Written by: Peter Bogetoft and Jesper Wittrup

This working paper discusses methods whereby Danish vocational training schools can be benchmarked, and presents results from a number of models. It is conceptually complicated to benchmark vocational training institutions, as the schools offer a wide range of course programmes. This makes it difficult to compare the resources used, since some programmes by their nature require more classroom time and equipment than others. It is also far from straightforward to compare school effects with respect to grades, since the various programmes apply very different forms of assessment. In addition to the conceptual challenges, analyses of vocational colleges present difficulties with respect to data. It is difficult in many cases to be certain of correspondences between resources used and student-related factors, since students are registered at a school level, while resources used are recorded at higher level institutions administering courses at several schools. In the working paper itself, analyses are restricted to around 40 vocational training schools where it was possible to be certain of the correspondence between resource use and student achievement. We attempt to summarise the various effects that the schools have in two relevant effects, namely retention of students and employment rates among students who have completed training programmes.