With the increasing attention to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), hands-on Curriculum Practical Training (CPT) has been expanding rapidly worldwide as a requirement of the undergraduate engineering education. In China, a typical CPT for undergraduate engineering students requires several weeks of hands-on training in the industry. So far the evidence on the effect of CPT is inconclusive for education researchers and policy makers. Employing a dataset collected from China in

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... 3, this study endeavors to identify the effect of CPT on engineering students' career development in China. This research uses two outcome variables to gauge work place outcomes: earnings and productivity. With the Propensity Score Matching approach, this study shows several results: 1) most engineers benefit from their CPT and value this hands-on training experience; 2) without matching, CPT has a statistically significant positive contribution to future earnings. However, the significant effect vanishes after matching; 3) CPT was a significant positive determinant of productivity with and without matching; and 4) the effect of CPT was heterogeneous depending on personal characteristics.