International Conference - DECOWE

Transition from HE to the LM and Early Career

Rolf van der Velden / ROA, University of Maastricht
HEGESCO: Preliminary Results of the Large-Scale Survey

Abstract and purpose: This powerpoint presentation presents the preliminary results of the Hegesco project and compares new and candidate member-states of the European Union against the results obtained in the Reflex survey.

Decowe presentation: Preliminary Results of the Hegesco Large-Scale Survey.ppt

Dávila, C. Delia / University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Vila, Luis E. / University of Valencia
Mora, José-Ginés / University of London
The Development of Competences at Latin-American Universities: A Multi-Level Production Function Approach

Abstract and purpose: This paper examines the production function relationships between the educational and human resources applied during study and the acquisition of professional competences by young university graduates in three Latin-American countries. The data set used comes from the graduate survey Proflex and includes information about 000 individuals who graduated from higher education institutions in Mexico, Chile and Uruguay in the year 2000.

Methodological relevance and approach: In order to take advantage of the nested structure of data, the disturbance terms in the multi-level models are hypothesised to follow diverse multi-level composite specifications. This approach permits taking into account the possible influences on competence development of group effects derived, among other, from a) the programme completed, b) the university where graduation was achieved, and c) the country where the institution is located. 

DECOWE presentation: The Development of Competences at Latin-American Universities: A Multi-Level Production Function Approach.ppt

Abstract and purpose: Purpose and framework of analysis: The purpose of this research is to consider the role of university education appropriate for the knowledge society by critically reconsidering the existing competence-based approach. Two issues are examined based on the REFLEX survey. Firstly, the rights and wrongs of evaluating university education from the viewpoint of the gap between competence required in the workplace and competence acquired by individual are examined. Secondly, the pros and cons of judging university education from the viewpoint of competence "generally required by companies" are discussed through "happy worker approach"...

DECOWE paper: Competence-Based Approach Reconsidered.pdf

Abstract and purpose: My review focuses on analysing at the concrete level the link between higher education and the world of work in European countries. Today's socio-economic systems are often supposed to be converging due to overall economic and technological factors, yet there is remarkable institutional diversity among modern capitalist economies, resulting from differences in the societies' institutional structures, political and social in addition to economic ones. There are 'basic' historical turns, incidents, national traditions, local habits and curiosities. We may actually notice a clear path-dependence in the form that former institutional choices 'produce' different answers and solutions to more or less same problems raised by, for instance, 'massification' of higher education and changes in working life consequent upon it. My empirical analyses demonstrate wide and 'illogical' national variety in several aspects of education and work relationship as regards the background, studies, transition and employment of students/graduates - despite the fact that the review is deliberately focused on the internationally quite uniform traditional 'core' of higher education, master's degree. This actual diversity may be put against the harmonising EU policy and striving for Single Market and European Higher Education and Research Area.

Methodological relevance and approach: Comparative analysis of the working life 'closeness' ('impact' of the world of work) on higher education in 13 European countries: Austria, Belgium (Flanders), Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and UK (England). Operationalized as master's degree graduates' 'vocational background' (type of secondary education plus work experience), study orientation, experience abroad, study related work experience during the studies, initial employment and the relevance of education etc.

DECOWE presentation: Divergent Graduates on the Single Market? Education and work relationship of Master's Degree Graduates in 13 European countries.ppt

Koucký, Jan / Charles University in Prague
Job Qualification Profiles and Higher Education in Europe

Abstract and purpose: This paper deals with required qualification profiles (skill needs) of jobs, occupations, sectors and even national economies in Europe and with destination of higher education graduates in the European labour markets. The Education Policy Centre (EPC), Charles University in Prague, uses this approach in its contribution to a new Cedefop project Forecasting skill supply and demand in Europe, involving an international research team being lead by the Institute for Employment Research at the University of Warwick in the UK.

