How important are IT competencies for professional success?

We will register the various skills that young people acquire during their basic vocational training and will classify them according to categories. The main focus will be on IT skills, and how these interact with other skills acquired during professional training. To this end, we will first analyse the curricula of the various vocations. We will search these text documents using computational linguistic methods, with the aim of identifying identical skills across occupations. In a second step, we will apply statistical methods to investigate how the skill categories identified in this way influence the long-term labour market success of graduates in the respective occupations.

Several studies have already investigated whether IT skills increase the prospect of such things as getting a well-paid job. However, these reports are few in number and the results are contradictory. Moreover, it is not clear which computer skills students need in order to be successful in the labour market, and which additional abilities are required in combination with these computer skills.

On the basis of the curricula for various occupations, we will systematically record the skills taught during vocational training. We will then investigate how certain IT skills are related to the professional development of individuals, e.g. in terms of salary, employment prospects or mobility, also in interaction with other professional skills and abilities.

We seek to identify skill sets that are particularly valuable in the light of increasing digitalisation. The theoretical findings of our project will benefit individuals, and will also be useful for future policy decisions. They can serve as a foundation for evidence-based policy recommendations and instruments.

Long-Term Effects of IT Skills in Vocational Education - Learnings from Past for Future Digital Transformations