What We Learn in School, We Learn for Life: Learning Opportunities as Moderators of the Relationship Between Prior Knowledge and Learning in Post-School Contexts

A commonly held belief is that knowledge acquired in school (KAS) matters for later stages of education because it enables individuals to make better use of new learning opportunities. The current study approached this question by examining the role of domain-specific KAS for the development of professional knowledge (PK) in vocational education and training (VET). Our analyses recurred on (1) school achievement tests that assess domain-specific KAS in chemistry, physics, and math, (2) occupation-specific achievement tests in the same domains to assess PK (and its development) in VET, and (3) comparisons between different VET programs to isolate the effects of learning opportunities on PK acquisition over time and their interaction with KAS. Data stemmed from a sample of N = 2,775 trainees from three VET groups (chemical laboratory assistants, technicians, and industrial clerks) that are characterized by a focus on different knowledge domains. Our findings suggest that VET does not affect the knowledge assessed with school achievement tests. Instead, VET programs provide learning opportunities that facilitate the acquisition of domain-specific PK. In addition, KAS matters for subsequent learning in VET because it (1) determines the level of PK with which trainees enter VET and (2) enables trainees to make better use of the learning opportunities to develop their professional knowledge.