Methodological relevance and approach: The EPC approach to analysing qualification requirements (skill needs) is elaborated in several steps: After clarifying general economic relationships and factors of the labour market development, sector and occupational structures of jobs and their mutual relationships are analysed. Then it is possible to define dimensions and specific features of qualification requirements which characterise each job (as opposed to education which characterises the labour force), that is to elaborate its Qualification Profile as the basis of the whole approach. Afterwards Qualification Profiles at levels of occupations (and group of occupations), then of sectors and finally of national economies can be determined by combining quantitative and qualitative approaches and assessment.

Having analysed available concepts, approaches and data sources of many surveys, both international (eg. OECD IALS and PIAAC, European Social Survey ESS, EURES, CHEERS and REFLEX) and national (e.g. US O*NET, British Skills Survey, Italian Indagine sulle professioni, Czech Kvalifikace or German Erwerbstätigenbefragung), EPC has defined the conditions necessary for elaborating Qualification Profiles and for analysing and interpreting their development in Europe.

Qualification Profiles have to meet three essential (and far from being trivial) criteria:

1. to be defined and described as close as possible to those of the European Qualification Framework (EQF);


2. to be operationable that is to be quantifiable using the available data of countries (and periods of time) under scrutiny (if possible, EU countries 1995-2008); and


3. as a dynamic concept to reflect the inherent change of qualification requirements over time.

The EPC concept of Qualification Profiles contains five main dimensions: Level of Qualification Requirements; Field of Education/Training; Knowledge; Skills; Competences.

DECOWE paper: will be added shortly
DECOWE presentation: will be added shortly
Links to related projects: will be added shortly

Calmand, Julien, Giret, Jean-François, Guégnard, Christine, Paul, Jean-Jacques / Iredu - CNRS, Université de Bourgogne and Cereq
Why "Grande Ecoles" are so valued? Some arguments using the Reflex data

Abstract and purpose: The French Higher Education is an original system characterized by a dual and hierarchical opposition between the "Grandes Ecoles" and the Universities. During the nineties, the expansion of higher education was accompanied by a growing problem of graduates' unemployment. Several longitudinal surveys have shown that the transition process from higher education to employment has generally become more difficult and longer (Paul, Murdoch, 2000; Giret, Moullet, Molinari, 2004). If "Grandes Ecoles" graduates remain in a rather privileged position, the university graduates' employment conditions become more difficult with a strong increase of occupational downgrading and flexible jobs...

Methodological relevance and approach: The present study uses data on transition from higher education to work collected by the REFLEX project. The REFLEX project (acronym for 'Research into Employment and professional FLEXibility') is a large scale international project that has been carried simultaneouly in 16 different countries . The survey was conducted in 2005 on a sample of about 40 000 persons who had graduated 5 years before. We focus on the French sample, using a subsample of Universities and "Grandes Ecoles" graduates from the same educational fields...

DECOWE paper: Why "Grande Ecoles" are so valued? Some arguments using the Reflex data.pdf

Andrea Cammelli, Gilberto Antonelli, Furio Camillo, Angelo di Francia, Silvia Ghiselli & Matteo Sgarzi / AlmaLaurea Inter-University Consortium
Graduates' employment and employability after the "Bologna" reform, some evidence from Italy

Abstract and purpose: The aim of our paper is threefold. First we will present the results achieved by the AlmaLaurea model in tracing the transition path of graduates from the time they enrolled at the University until a few years after earning the degree. The survey is carried out every year by the AlmaLaurea Inter-universities Consortium and makes it possible to analyze the most recent labour market trends through the scrutiny of the career opportunities available for the graduates after 1, 3 and 5 years on from graduation. More specifically, we will present the results of the last survey conducted in 2008. This survey involved also all first and second level graduates from the 2007 vintage.

Second, we will examine the revision in the survey method adopted in order to face costs and time constraints due to the huge number of post-Bologna reform graduates involved (about 140,000). In fact, we resorted to a mixed method: CAWI (Computer-Assisted Web Interview) and CATI (Computer-Assisted Telephone Interview). More precisely, the graduates with a mailbox (85% of the cohort) have been emailed and asked to answer a questionnaire on the web site of AlmaLaurea. The survey procedure also included two e-mail reminders, which have been sent at an interval of 1 week from each other. This online survey has lasted about three weeks. Afterwards, all graduates who had not answered to the online questionnaire - together with those who don't have an e-mail address - have been contacted by phone, in order to achieve the usual answer rates of the AlmaLaurea surveys. AlmaLaurea has implemented a monitoring system of bias detection due to different data collection techniques, CATI and CAWI...

