Secondary vocational education and decent work in Indonesia: differences between urban and rural areas

Indonesia has prioritized upper secondary vocational education since 2006. This study examines the labour market outcomes of upper secondary vocational education in terms of decent work (DW), using Indonesian Family Life Survey data and a research framework that links DW into the broader labour economics of the school to work transition. We compare urban and rural workers with upper secondary vocational education to those with general education, using both simple regressions and propensity score matching. Workers with upper secondary vocational education do not earn higher wages or have better employment conditions than workers with general education. An exception is for workplace-provided training and pensions, where vocational graduates did better than general ones in 2014-15, a change from 2007; this effect was also much stronger in urban than in rural areas. Our findings raise questions about Indonesia's policy of expanding upper secondary vocational education without also focusing on its quality.