Employability of non-traditional students and graduates – a comparative report between countries
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See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338261579 Employability of non-traditional students and graduates – a comparative report between countries (EMPLOY Project). Coventry (UK): University of Warwick. Technical Report · October 2016 DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.35698.66247 CITATIONS 0 READS 36 14 authors, including: Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: The Roma in Spanish Higher Education View project RANLHE - Access and retention. Experiences of non-traditional learners in higher education View project Agnieszka Bron Stockholm University 25 PUBLICATIONS85 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Camilla Thunborg Stockholm University 21 PUBLICATIONS49 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Barbara Merrill The University of Warwick 58 PUBLICATIONS834 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE John Field University of Stirling 148 PUBLICATIONS2,607 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE All content following this page was uploaded by José González-Monteagudo on 31 December 2019. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.
1 First report: EMPLOY – 2014‐ ‐‐ ‐1‐ ‐‐ ‐UK01‐ ‐‐ ‐KA203‐ ‐‐ ‐001842‐ ‐‐ ‐TP Agnieszka Bron and Camilla Thunborg, Stockholm University, Sweden. Partners: Ireland Fergal Finnegan and Jerry O’Neil National University of Ireland, Maynooth Poland Adrianna Nizinska and Ewa Kurantowic University of Lower Silesia, Wroclaw Portugal Antonio Fragoso and Sandra Valadas University of Algarve, Faros Spain José Gonzalez-Monteagudo and MariaTeresa Padilla-Carmona University of Seville, Sevill Sweden Agnieszka Bron and Camilla Thunborg Stockholm University, Stockholm UK Barbara Merrill and Eren Bilgen-Fatos University of Warwick, Coventry
2 E mployability of non-traditional students and graduates – a comparative report between countries This comparative European report arises from an Erasmus + project entitled Enhancing the employability of non-traditional students in HE (EMPLOY). In this report policies concerning employability vis-á-vis higher education (HE) with a special interest for non-traditional students are compared and discussed. The report includes EU policy issues and policies related to the different national contexts of the countries involved in the project, national statistics and relevant research for each country. It is based on country reports from Ireland (Finnegan & O´Neil, 2015), Poland (Czubak- Kock, Kurantowicz & Nizinska, 2015), Portugal (Fragoso & Valadas, 2015), Spain (Gonzalez- Monteagudo, Padilla-Carmona & Liñán, 2015), Sweden (Bron & Thunborg, 2015) and the UK (Merrill & Bilgen-Fatos, 2015). By non-traditional students we draw on our definition of non-traditional used in a previous EU project on access and retention entitled RANLHE. By non-traditional we mean students who are under-represented in HE and whose participation in HE is constrained by structural factors. This includes, for example, those who are first in their family to enter HE, students from lowincome families, those from particular minority ethnic groups, those living in what have traditionally been low participation areas as well as mature students, women and those with a disability. The concept of employability The employability of higher education graduates is a concept used in relation to European policy as well as in the different countries, and is becoming a priority in HE policy debates. In the OECD, as well as in the EU, there has been a shift from the concept of employment towards the concept of employability. According to Fejes (2010), it also means a shift from the state and employers’ responsibility for issues of employment towards an individual responsibility for his or her own employability. Even if this shift relates to ongoing changes in Europe as a whole, and especially decisions made in relation to the Bologna process and its development, there is no consensus about the definition of employability. This is verified by the Eurydice report (2014), and by Yorke (2006) as well as by the different partner countries’ reports involved in the EMPLOY project. As the Eurydice Report (2014, p. 62) states: Employability is a complex concept encompassing many definitions and approaches… However, the emphasis is on: - the importance of employability for all students and graduates, and also” placing “employability within the widening participation agenda, and the potential role of higher education institutions in enhancing employability.
3 In the Eurydice Report (2014), employability is defined in relation to graduates' transition to the labour market after finishing higher education. There are two main perspectives, an employment-centered and a competence-centered perspective. The employment-centred perspective focuses on “a combination of factors which enable individuals to progress towards or enter employment, to stay in employment and to progress during their career” (p.4). Similarly, within the Bologna Process, the term is understood as: … the ability [of graduates] to gain initial meaningful employment, or to become selfemployed, to maintain employment, and to be able to move around within the labour market (Working Group on Employability 2009, p. 5). (Eurydice Report, 2014, p. 62). The competence-centered definition instead focuses on “the skills and competences higher education students gain during their studies”. Yorke (2006, p. 8.) for example defines employability as: …a set of achievements – skills, understandings and personal attributes – that makes graduates more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations'. Such skills and competences are usually understood as needed (and required) by employers. In essence, the 'student exhibits employability in respect of a job if he or she can demonstrate a set of achievements relevant to that job (Yorke 2006, p. 8) (Ibid. p. 62). The Eurydice report (2014) claims that some European countries use the employment-cente- red perspective, others the competence-centered and still others a combination of the two perspectives. In figure 1 different EU countries are related to the two perspectives.
