Visualising the future: surfacing student perspectives on post-graduation prospects using rich pictures

The gradual commodification of higher education in the context of an increased focus on graduate employability attributes together with evolving labour markets is creating challenges for universities and students alike. For universities, there has been significant investment in careers services and, through institution-wide initiatives, employability or graduate attribute development established to support graduate transitions into work. Meanwhile, for students, experience of part-time work together with pessimistic post-recession employment discourses are challenging the notion that a good degree guarantees their future career prospects. Simultaneously, decreasing financial support from the state has resulted in worrying levels of debt for new graduates. This pilot study was designed to gain a fresh perspective of how students imagine themselves following graduation. The study used rich pictures (RP) as a methodology to explore student views of life beyond university in the UK and Canada. Content analysis of the RPs provided insights into their thoughts and anxieties about potential challenges for the future. Students presented both positive and negative visions of their future, with success in achieving a respectable performance in their final degree as the key differentiator. The insights gained are discussed in the context of related research into students’ concerns and university initiatives to support students throughout higher education and then into graduate employment. The findings revealed student motivations, hopes and fears which can inform the development of impactful university interventions.     

A winding road – professional trajectories from higher education to working life: a case study of political science and psychology graduates

This qualitative and longitudinal study focuses on graduate employment and the development of graduate employment paths. The aim of this article is to explore the present professional trajectory from higher education to working life, with particular reference to graduates from two different study programmes at Linköping University in Sweden: Political Science and Psychology. More specifically, the article focuses on how graduates construe their professional trajectories in terms of their envisaged future work as senior students, and later as novice and early-career professionals with 18 and 34 months of work life experience. The results indicate that graduates’ professional identities and vision of their future work change over time. The set of categories, depicting the graduates’ vision and experiences of their professional trajectories, do not seem to follow a specific temporal and logical progression in their career. Rather, they appear in different order and at different points in time after graduation. The results, instead, endorse the discourse of lifelong learning and the need for flexibility and employability on the labour market.     

高等教育大众化与人才培养质量保障

高等教育大众化加剧了教育资源短缺的矛盾使得教育质量出现滑坡,而社会对人才的质量特别是创新能力的要求却不断提高,高校毕业生就业出现了前所未有的困难。高校必须改革人才培养模式以适应社会的人才观和教育质量观的转变,保障人才培养质量。     

加强和改进大学生就业指导对策分析

近几年大学生就业难问题日渐突出,高等学校应主动适应经济社会发展对人才的需求,采取切实有效的措施,加强和改进大学生就业指导,重视就业指导队伍建设,构建大学生就业信息网络平台,注重大学生就业指导向“全程化”、“科学化”发展,在培养大学生全面素质的基础上,努力提高大学生的就业能力,促进大学生充分就业。     

Is It worth Being ‘Traditional’ in An Era of Mass Individualization?

This article deals with the question of how the segmentation of higher education participation connects with the segmentation of the graduate labour market into jobs with different levels of quality. With data comprising educational and labour market histories of graduates with Master's degree from nine European countries, the author analyses how graduates with traditional higher education careers come off on the European labour market compared to those with non‐traditional educational careers. When examining the quality of the employment that graduates obtain early on in their career, three criteria are applicable: the job stability and the quality of the education‐job match to both the level of their studies and skills. The method used in the analysis is logistic regression. Results indicate that being a traditional/non‐traditional graduate does affect the odds of finding proper employment; however, whether the influence is positive or negative greatly varies with respect to gender; the number of graduates with the same type of educational career on the local market and the criteria used to evaluate the adequacy of the employment.     

Transition systems and non-standard employment in early career: comparing Japan and Switzerland

Even though Japan and Switzerland are characterised by comparatively low youth unemployment rates, non-standard forms of employment are on the rise, posing a risk to the stable integration of young labour market entrants. Drawing on the French approach of societal analysis, this paper investigates how country-specific school-to-work transition systems stratify the risk of non-standard employment in early career differently in Japan and Switzerland. Our results reveal that in Japan, young entrants who completed university education are least at risk of becoming employed in non-standard work. On the contrary, it is the highly educated university graduates who mainly enter the labour market via non-standard employment in Switzerland, where vocational education promotes smooth transitions into standard employment relationships. Our findings suggest that the transition systems of the two countries differ in the way they revert to non-standard forms of employment. However, while job insecurities may not endanger labour market integration of highly skilled university graduates holding good career prospects in Switzerland, they may go hand in hand with social exclusion processes for the low-educated young entrants lacking bargaining power in the segmented Japanese labour market.     

