Abstract
Programs that facilitate the interaction of high school students with the labor market are likely to ease the school to work transition. By conveying useful information on labor market prospects, these programs could also influence the choice of continuing into tertiary education. In 2015, school-work alternation programs were made compulsory in all Italian high school, with the view that students needed to combine learning at school with learning in the labor market. A distinctive feature of this reform was that the intensity of the treatment varied across school tracks, higher for vocational and technical schools and lower for academic schools. We exploit this setup to evaluate the impact of a more intense treatment on labor market outcomes and the decision to enroll in tertiary education. Using a differences–in–differences approach, we show that having done more hours of school – work alternation did not increase the probability of employment either just after graduation or one year later. Rather, the probability of exiting the labor force increased. While in the short run this was accompanied by a lower probability of unemployment – therefore signaling reduced job search intensity- in the medium run enrolment in college increased substantially. One possible reason is that technical high school graduates, by virtue of their longer experience in firms and in the labor market, learned more about their labor market opportunities as high school graduates, and used this information to increasingly select into college education.