Abstract: Several commentators have argued that vocational education provides a smoother school to work transition than academic education. In the long - run, however, the skills it provides depreciate faster and individuals with this type of education are less capable of adapting to technical change. Because of this, its short – term advantages trade off with expected long-term disadvantages in terms of employment, wages or both. Using the National Child Development Survey, a cohort survey in the UK, that allows us to follow individuals from age 23 to age 55, we find evidence of a trade-off only for real wages, and only for lower vocational education. For employment, our results indicate that the initial advantage associated to higher vocational education – relative to academic education of the same level - declines over time, without turning however into a disadvantage at later ages. For lower education, we find that employment profiles are very similar across education types. Comparative evidence based on the British Cohort Survey that refers to a younger cohort indicates that the relative performance of vocational and academic education over the life cycle varies not only by education level but also by cohort