This is the executive summary for the report, "Graduate Degrees: Risky and Unequal Paths to the Top" which proposes new measures to improve accountability and transparency in graduate education through a regulatory framework for Grad PLUS loan eligibility that includes both an in-field earnings premium test and a debt-to-earnings test.…

Community and technical colleges are known as "Democracy's colleges." They are grounded in the core American value that all people deserve the opportunity to move up in the world, regardless of where they are from, what obstacles they face and where they need to start. At a time when college education is the ticket to a middle-class…

Washington's Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training Program (I-BEST) quickly teaches students literacy, work, and college-readiness skills so they can move through school and into living wage jobs faster. Pioneered by Washington's community and technical colleges, I-BEST uses a team-teaching approach to combine college-readiness classes…

In early 2000, Florida's workforce wasn't keeping pace with demand. The state decided that a then-novel credential, a bachelor's degree from a community college, was the solution. The plan is working. The new bachelor's degrees initially focused on education, health care, and information technology. Even as the job market has shrunk, demand has…

In recent years, the transition from higher education to work in comparative perspective has attracted increasing attention from scholars and practitioners alike. Previous studies reveal similarities and differences in labour market outcomes across countries, but explanatory frameworks mainly refer to fields of study, whereas differences by types…

This paper provides an overview of vocational education and training (VET) system in India, and discusses various challenges and difficulties in the Indian VET system. The paper also examines labour market outcomes of vocational graduates and compares these with those of general secondary graduates using a large-scale nationally representative…

The present paper raises questions about the use of the concept of reputation in sociological studies of the relationship between higher education and the labour market. Sociologists of education have yet to subject the concept of reputation to sustained critique and evaluation. This situation is unsatisfactory because a number of critical…

Today, more and more students and parents are asking whether college is about getting education or getting a job. The stakes these days are especially high. Tuition and student-loan debt have risen to record levels, while the economy has slowed. In a competitive market, a college degree is no longer the golden ticket to a professional career. Due…

For most of the twentieth century, high school was enough for a shot at middle-class status and wages. Today, no one goes anywhere in the American job market without some postsecondary education or training. This article argues that postsecondary competencies and awards have become the threshold requirement for middle-class earnings and status.

The community college has many roles and constituents: academic, professional, and vocational. Its curriculum may be distinguished from that of other institutions of higher education by its many courses designed to enhance students' immediate career opportunities, especially with nearby employers. This article focuses on the job markets for…

This article provides an introduction to and overview of the literature on how the transition to adulthood is shaped by social class. It brings together two strands of literature. The first reviews why and how the third decade of life has been reshaped by later and longer education. The second considers how the social class position of young…

The rationale underpinning UK higher education (HE) has changed significantly over the last 20 years. Government policy dictates that 50% of 18-30 year-olds should be in HE by the year 2010. Students enter HE almost solely for the exchange value of the qualification and the expectation of enhanced career prospects in business and industry. This…

Every day, 6,000 American high school students drop out of school--bored, frustrated, or so far behind that they've given up. That is the visible crisis in American education, one that has drawn extensive attention from governors, legislators, educators, pundits, and the press. Affecting even greater numbers of students, however, is the invisible…

Employment has long been held to be an important deterrent against poverty, and work is a core component of a range of federal efforts to improve the economic well-being of low-income families. However, recent trends in earnings and research both confirm that work alone is not sufficient to prevent poverty. While there is compelling evidence that…

The governments of the USA and the UK have identified similar challenges facing their higher education sectors. Both governments believe in the centrality of market forces in meeting higher education demand, with government and academia playing subordinate roles. The public purposes of higher education must be restated if the potentially negative…