Professional Doctorates and Careers: the Spanish case1

This article analyses the determining factors weighted by doctoral graduates when choosing their professional careers. In Spain, the analysis of such a group has been traditionally excluded from the empiric studies. On the one hand, the lack of databases made it difficult to see their professional situation, and on the other, a university career was understood as this group's innate purpose. The growing demand for qualified professionals in general and for those with a scientific training in particular has prompted the developed countries to carry out research on how to match the third-level training cycle and labour market needs. The analysis of this group's labour conditions allows one to assess whether the current doctoral education programmes satisfy labour market needs. The estimation of a multinomial logit model reveals the different factors when choosing a professional career depending on the area of knowledge. Personal characteristics, such as age, training, area of knowledge or job, as well as the expected wages become fundamental when determining doctors' professional future. Moreover, the results prove that a job outside the university is becoming a preferred option for doctors in certain fields.     

Relating Higher Education with the Labour Market: Graduates’ expectations and employers’ requirements

The paper takes into discussion the issue of quality of higher education services, from the perspective of graduates and employers as main beneficiaries of higher education services, by putting face to face expectations of students at graduation with employers’ requirements. In the two surveys conducted in 2006 in Romania, both graduates and employers have been asked about skills and abilities developed through higher education programmes and the extent to which these correspond to their expectations and requirements. The discussion is relevant to the vast literature presenting the skills debate, employment and graduates transition to the labour market, as well as to the literature presenting students’ expectations from higher education.     

Earnings among young and mature Danish university graduates

This paper studies the association between graduation age and earnings among university graduates in Denmark, which is a country with one of the oldest student populations in the world. Exploiting a rich data-set from administrative registers, the current study is able to track labour market career for a longer period of time and to control for more labour market-relevant variables than any previous study of graduation age and earnings. The results show that graduation age has either a slightly positive or an insignificant impact on starting wages within the public sector or a negative impact on starting wages among private sector employees. This applies to both genders, but the differences are stronger among male employees. The analyses of long-term wages reveal a more homogeneous pattern. Mature graduates earn less in all the years investigated. The wage differences are greatest among male graduates employed in private enterprises, and the gap increases throughout their careers.     

Lifelong learning for elders in Hong Kong: policy and practice

ABSTRACT

This article explores non-traditional student and graduate views of the university in Ireland and Portugal as it relates to their expectations of, and experiences in, the labour market. The research is based on in-depth biographical interviews with 61 non-traditional students and graduates conducted longitudinally (85 interviews in total). The article contextualises the research in relation to the expansion of higher education internationally as well as national and EU policies aimed at supporting a ‘knowledge-based economy’. It offers an overview of the meaning of precarity. It then outlines key empirical findings from the research related to student expectations of their degree and their post-graduation experience in the labour market. In particular, it explores the phenomenon of precarity amongst graduates how this is experienced and handled in various ways. Using a critical and egalitarian lens the overall aim of the research is to widen the focus of widening participation debates and explore how educational and institutional initiatives impact, or not, on wider social and employment inequalities.     

Relating Higher Education with the Labour Market: Graduates’ expectations and employers’ requirements

The paper takes into discussion the issue of quality of higher education services, from the perspective of graduates and employers as main beneficiaries of higher education services, by putting face to face expectations of students at graduation with employers’ requirements. In the two surveys conducted in 2006 in Romania, both graduates and employers have been asked about skills and abilities developed through higher education programmes and the extent to which these correspond to their expectations and requirements. The discussion is relevant to the vast literature presenting the skills debate, employment and graduates transition to the labour market, as well as to the literature presenting students’ expectations from higher education.

     

Aiming for better employment: a holistic analysis from admission to labour market

ABSTRACT

To address the changing needs of the labour market better, higher education institutions have increasingly aimed to enhance their teaching quality and the learning experiences of their students. Therefore, a key concept of the missions of contemporary educational institutions is to improve students’ employability after graduation. Although extensive initiatives have been undertaken, educational mismatch remains intensely debated and may seriously challenge the greater use of limited human resources in Taiwan. In this study, a vocational-oriented department (baking) of a local well-known university was chosen for a case study. A holistic approach from student admission to entry in the labour market is adopted to analyse student learning, teaching, curriculum planning, and structural and enterprise demands to estimate the extent to which these graduates fit the requirement of employers. Research findings indicate multiple gaps in skill formation, intended labour needs, and career ladders. These gaps bring profound implications to questions about strengthening the linkage or transitioning from higher education to the labour market.     

Managing the link between higher education and the labour market: perceptions of graduates in Greece and Cyprus

Abstract

The paper investigates the experience of employed higher education graduates in two countries with high rates of graduate unemployment. It examines the employment experience of graduates and their perceptions regarding the contribution of higher education to their employment and career prospects. Qualitative research was used to collect information from 58 university graduates in two Southern European countries, Greece and Cyprus. Respondents provided information on the skills and competencies acquired through higher education and utilised in the world of work. In both countries, modest links were reported between jobs and graduates’ field of study, as well as between knowledge and non-knowledge-based competencies acquired through higher education, and the requirements of the graduates’ jobs. The findings are used as the basis for suggestions that can enhance graduate employability and contribute to the management of the link between higher education and the labour market.     

