I am a PhD candidate in the programme group Institutions, Inequalities, and Life courses (IIL) of the Department of Sociology at the University of Amsterdam. I am affiliated with the Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology (ICS). My PhD research focuses on how differences in educational qualifications impact careers in the labor market. It is part of the project From School to Career: Towards A Career Perspective on the Labor Market Returns to Education (CAREER) which is funded by an ERC grant. My PhD research is supervised by Thijs Bol (University of Amsterdam), Hanno Kruse (University of Bonn), and Marie Labussière (University of Amsterdam)

I hold a Bachelor's degree in Social Sciences and a Master's in Sociology and Social Research, both from the University of Cologne.

Decisions about which educational degree individuals pursue have consequences for their work lives. In this PhD project, I study whether and to what extent vocationally trained workers have different careers than generally trained workers. Vocational education that prepares students to work in specific occupations is assumed to provide easy entrance into the labor market but lower employment prospects and income in later life. In contrast, students who completed general programs that convey broad knowledge, basic numeracy, and literacy skills tend to struggle in the first years but benefit in later career stages. Based on that finding, scholars argue that in times of rapid technological change occupation-specific skills outdate too quickly leaving vocational graduates with limited options. General education, in contrast, equips workers with the required flexibility to operate changing labor markets.

While research, so far, has found indication of a late-career penalty for vocationally trained workers in various countries, little yet is known about why these disparities between workers trained differently exist. This subproject aims to identify and examine the drivers of education-based career inequality such as labor market mobility, cumulative (dis)advantage, and differences in institutional context. To this end, I analyze employment trajectories from large panel surveys and register data from various countries.

In Amsterdam, I have taught in the courses Advanced Statistics and Education & Work which are part of the Sociology Bachelor's program. During my studies in Cologne, I taught Advanced Statistics to Bachelor students and Advanced Methods in the Social Sciences to Master's students.