Are Skills More Relevant than Formal Education? Evidence from the Spanish Labour Market (1999-2025)

Anna Montfort Chipell , Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics
Pau Miret Gamundi, Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics (CED-CERCA)

This paper examines the extent to which work experience and skills acquired outside the formal education system can compensate for the lack of academic qualifications in specific occupational groups within the Spanish labour market. Three hypotheses are proposed. First, regardless of the educational level of the employed population, certain provinces are expected to concentrate a higher share of jobs in elementary occupations. Second, sex and age are hypothesised to interact with educational level in shaping the probability of working in such occupations, with an age effect among men and a generational effect among women. Third, place of birth is expected to exert an independent influence on employment in elementary occupations, operating as a form of net discrimination. While most studies on educational mismatch have focused on the overqualification of university graduates, this research examines workers whose highest educational attainment is compulsory schooling. It starts from the idea that formal education represents only one dimension of human capital, and that in many labour contexts, skills gained through experience may hold equal or greater value than academic credentials. The analysis uses longitudinal data from the Spanish Labour Force Survey (1999–2025), a period encompassing major economic, technological, and demographic transformations, including two large migration waves, the expansion of higher education, and several economic crises. Conceptually, the study reconsiders the relationship between education, skills, and employability by highlighting the compensatory value of experiential learning. Methodologically, it exploits the long-term panel structure of the SLFS to connect macrostructural change with individual labour trajectories.

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 Presented in Session P7. Education, Labor Market, and Economic Issues