4 Focus on Focus on labour market needs (demand side) graduates (supply-side) General approach in steering documents Employment centred Competences-centred Approach approach Specific focus on consultation with employers Source: Eurydice. Figure 1: Perspectives and approaches on employability in higher education, 2012/13 (Eurydice, 2014, pp 65) The figure shows that most countries within the EU, and most of the countries in our project, combine two perspectives on employability, i.e. UK, Spain, Poland, and Ireland. However, Portugal and Sweden use a competence centred approach. (Eurydice, 2014). It is stressed, however, that employability is not the same as employment, even if the employment-centred definitions sometimes blur the difference, when using employment rates as proxies for measuring employability. Competence-centred definitions – especially if formulated as in Yorke (2006) helps to clarify the relationship between employability and employment: where certain skills and competences make graduates 'more likely' to gain employment, but that is not a guarantee”. Indeed, employment certainly does not only depend on the quality of education graduates received during their studies. Concerning the different perspectives on employability there are differences concerning how countries measure employability performance and how they encourage HEI’s to improve their employability performance:
5 The most common way is through quality assurance: the majority of systems now require higher education institutions to submit employability-related information in quality assurance procedures. In addition, several countries have established incentives for higher education institutions to improve their employability performance, with one prominent mechanism being to make employability-related information public for both current and prospective students. In some countries, public funding levels are linked with employability performance. (Eurydice, 2014, p. 11). The Eurydice report looks at how European countries reflect on employability concept in their steering documents for higher education and stresses that “very few countries define employability directly or use the term explicitly. Even translating the originally English term into many other languages might be difficult” (Ibid, p 63). In the country reports there is evidence that the concept of employability is not well defined even if sometimes used in policy documents. The Irish team describes the situation in Ireland in the following words: In the articles and reports cited here ‘employability’ is used in a very simple and somewhat uncritical manner to denote the decisions and choices individuals can make to improve their prospects and outcomes in the labour market by acquiring certain credentials, skills and dispositions. Also nearly all the examples we can find of the use of the term in an Irish context assume employability is necessarily linked to education and training”…”Therefore employability is best described as an emerging policy term in Ireland which remains quite illdefined. ( Finnegan & O’Neill, 2015, p. 1) The Spanish team takes their point of departure in looking at policies of employability in regards to non-traditional students. However, the term employability is taken for granted and is in opposition to being unemployed. (González-Monteagudo, Padilla-Carmona & Liñán, 2015). In the UK report, we read that “However, there does not appear to be a consensus as to the meaning of the term employability. At a conceptual level there are also differences in approaches” (p. 6). Merrill & Bilgen-Fatos (2015) continue: Most of the definitions focus on the individual student but as Brown et al. (2002) assert a student does not exist in a vacuum but interacts with others and also institutions in particular contexts. Any definition of employability needs to take into account the micro, meso and macro levels. Employability and securing a job in the graduate labour market has also to do, and drawing on Bourdieu’s work, with the levels of cultural, social and economic capitals a student brings with them to the university and develops while they are there (Ibid. p.8).