In third place, we will outline the results of a preliminary analysis carried out in order to allow for specific and recurrent comparisons between the results achieved with the AlmaLaurea model and other similar models dealing with the employment conditions of Italian graduates (e.g. REFLEX and ISTAT surveys).

DECOWE paper: Graduates' employment and employability after the "Bologna" reform, some evidence from Italy.pdf
Links to related projects: will be added shortly

Van Trier, Walter / SHERPPA, Ghent University & HIVA, KULeuven
Verhaest, Dieter / CEDON, HUBrussel and SHERPPA, Ghent University
Exploring the Black Box: On the Use of Different Search Strategies in the Initial Transition from School to Work

Abstract and purpose: This paper attempts to shed somewhat morelight on a small part of this black-box. It does so in two different ways, both considering the channels through which young people search for and find their first jobs after leaving the educational system. First, using the so-called SONAR-data - containing data on the transition from school to work for a-select samples from Flemish youngsters born in the years 1976 and 1978 - we look at the different search strategies used by young people, assess which search strategies are (or are not) successful, and ask whether different search strategies are equally (or differently) successful for different kinds of young people. Second, using the so-called REFLEX-data - containing data for higher education graduates for several European countries - we show that the overall pattern of channels linking school-leavers to their first job differs markedly between countries.

As a theoretical background we start from the relatively extensive literature on search methods in sociology (starting with the seminal work of Granovetter, 1974) as well as in economics (relying mostly on the framework originated by Rees, 1966). Despite their differences, in both sets of literatures - with only a few exceptions and notwithstanding interesting attempts to differentiate more between channels used (Giret et al., 1996; Sabatier, 2002, 2003) - the basic conceptual distinction between different search strategies relies strongly on the difference between formal and informal methods of information gathering. The bulk of the research effort, thus, focuses either on the relative effectiveness of socialNetworks (Montgomery, 1991) or on the performance of the official employment office (Osberg, 1993).

In our approach we try to link the different types of search channels to the framework recently put forward by Autor (2008), conceptualizing 'intermediaries' as addressing a set of endemic departures of labor market operations from the neoclassical benchmark. Moreover, we attempt to adapt our typology more specifically to the situation of first time labour market entrants or school-leavers, in order to take into account that particular search channels may have different meanings or effectiveness in different phases of the life-cycle (McDonald, 2005) or for groups, like school-leavers, with a specific position in the labour market.

DECOWE paper: will be added shortly
DECOWE presentation: will be added shortly
Links to related projects: will be added shortly

Robert, Peter  / TARKI
Country Patterns of Labour Market Entry and Early Career

Abstract and purpose: The paper intends to find similarities and differences among 18 countries of the REFLEX and HEGESCO projects with respect to the labour market entry and early career process. Based on how close to each other or how far from each other these countries are, they will be grouped into clusters and the country types will be characterized by the typical features of labour market entry and early career of the graduates.

Methodological relevance and approach: Based on the existing literature, three mechanisms for grouping the 18 countries can serve as basis for conceptual predictions: the welfare state concept, the connection between the educational system and the labour market, the employment protection legislation. These approaches have been developed and tested earlier for broader circles of labour market entrants. The paper will discuss these issues for the graduate labour market. Methodologically, the statistical procedure of cluster analysis will be used. The main challenge is to link the empirical findings to the conceptual predictions.

