New information, new interests? Impact of an occupation finder on vocational choices of lower secondary students

When making career-defining decisions, individuals should be well-informed. This study examines the impact of a low-cost personalised information intervention on occupational choices for students in lower-secondary education in Switzerland. Using data from an online platform and a regression discontinuity design (RDD), we analyse how a tool called occupation finder affects the number of occupations students apply to. The findings show that tailored information significantly increases the number of occupations students apply to. The intention-to-treat effect suggests every fifth student applies to an additional occupation, while the local average treatment effect indicates an increase of applications to three additional occupations for those students using the tool.