6 Employability is also about managing the transition from learning to earning, from education to the world of work, although for adult students this may not be the first transition into work. Students feel increasingly the need to be ‘employable’ and to prepare themselves for firstly finding a suitable job and ensuring that they are capable of doing that job (Clarke, 2008) by assembling a portfolio of skills, knowledge and experiences. It is stressed that in post-industrial societies a job is no longer for life and research by Leathwood (2006) indicates that graduates are expecting the labour market to be uncertain and unpredictable. Learning to be employable and flexible in the labour market will, for many, not be confined to something you prepare for in universities but will continue throughout working lives to enable them to prepare for future career transitions. Graduates need to be lifelong learners and engage in professional development throughout their lives if they are going to survive and thrive in the labour market at a particular level. (Ibid. p.8). The Portuguese team addresses the issue of definition in the following way (Fragoso & Valadas, 2015): The immense public visibility of the term employability is recent, although the concept itself is used in different senses for some decades now, as we can see in Gazier (1990). The centrality of employability in a number of different contexts depicts the severe crisis of the labour market all over the world, the reduction of employment and the increasing precarious character of work (Helal and Rocha, 2011). So employability became an issue not only in economy, but also in the labour market debates. In recent years, the concept has gain centrality in educational policies, especially in higher education (HE). (Ibid. p.2) Thus, employability is treated here as the term, which involves individuals’ pursuit to get employment. Even the Polish team (Czubak-Koch, Kurantowicz & Nizinska, 2015) describes employability in terms of employment as being a general indicator of the usefulness of a degree, but also as graduates’ employment in long time perspective they do not seem to define it either. In Sweden a competence-based perspective is used in relation to the need of the labour market. However, there is no explicit definition of employability by the Higher Education Authority (UKÄ) in Sweden (Bron & Thunborg, 2015). From the UKÄ, however, it is stated that: …the majority of the graduates who gained a footing in the labour market in 2009, about whose occupation there is information had, jobs that were closely linked to the field in which
7 they qualified” (UKÄ, 2013 p 43). From this statement, employability seems to be related to students’ establishment at the labour marked 1–2 years after the award of qualifications. (Bron & Thunborg, 2015, p. 4). The conclusion is that employability seems to be a policy concept vaguely and differently used in different countries claiming the importance for the individual student to be responsible for his/her own employment by having the right skills for the labour market or increasing their chances of getting employment (Fejes, 2010). There also seems to be an issue for HEIs to enhance employability for the students through a closer cooperation with the labour market. Moreover, and irrespectively of the emphasised perspectives, European countries usually discuss employability-related concerns from the perspective of higher education institutions or the student population as a whole. There is no definition focusing directly on nontraditional students nor the relation to widening access of higher education and its consequences for employment. European and national policies for employability and non-traditional students in HE Despite the fact that there is no consensus concerning the definition of the concept of employability, there is an increasing interest for employability in higher education policies on a European as well as at national policy level. In this section we firstly, discuss employability in relation to the Bologna process, further developed through the Louvain la Neuve Communique (2009), the Budapest Declaration (2010) and the EU agenda 2020. Secondly, we discuss the policies of employability in relation to widening access to HE and the student population and its relation to issues of employability. Thirdly, we discuss the issue of employability in relation to challenges in different countries mostly concerning economic and social changes in Europe and its implication for HE. Employability within the Bologna process The aim of the Bologna process was to create a European Higher Education to promote mobility, employability and attractiveness of Europe as an education region by establishing a common structure and a common credit system and as Merrill & Bilgen-Fatos (2015) point out: “it is of a central concern for EU, national governments and HE institutions and for the Bologna process (The European Higher Education, 2012: Bologna Implementation Report) (ibid. p.1). The Bologna Declaration, established in 1999 has led to the creation of a European Higher Education Area with the aim of creating a more unified system of higher education
8 across Europe while still respecting national and cultural diversity. In EU (2009), it was clarified that: … employability is defined as the ability to gain initial employment, to maintain employment, and to be able to move around within the labour market. Employability has been one of the main objectives of the Bologna Process from the very start. Each cycle of higher education should be relevant to the labour market. Further dialogue is needed between public and private employers, students, academics, higher education institutions and governments, especially related to first cycle qualifications in order to realise this goal fully (Finnegan & O’Neill, 2015, p. 2). According to Merrill & Bilgen-Fatos (2015): The determination to change the nature of universities within the European Union was further enhanced at the Leuven and Louvain la Neuve Communiquế in 2009. It stressed the need for universities to ‘equip students with the advanced knowledge, skills, competences they need throughout their professional lives’ (2009: 2). To achieve this, a closer partnership is advocated between universities, employers and governments. Economic changes at a national, European and global level, as well as an increased economic competiveness and a move towards knowledge-based societies (Castells, 2001) has thus created a closer relationship between higher education and the labour market (Morley, 2001) (Merrill & Bilgen-Fatos, 2015, p. 1). In the Bucharest Communiqué (2012): The centre of the priorities was “enhancing graduates’ employability, meaningful implementation of learning outcomes and coherent implementation of structural reform (qualifications, frameworks, recognition, QA, transparency and improving cooperation between employers, students and higher education institutions, especially in the development of study programmes that help increase the innovation, entrepreneurial and research potential of graduates” (Czubak-Koch, et al. 2015, p. 2). Finally, there is, according to Bron & Thunborg (2015) the agenda for Europe 2020 with five headline targets related to employment:
