 14, UTCs dramatically reduce their academic achievement on national exams at age 16. By contrast, for students who enter at the conventional age of 16, UTCs boost vocational achievement without harming academic achievement. They also improve achievement in STEM qualifications, enrolment in apprenticeships, employment prospects (by age 19) and probability of going on to study STEM at university