DECOWE presentation: Country Patterns of Labour Market Entry and Early Career.ppt
DECOWE paper: Country Patterns of Labour Market Entry and Early Career.pdf
Links to related projects: Chapter prepared for the HEGESCO Graduate Survey Report

Elias, Peter and Purcell, Kate / Institute for Employment Research, University of Warwick
Occupational Change and the Expansion of Higher Education in the UK: the Impact on Graduate Earnings

Abstract and purpose: Successive UK governments, as in most nations, have based recent socio-economic policies on the conviction that increased participation in higher education will contribute to greater prosperity, competitiveness and innovation.  We analyse change in the graduate density of occupations in relation to changing skills requirements, employers' construction of jobs, payment of premia for qualifications, and economic restructuring.  This paper, jointly authored by an economist/statistician and a sociologist draws on UK Labour Force Statistics and a variety of other sources, developing and extending the authors' ongoing work on a new occupational classification (SOCHE) to investigate the relationship between the expansion of higher education in the UK over the last 20 years and occupational change.

Methodological relevance and approach: The methodology relies heavily on a detailed examination of the UK official classification of occupations, together with the analysis of relevant survey data, exploring the nature of skill and graduate competences.

DECOWE paper: Occupational Change and the Expansion of Higher Education in the UK: the Impact on Graduate Earnings.pdf
Links to related projects: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ier/research/glmf

Purcell, Kate & Elias, Peter / University of Warwick
Evidence from UK longitudinal studies on the impact of higher education expansion on equality of opportunity

Abstract and purpose: This paper draws on three main sources: national longitudinal survey and interview data from two cohorts of UK HE graduates who obtained their degrees in 1995 and 1999, and an ongoing longitudinal survey tracking 2006 higher education applicants, most of now coming to the end of their third year of study.

The graduate survey data were collected at 3-4 years and 7 years of 1995 and 1999 graduates from 38 UK higher education institutions and a qualitative sub-sample interview follow-up of targeted members of the 1995 sample were also conducted seven and again ten years after graduation.  The analysis enables us to look at the relationships between variables such as gender, socio-economic background and subject studied to career development and early career outcomes.

The 2006 HE applicant survey is an independent online census survey, funded by the educational charity HECSU (the Higher Education Careers Services Unit) with the assistance of the national universities application service through which applicants for virtually all full-time courses of undergraduate study must apply (UCAS).  At the first sweep over 121,000 students who had gained and accepted places responded, so it has facilitated a robust and detailed analysis of the relationship between variables - subject studied, gender, socio-economic, ethnic, regional and educational backgrounds and career choices and experiences.

Methodological relevance and approach: Methodologically, we have a strong commitment to mixed methods research and developing better practice in conducting and integrating quantitative and qualitative research methods. See http://go.warwick.ac.uk/glmf for details of these and other recent and ongoing projects by Purcell and Elias, including PDFs of reports and other publications and questionnaires used.

DECOWE paper: Evidence from UK longitudinal studies on the impact of higher education expansion on equality of opportunity.pdf

Pukelis, Kestutis & Pileicikiene, Nora / Vytautas Magnus University
Matching of General Competencies with Labour Market Needs: Important Factor of Quality of Study Programmes

Abstract and purpose: The aim of the paper is to reveal how curriculum (study programmes) of Lithuanian higher education institutions provide graduates with generic competencies.

Methodological relevance and approach: The research was carried out under the Erasmus programme project "Higher Education as a Generator of Strategic Competencies" (HEGESKO, No.133838-LLP-1-2007-SI-ERASMUS-EMHE), in May-October 2008. The attitude of graduates (N=1021) of 19 biggest higher education institutions of Lithuania to generic competencies acquired were explored.