15 The Portuguese team relates to the economic recession and to other changes in the Portuguese society where an undergraduate degree in Portugal is not what it used to be: Whilst some decades ago, in Portugal, to possess a tertiary diploma was an assurance for reaching higher positions in professional careers, the changes that took place recently questioned deeply the relationships between HE diplomas, social positions and income. The loss of this once linear relationship has turned graduate employment into a social and political problem (Alves, 2009). Higher education has been therefore dragged into the centre of a public, visible debate and is being scrutinized, understandably, by a set of social actors, students and their families, worried about the crisis and the future (Fragoso & Valadas, 2015) T he Irish team note that the crisis led to mass unemployment and mass emigration (the number of people in the 15-24 age group dropped by 138,000 between 2006 and 2012). The unemployment rate has begun to drop but they note that studies suggest that since the crisis employment conditions have also worsened since the beginning of the crisis (in terms of hours, type of work and contract, opportunities for training and development, plausible career progressions, level of precarity etc.) (Finnegan & O’Neill, 2015, p. 6 ). I From the reports from the three countries above, it is clear that employability in HE is affected by the economic crisis and that it is far from a solution for students to graduate from HE to become employed. In the other partner countries, economic as well as social forces have challenged the HE system in relation to the policy of employability. The Polish team claims that the radical institutional transformation of the HE system: In Poland, higher education is one of the most dynamically developing areas of social life. Within the last twenty years, it has undergone sudden quantitative and institutional transformation. Non-state university level institutions have emerged, and non-state education forms have been introduced, which has resulted in increasing the number of students five times. This has however not been accompanied by a policy aimed at serious improvement of the qualitative factors. (Czubak et al., 2015, p. 1). The Polish team also claims that there is a mismatch between labour market needs and the qualifications of the graduates on a national level:
16 An important indicator of the labour market prospects of graduates is vertical mismatch, which occur when there is a discrepancy between graduates’ level of education or skills and the level of education or skills required by their job (Cedefop, 2010, p. 13). It suggests diverse forms of inefficiencies in how the education system responds to labour market needs. The relatively high proportion of over-qualified but not over-skilled people suggest that many stay too long in the education system while not receiving extra skills and competences. This can also indicate that tertiary education institutions were not able to provide graduates the skills necessary for a better labour market position. However, social and economic phenomenon, such as a sudden drop in labour market demand, labour market imperfections, discrimination etc. are not always in the higher education institutions’ control. (Czubak, et al., 2015, p. 12). For the UK both the closer relationship between employers and universities and the external economic and social forces have changed not only the universities but also the perspectives of the students: External and social forces which lead to transforming the purpose and nature of the university have in turn impacted upon the perspectives and expectations which students bring with them to their undergraduate studies where students are considered themselves employable graduates’ viewing HE as an investment in their future lives in the labour market. They realise that it is a competitive world out there ant that to get the best graduate jobs they need to offer more to employers than just their degree qualification (Merrill & Bilgen-Fatos, 2015, p. 2). The challenge concerning employability in Sweden seems to be related to the mismatch of qualifications in relation to on the one hand students choices and labour market needs on the other. Sweden is also challenged by an immigration of HE graduates, which is an interesting factor effecting employability: In Sweden, the general picture is that students with a diploma from higher education have a better chance to become employed than people with lower educational level, and will be during the next years, even if HE is expanding. However, the challenges for Swedish HE are related to a mismatch between students’ choices of educational programmes and the needs of the labour market. Firstly, the labour market seems to employ HE graduates to positions earlier occupied by people graduated from upper secondary school or less. This could be seen as a vertical mismatch where HE graduates become overqualified for the work tasks at the labour market. Secondly, there are 55 different educational areas defined by UKÄ (2014), most of them requiring HE, that lack qualified graduates, while students seem to choose
