Abstract: It is widely believed that a dual system of vocational education provides an efficient way to learn vocational skills and to lay the basis for an efficient insertion in the labour market. In the Netherlands students can choose between vocational schools and an education within the apprenticeship system. In this paper we analyze whether in the long run workers with an apprenticeship do better than workers who have gone through a vocational school. It is found that there are hardly any differences in earnings, earnings growth and employment opportunities between workers with an apprenticeship and those who went to a vocational school. Download this paper.