Education and transition to employment among the youth in Vietnam

By Tran Thi Thu Van (VNP 25)

Supervisor: Dr. Truong Dang Thuy

Abstract:

The successful transition to employment marks a significant milestone in one’s life, as the participation in the workplace provides financial independence, social networks, and self-esteem. However, few empirical estimates have been conducted in Vietnam. This thesis examines the relationship between educational attainment and the school-to-work transition of school-leavers from 15 to 29 years old in Vietnam using data is from School to Work Transition Surveys 2015. This thesis, first, employs the diagram of the Kaplan-Meier estimator of the survival function and the exponential proportional hazard model to examine the relationship between education status and the rate of transition to first paid employment. Secondly, to investigate the factors affecting the probability of a person choosing a given occupation, a multinomial logit model is used for sub-data including those with first paid job. The results show that the high education results in faster entering the first paid employment and higher probability of entering the wage employment with a contract. Female find job faster than male. Family background (measured by parental education) does not affect the school to work transition process.