Evaluating Student Success in a Cohort-based Graduate Program for Criminal Justice Professionals

Previous studies have shown that additional education for criminal justice professionals can improve individual effectiveness. This higher level of education can facilitate better communication, problem-solving skills, and performance. The University of South Florida offers a unique cohort-style/weekend-based Master’s program (MACJA) that is designed specifically for these professionals. This program has graduated 180 students since 2006, all members of the criminal justice field. The current study aims to determine which student background factors are associated with a higher graduating GPA in the program. This project will also discuss the results of a follow-up survey of MACJA graduates assessing professional advancement following graduation, specifically targeting topics such as promotions, special awards or recognitions, teaching experience, and further education.     

提升地方高校大学生就业竞争力的新探索——以嘉应学院党政干部战略后备人才培养模式为例

高等教育大众化带来了大学毕业生存量和流量的增加,大学生就业已成为政府、社会、高校、学生共同关注的问题,提升就业竞争力能有效拓展大学生就业空间。嘉应学院实施党政干部战略后备人才培养模式带动了教学和课程设置的变革,促进了学生专业素质和综合素质的提高,彰显了学生就业指导工作针对性,有利于学生提早做好职业生涯规划,有助于打造学生隐性就业竞争力。     

德育课对大学生就业指导的辅助作用

随着高校毕业生“自主择业,择优录用,竞争上岗”的新的就业体系的重新确立,各高校加强了对毕业生就业指导的力度,但是由于缺乏科学的方法和有效的途径,使许多大学生最终确立了不正确的择业观念。切实重视并加强高校德育教育课对大学生就业指导的辅助作用,才能帮助大学生最终确立正确的择业观念。本文笔者正是基于此,针对大学生就业过程中出现的错误观念,阐述了高校德育教育课对大学生就业指导所能起到的辅助作用。     

职业生涯规划与高校就业指导改革

随着高校教育管理体制的改革,高校毕业生的就业方式也发生着改变。因此,做好大学生的职业规划,能够有效地增强学生的主体意识,使大学生更好地选择自己的职业。本文旨在分析当前大学生职业生涯规划的现状,并对高校就业指导改革提出几点建设性意见。     

Hard Lessons for Lifelong Learners? Age and Experience in the Graduate Labour Market

The expansion of the higher education system and widening access to undergraduate study has led to growing diversity within the graduate labour supply, including increasing numbers who studied for their degrees as mature students. Analysis of graduates entering the labour market prior to the major expansion in the early 1990s indicated that those over the age of 30 had considerably more difficulty than younger graduates in accessing the career opportunities for which their education had equipped them. Is this still the case for more recent graduates? Drawing on a major qualitative and quantitative study of a class of graduates who completed their undergraduate degree courses in 1995, this paper explores early career development and employment outcomes according to age at graduation. Although we find considerable diversity among all age groups, mature graduates were more likely than their younger peers to experience difficulty in accessing appropriate employment, had a lower rate of earnings growth and expressed higher levels of dissatisfaction with their jobs.     

Student employment among descendants of Turkish migrants in Amsterdam and Strasbourg

This article compares and contrasts the nature of student employment experience in Amsterdam and Strasbourg among descendants of Turkish migrants. The analysis relies on in-depth qualitative interviews revealing the experience of student employment and the impact of working while studying on the educational careers and future labour market transitions. The comparative design of the study uncovered the role of distinct institutional structures in education systems and labour markets, which proved more strenuous for combining work and study in Strasbourg compared to Amsterdam. Parental support and high educational aspirations of the students turned out crucial to counterbalance the potential negative impact of working on students’ school careers, while working in their area of study facilitated beneficial consequences for students’ future labour market careers. The article highlights the interaction between institutional structures and social class background as well as gender dynamics.     

Student expectations and graduate market performance in Egypt

This is an investigation of a series of issues pertaining to higher education in Egypt based on a sample of nearly 2,000 students and 1,700 university graduates in 1978. The main theme of the article is a comparison of student expectations and actual labour market performance. The results indicate that the relative structure of economic rewards is consistent with the operation of the forces of supply and demand. In particular, students' expectations of the labour market are in tune with the actual market conditions. The social demand for different fields of specialisation is closely linked to the expected economic rewards. A strong element of self-selection is in operation, many students follow highly undesirable subjects (such as agronomy) because of the availability of places. And as already documented in other studies, expected or actual unemployment following graduation is of extremely short duration.