17 educational programmes, where they have to compete for positions on the labour market. This creates a high competition among students and a crucial situation for the labour market not being able to employ people with the right competencies … Finally, the population of HE graduates increases in Sweden because of migration from other countries. One challenge is to validate their diplomas for making them employable but according to UKÄ (2013), only 5000 out of 20.500 people have applied for a validation. Migration could thereby be seen as affectting the degree of employability in Sweden, which means a more qualified population, but this could also create higher levels of unemployment for HE graduates (Bron & Thunborg, 2015, p. 12) A conclusion so far is that it seems likely that the countries suffering the most from the economic crisis are facing challenges related to unemployment whereas the other three countries are challenged with a mismatch between competences required by students versus the labour market and the competition amongst students in HE for getting the right employment at the right level. Another interesting conclusion is that migration is seen as a strategy for employability in both the Irish case and the Swedish, which could be seen as part of globalization. Widening participation and non-traditional students and employability European HE has changed from elite to mass education under the 1990’s due to different political reforms. In the UK country, report Merrill and Bilgen-Fatos (2015) write about European policy in the following words: Expansion of European higher education has enabled a higher percentage of people to enter and participate at degree level (OECD, 2001). For Redmond (2006) expansion is associated with the need for a more highly educated workforce to enable Europe to compete in the global and knowledge-based economy. Between 1998–2006 the average participation rate in HE increased by 25% while in some countries, such as Poland, it increased by 90% indicating a move towards more knowledge-based societies. The range of programmes offered has also expanded so that adults can participate on full or part-time degree programmes. At postgraduate level there has been a growth in short Continual Professional Development courses as well as courses focusing specifically on issues of employability, particularly at undergraduate level. The labour market is also changing. Between 2010 and 2020 the proportion of jobs requiring academic skills will rise from 20% to 34%, while low skilled jobs will decrease from 23% to 18% during the same period (EC Rethinking Education, 2010) (Ibid. p.1).
18 Furthermore, the UK team (2015) points out that the perspectives of students have changed : The external economic and social forces, which have led to transforming the purpose and nature of the university, have in turn impacted upon the perspectives and expectations which students bring with them to their undergraduate studies, (Ibid. p. 1) . Finally, the relation to non-traditional learners: In the context of the widening participation agenda, it is also important to highlight the role of higher education institutions in enhancing the employability of non-traditional learners. According to Thomas and Jones (2007, p. 23), besides providing access to relevant work experience for students with 'nontraditional' backgrounds, higher education institutions have a particular responsibility to ensure that non-traditional learners can receive (targeted) advice and career guidance throughout the whole student lifecycle (i.e. from the very beginning of a student career). Such guidance can contribute to: 1) developing students' awareness about employability; 2) improving the confidence and self-esteem of students; and 3) developing the appropriate job search and application skills (Ibid.). In this way, guidance can help bring down the 'indirect' barriers non-traditional learners can face on the labour market: the fact that due to their background and earlier education opportunities, they might not evaluate labour market reality and their own competences well, and as a consequence, they often exclude themselves from getting the matching graduate jobs (Thomas and Jones, 2007). National statistics concerning employability for HE graduates The available statistics concerning unemployment in the OECD countries as well as the EU countries shows that the unemployment rate for people with higher levels of education is much lower than for people with lower levels of education. The OECD report (2012) states that: On average across all OECD countries, 83.6 per cent of 25-64 year-olds with a tertiary education were employed in 2009, compared to 56.0 per cent of 25-64 year-olds without an upper secondary education – a difference of 27.6 percentage points.” (OECD 2012, Education indicators in focus, p. 2). In the OECD report it is also stated that:
19 A higher level of education provides excellent insurance against unemployment, for staying employed, and for maintaining earning power in difficult economic times. (Ibid. p. 4) The above statement is also evident in figure 2, where a comparison between the partner countries concerning unemployment is presented. Figure 2. A comparison between unemployment in the countries involved in the project divided between graduates and the population in general (Gonzales-Monteagudo, 2015) From the figure, there is a difference between the percentage of unemployed in total and the percentage of unemployment for HE graduates. Figure 2, however, also shows differences between the European countries concerning unemployment, which could be related to the economic crisis and the above-mentioned divide between countries. From the Eurydice report (2014) it is apparent that it is hard to get reliable and comparable measures concerning employment both on a European as well as a national level: Evaluating the impact of existing measures is not straightforward. One successful way of doing so is through graduate surveys at both national and European level. Currently such surveys do not exist in all countries, and where they do exist, they are not always undertaken regularly. Irrespective of the approach and measures taken in relation to employability, countries tend to target students or graduates as a whole, without concentrating on specific – disadvantaged – groups of students. This indicates that there is often a need for the widening participation agenda to be followed through to cover retention issues and also employability policies and practice. (Eurydice report, 2014, p. 12). 9,8 7,8 9,9 5,5 7,8 14,1 23,2 6,1 4,4 6,5 3,2 4,7 10 14,8 EU- 28 countries Sweden Ireland UK Poland Portugal Spain Total HE graduates