DECOWE paper: Matching of General Competencies with Labour Market Needs: Important Factor of Quality of Study Programmes.pdf
DECOWE presentation: Matching of General Competencies with Labour Market Needs: Important Factor of Quality of Study Programmes.ppt
Links to related projects: "Higher Education as a Generator of Strategic Competencies" (HEGESCO, No.133838-LLP-1-2007-SI-ERASMUS-EMHE)

Bugaj, Justyna M.  & Frankowicz, Marek / Jagiellonian University
Practical placements of Polish students at the crossroads

Abstract and purpose: For present day graduates it is not sufficient to have a diploma and high grades in order to get an interesting job. The employers are asking more and more about work experiences, interests and skills not necessasarily connected with the profile of studies. Polish curricular standards contain compulsory practical placements for most of study areas and the State Accreditation Committee is checking if they are really on place and how they are incorporated into the study programme. Enterprises also see chances of using the potential and capacities of young people; many of them help in their personal development and support them in planning future career paths. In particular, first days of workplace experiences are especially important - it is a test of student's interest and motivation. If the company has a good coaching system, the cooperation between students and employers can be very fruitful for both sides. In particular, big corporations often have very attractive work placement offers.

However, there are still many problems to solve: communication channels between the world of academia and economic sector are not too well developed. Therefore it is very important to build bridges of mutual understanding. In 2007, one of us (JB) has started an extensive analysis of work ads in Polish newspapers to identify employers' expectations concerning candidates for HR-related jobs. First results have shown that Polish employers had problems with clear identification of their demands, but some positive trends can be observed.

The second author is participating in a Leonardo da Vinci project PROCERTU (Professional Certification of Academic Tutors) aiming at strengthening and developing the  training for academic tutors, to recognize their skills, and to create a recognized skills certification system on the European level. As there are also other projects at the university-industry interface (such as HEGESCO), we intend to organize, with support of the National ERASMUS Office and the Bologna Experts Group, a platform for academic tutors and other persons responsible for students' practical placements to exchange ideas and examples of good practice.

DECOWE paper: Practical placements of Polish students at the crossroads.pdf
DECOWE presentation: Practical placements of Polish students at the crossroads.ppt
Links to related projects: will be added shortly

Hemström, Örjan / Swedish National Agency for Higher Education
Transition from education to labour market in Sweden

Abstract and purpose: A high education level increases an individual's possibilities for entering the labour market and also to maintain the achieved position in periods of economic recessions. In Sweden, university graduates had lower unemployment rates than those with a primary and a secondary education level in the entire period 1993-2008. However, the growth of tertiary education in Sweden during the 1990s led a number of critical observers to argue that a number of university education programmes do not lead to suitable jobs after graduation. In the early 2000's there was a growing interest in designing analyses of the proportion of various groups of university graduates that are successful, or not, in entering the labour market. The Swedish National Agency for Higher Education initiated such analyses in 2003, and annual reports have been published since then.

Methodological relevance and approach: Students who graduated from basic higher education (the latest available is 2005/06) in the national education registry were included. Their labour market status was measured in the calendar year starting twelve to eighteen months later (2007). Graduates who died or emigrated and those who were still students, such as doctoral students, were excluded in the follow-up of labour market status.

Information from labour market activities was possible through a linkage of the national education registry (graduates) with a database containing various labour market factors, such as income from work, disposable income, income from unemployment, occupation etcetera. Graduates were classified into four groups of varying labour market status...

DECOWE presentation: Transition from education to labour market in Sweden.ppt
Links to related projects: will be added shortly

Jindal-Snape, Divya & Naulty, Michael / University of Dundee
Effectiveness of Competencies during Transition from Higher Education to Employment: A Case Study of Community Learning and Development (CLD) qualifying training in Scotland

Abstract and purpose: The purpose was to explore whether the current competencies based CLD training programmes in Scotland were effective and developed fitness for practice.

Methodological relevance and approach: The project employed a multiple phase design collecting both quantitative and qualitative data. Primarily quantitative, complemented with some qualitative data, was collected from CLD employers using questionnaires. On the basis of issues and themes emerging from the questionnaires, focus groups were used to collect in-depth qualitative data from an even wider group of stakeholders (CLD students, newly qualified practitioners, employers/agencies, training providers).

