Where versus What: College Value-Added and Returns to Field of Study in Further Education

Abstract

We use administrative records on educational and labor market trajectories to estimate the value-added of English further education colleges in terms of educational and labor market outcomes and earnings returns to different fields of study taught at these colleges. We find that dispersion in college value-added in terms of labor market outcomes is moderate compared to differences in earnings returns across fields of study. We further show that value-added in labor market outcomes is correlated with value-added in academic outcomes. We conclude that in English further education, what one studies tends to matter more than where one does so.