20 In the following section, we are going to present the national statistics in the partner countries to see, if it is possible to make some comparison. The statistics we have been looking for is one relating to participation in higher education and employment after HE, in relation to nontraditional students. There seems to be a lack of statistics concerning non-traditional students as far as employment is concerned. In some countries, however, there are statistics concerning employment for HE graduates related to degree programmes (Poland, Sweden and UK), in others there are statistics about non-traditional students involved in HE (Sweden, UK). Ireland In the Irish report (Finnegan & O’Neill, 2015) it is stated that there is statistics concerning the access of special target groups to HE, and data about employment and unemployment, but not a connection between them: The Irish Higher Education Authority – which manages funds and directs HE policy – collects a range of data including annual reports on recent graduates and on non-traditional students. It does not link this data at all and we have very little to draw on which explicitly looks at the relation between employability and non-traditional students. (Ibid. p.7) Students with disabilities, students from underrepresented socio-economic groups and mature students are focused on as special target groups in access policies in Ireland: Data is now collected on the participation levels of these groups and assessed against pre-set targets for the sector as a whole. Over the past four years more detailed equal access data has been gathered by HEIs and there are currently plans to link some of the funding to individual HEIs to the achievement of access targets. However, most of this data is not available. (Ibid. p. 8) Access has has changed the composition of the student body but : despite several decades of rapid growth Irish HE remains quite traditional. The majority of students are young and advantaged. (Ibid. p.4) Finally, there are stastitics concerning employment and unemployment in Ireland: Quantitative data is collected regularly and systematically on the labour market and there are extensive statistics and studies available on employment, unemployment and sectoral growth[..]. Of particular note for a study of employability is the work of the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN) established in 1997 (Ibid. p. 11)
21 Poland According to the Polish report, there are statistics concerning unemployment for HE graduates related to different professions: Poland provides the statistics about students and graduates unemployment (Czubak-Koch et al., 2015). In the year, 2013/2014 there was 438 HEIs with 1.549.900. In 2014, 12, 4% HE graduates were unemployed. In the same year 1, 3% of all unemployed in the cohorts are HE graduates under and of 27 years old (i.e. 23.000). In 2014 the highest unemployment rates were among the following professions (1) educators/ teachers/ specialist in pedagogy (11,6%), public administration specialist (11,4%), economists (6,7%) (Ibid. p. 7) There are, however, no national statistics available regarding the employment of nontraditional students. Portugal In the report from the Portuguese team (Fragoso & Valadas, 2015), there are statistics concerning enrolment in HE as well as unemployment of HE graduates. Concerning the enrolment it is stated that: …in the academic year 2012/2013, 378,453 students were enrolled in HE in Portugal. The total number of students enrolled has been decreasing in recent years. The highest number of students ever was reached in the academic year 2010/11, which registered more than 403,000 students. … The growing number of students allowed the gradual qualification of the Portuguese population, with the percentage of resident population with an increased top grade of 0.5% in 1960 (49,065 individuals) to 12% in 2011 (1,244,742 individuals) (Source: PORDATA). Despite of this progress, currently only 17% of the Portuguese population aged 25-64 has a higher qualification. This value is less than half the average of OECD countries, where 32% of the working population has a higher grade. Within the OECD countries, only Italy and Turkey have a smaller percentage of graduates (Education at a Glance, 2013). (Ibid. p. 5) Moreover, they state that the unemployment rate is high in Portugal and for HE graduates as well, but also that those with higher grades seem to have lower unemployment: In June 2014, 77 541 unemployed with a higher education grade were registered at employment centres. Analysis by level of education shows that: 35 237 had no academic qualification, 137 623 possessed the 1 st cycle, 100 821 the 2 nd cycle, 123 989 the 3 rd cycle and 139 771 secondary school. (Ibid. p. 7) … among the graduates with a higher education
22 qualification, it appears that those with higher grades tend to have lower unemployment rates, suggesting a valuation by the market of these additional qualifications. Also, to note, the existence of a relatively high variability in the unemployment rate for the different areas of education and training (Cardoso et al., 2012). (Ibid. p.8) Finally, there are no statistics concerning non-traditional students neither in HE enrolment, nor in relation to employment: Contrarily to a number of European countries, we can therefore conclude that the importance of non-traditional students in HE in Portugal is very recent. The research around the theme is barely beginning; the statistics concerning non-traditional students are lacking; and we have not been able to discover studies concerning non-traditional students’ employability. (Fragoso & Valadas, 2015, p. 5) Spain In the Spanish report (Gonzalez-Monteagudo, et al. 2015) there is a lack of information, considerations and explanations about non-traditional students’ progress in HE as well as in relation to employment, there are however statistics concerning unemployment in general. However, the team state that there are differences between different parts of the country: According to the data for the first quarter of 2015, the rate of unemployment in the country is 23.78%, although this national data masks important regional differences and inequalities. While in autonomous regions such as Navarre and the Basque Country the unemployment rate is 15.66% and 16.43%, respectively, in other regions it is double, as is the case of Andalusia (33.62%) and the Canary Islands (30.81%). (Ibid. p.10) According to the Spanish report, the official statistics are not divided by non-traditional student graduates. However, general statistics of the population unemployment in relation to age, gender and nationality is available: …the official statistics offered by the EPA do not differentiate the university graduates according to the variables, which are relevant to character rise non-traditional students. We have to turn to general statistics (of the whole population, irrespective of their educational level) to see the influence of variables such as age and nationality. (Ibid. p.10). By differentiating the unemployment rate by age and gender the Spanish team provided the following statistics and explanation.