DECOWE paper: Effectiveness of Competencies during Transition from Higher Education to Employment: A Case Study of Community Learning and Development (CLD) qualifying training in Scotland.pdf
DECOWE presentation: Effectiveness of Competencies during Transition from Higher Education to Employment: A Case Study of Community Learning and Development (CLD) qualifying training in Scotland.ppt

Bokan, Neda / University of Belgrade
Career Center as a Bridge between University and Labor Market

Abstract and purpose: We present the Center for Career Development as a creator of an effective and efficient connection between the business and academic communities in order to avoid the situation which occurs relatively often at the labor market - having many highly educated people with limited job opportunities as well as a lot of vacancies with no suitable candidates. Its role is also to mediate the needs of employers to the academic community and, on the other hand, to stimulate and assist employers to open the doors for young graduates (for internships and similar training programs).

In order to assist students to get prepared for the next step after graduation, Career Centers are working on promoting importance of gaining extra knowledge, skills and working experience during the very studies. This is done by offering them part-time jobs, volunteering, internships or various courses and workshops. Besides an unlimited access to information, students are also provided with advisory services related to choosing the right career path and resolving issues arising from specific problems they are facing. Furthermore, within the centers themselves, students may join the programs developed for connecting business and academic communities, such as presentations and workshops organized by various companies, as well as visiting those companies, participating in round tables, etc.

The main goal of this presentation is to give an overview of the history, aims, activities and services, as well as values and challenges presented before the Center for Career Development and Student Counseling of the University of Belgrade especially.

DECOWE paper: Career Center as a Bridge between University and Labor Market.pdf
DECOWE presentation: Career Center as a Bridge between University and Labor Market.ppt
Links to related projects: will be added shortly

Fachelli Oliva, Sandra Isabel / Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Intergenerational mobility in the transition from education to labour market and early career: the case of the university graduates in Catalonia

Abstract and purpose: The Local Government of Catalonia has charged an analysis of the labour insertion of the university graduates students 4 years after having left the university. The survey that was carried out in 2008, picking up information of 12.258 graduated in the academic year 2003/2004 at 7 Catalonian universities. The aspects that are approached are linked with the development of the academic activities, the early labour market's insertion of graduates in their professional development as well as their social origin on the basis of their parents' occupational position and the maximum study level.

Methodological relevance and approach: The available occupational classification in the survey allows us to identify the labour activities carried out by the parents and the children. Then we built social transition matrix which reveal the existent relationships among both generations in the labour market.

Also, with the purpose of analyze the impact of the gender, the origin of the parents and the process of university instruction over the income and occupational quality after 4 years of graduating; we use the statistical technique of multiple regression analysis. We take into account the persons who work full time and we used the variable of gender, access score to the university, academic score average when student concluding the career and the parents' family status, measured through studies and occupational levels.

DECOWE paper: Intergenerational mobility in the transition from education to labour market and early career: the case of the university graduates in Catalonia.pdf
Links to related projects: The study is coordinated by Dr. Jordi Planas and it is developed by the GRET (Grup de Recerca sobre Educació i Treball) of the Autonomous University of Barcelona.  

Ingi Runar Edvardsson & Gudmundur Kristjan Oskarsson / University of Akureyri
Career development after graduation: The case of the University of Akureyri

Abstract and purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a study on career development among graduates in nursing, teaching, and business administration from the University of Akureyri (UNAK), Iceland. The focus will be on the early career, i.e. the first years of employment after graduation. The paper will, moreover, analyze the following topics: 1) selection of career after graduation, 2) change of employment after graduation, 3) the occupation of the graduates (manager, teacher, etc,), and 4) salary increases after graduation.

To further assist the analysis, the following research questions are put forward:

- How does gender affect career development? Do women's careers differ from those of men?
- How does marital status affect career development? Do the careers of married graduates differ from those of single graduates?
- How does age affect career development? Do the careers of graduates under 30 years of age differ from those of older graduates?
- How does location of study affect career development? Do the careers of campus graduates differ from those of distance learning graduates?
- How does the study subject affect career development? Do the careers of nurses differ from those of graduates from other study lines?

The next section of the paper presents previous research on career development, followed by a section on research methodology. The findings of the study are presented in the results section, and the paper finishes with a section on conclusions.

DECOWE paper: Career development after graduation: The case of the University of Akureyri.pdf