23 It stands out that young people always have greater unemployment, both if we speak about the under 25 years old (51.4%), and if we differentiate between the sub-group of 16-19 years old (70.5%), and those who are between 20 and 24 years old (47.7%). Unemployment is in general higher for women, although in some age groups it is below the male rate (especially the 20-24 year old group). (Ibid. p.11) Furthermore, within the group of young people (20-24 years old), the lower the level of education unemployment is considerably greater. Thus, those who have only completed compulsory education have an unemployment rate of 56.10%, while this goes down to 35.01% in the case of young people of the same age with higher studies. Regarding nationality, the unemployment rate for the foreign population is 33.65%, [thus] 9.87 % higher than for the whole population. There are not official statistics of the employment/unemployment rate for people of different races (for example, the gypsy population, which is approximately 1.87% of the Spanish population), or for disabled people. This lack of data prevents us from knowing to what point the level of education is a positive factor of employability for all university graduates, including those who are non-traditional. (Ibid. p.11) Sweden According to the Swedish report (Bron & Thunborg, 2015) there are statistics related to employment for HE graduates, enrolment in HE divided into age, social class (i.e. parents educational level) ethnicity (measured as foreign background i.e. born or having both parents born in another country) and gender provided by SCB and UKÄ. There is also statistics concerning students with disabilities getting special support. According to the national statistics, Sweden has already met its main target for HE 2020: Sweden’s target is that 40–45 per cent of 30–34-year-olds will have at least two years of tertiary education by 2020. Because of the expansion of higher education in the 1990s and the early years of this century, the educational level among young people in Sweden is being raised continually and, according to the EU follow-up of the targets, 41 per cent of 30–34- year-olds already had at least two years of tertiary education in 2007. Since then the figure has continued to rise and according to Eurostat’s preliminary data, 48 per cent attained this level of education in 2013. (UKÄ, 2014, p. 11). (Ibid. p. 2) Relating to employment UKÄ states that: Higher education matters as “generally speaking, graduates from higher education are less likely to be unemployed than those who have only completed upper-secondary or lowersecondary education” (UKÄ, 2014:10, p.44). (Ibid., p. 4)
24 However, there are still differences in relation to non-traditional students’ participation in HE. In the UKÄ, report it is stated that: During the academic year of 2012/13, 37 per cent of HE entrants under the age of 35 had parents with advanced educational qualifications, i.e. one parent who had completed at least three years of tertiary education. This can be compared to the 24 per cent of HE entrants whose parents lacked advanced educational qualifications (no more than two years of uppersecondary education). In the population as a whole aged 19–34 (data from 2011) the situation was the opposite: 24 per cent had parents with advanced educational qualifications and 40 per cent parents without. These comparisons provide a rough illustration of the social bias in recruitment to higher education and show that students whose parents have advanced educational qualifications are overrepresented while students whose parents lack such educational qualifications are underrepresented. (UKÄ, 2014, p. 25). (Ibid. p.3) The differences concerning class is also apparent in the choices of degree programmes where 70 per cent of HE entrants in Medicine had parents with advanced educational qualifications, 55 per cent of the law students and 54 per cent in Masters’ programmes in Engineering (Ibid). UKÄ provides statistical analysis about gender aspects of employability: There is an interesting finding in the data concerning female and male. In the population as a whole, there are more women who are qualified than men. Overall fewer women are gainfully employed than men are, but, according to Statistics Sweden’s unemployment survey, a larger proportion of the women with higher education are employed than men. In 2012 4.5 of the women with tertiary qualifications were unemployed, compare to 5.2 per cent of the men. This difference is largely due to gender differences in various educational and vocational fields. Women are overrepresented in professional programmes that lead to employment in education and social and health care, where there has been no shortage of jobs in recent years. (UKÄ; 2013, p. 41). (Ibid. p.7) A final statistical analysis is done from the prognosis between the supply and demands of educational programmes from the labour market. According to the statistics, areas like teaching and health care are having high demands in the next couple of years, which will affect the employability of non-traditional students:
31 The EU policies and the policies in most of the countries aim equally towards widening access and enhancing employability. However, there is no focus on the relation between them. One conclusion is that HE is seen as a means for social equality and that all graduates are starting at the same level. Nevertheless, the prognosis at the same time seems to give some evidence that social inequalities persist. This is evident in the choices of degree programmes in relation to age, social class, ethnicity and gender as well as in employment. Concerning disabilities there seems to be an even more deficiency of statistics and research. The challenges that different countries face concerning employability seem to be different. One of such challenges is the economy. Thus, the economic crisis has affected employment and made a divide between countries in Europe. In the countries suffering most from economic recession, the university degrees are required for less qualified jobs. In other countries, the problem of matching HE degrees with the more powerful labour market seems to be the demand for HE institutions. Some country reports claim that the focus on employability changes the students’ perspectives and attitudes towards their studies, and even more importantly the lack of interest for nontraditional students’ and their perspectives. In relation to policy perspectives, research and statistics concerning employability of non-traditional students they are invisible. Another important conclusion from the country reports is that many empirical studies of employability are based on quantitative approaches, (with the exception of the UK) by using huge databases for analyses. Thus the reports point towards a need for more qualitative research concerning students’ perspectives, attitudes of HE professionals as well as of employers to understand better how employability is interpreted in practice. What is more there is a lack of studies on non-traditional students which makes EMPLOY project even more important. Finally, the demand from the labour market seems obvious: one wants to have graduates who are professionals and specialists and not necessarily socially engaged in studying scientific knowledge, including doing research or contributing to theory. How does HE respond to these changes, i.e. labour market and state policy demands as well as students demands is the question for further research to explore. Still another issue is how do non-traditional students response to these changes? From the comparison of country reports we can draw a conclusion that an unintended
32 consequence of mass HE in Europe is that more students choose an educational path based on future employment. While this narrow focus contributes to both the economic production and growth in the labour market of the specific nation, and the human capital held by the individual, it does not necessarily contribute to the goals of social engagement and the creation of new knowledge. In other words, HE institutions in this context by benefiting financially (high economic capital) are losing intellectually (low cultural capital) when they only focus on educating students for employment. Summing up, as the UK team (Merrill & Bilgen-Fatos, 2015) claims, we can say that: Employability is now firmly part of the agenda of European universities and a closer link and engagement between universities and the employment sector is a by-product of this, Universities, national governments and the EU all agree that it is a good thing to develop the employability skills and competencies of their students. While there is some evidence of good policy and practice there is still a long way to go in achieving this across the system as a whole. At present, we have an unequal system whereby some graduates are at an advantage because of their class, gender and ethnic backgrounds and cultural and social capitals so that the white middle class male is more likely to end up the most prestigious and well paid graduate jobs. Surveys show, for example, that women earn less. The odds are also stacked in favour of those who go to a top or elite university and are younger rather than older and also white, male and middle class. Work placements and internships, for example, should be accessible in the UK to all those who want to participate so that those from low-income backgrounds are not disadvantaged. It also raises some key questions. Who is benefitting from employability schemes – employers or students (and only certain students)? (Ibid. p. 14) References Aamodt, P. O. & Kyvik, S. (2005). Access to higher education in the Nordic countries. In T. Tapper & D. Palfreyman (Eds.). Understanding mass higher education: Comparative perspectives on access (pp. 121-138). London, New York: Routledge. Andrews, J, & Higson, H. (2014). Is Bologna Working? Employer and Graduate Reflections of the Quality, Value and relevance of business and Management Education in four European Union Countries, Higher Education Quarterly, 8 (3), 267-287. Altbach, P G. (1999). The logic of mass higher education. Tertiary Education and Management, 5(2), 105-122.
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