Affirmative action policies in higher education are used in many countries to try to socially advance historically disadvantaged minorities. Although the underlying social objectives of these policies are rarely criticized, there is intense debate over the actual impact of such preferences in higher education on educational performance and labor…

In Hebei Province (China), interprovincial migrants, particularly recent ones, were found to have higher status jobs than lifetime residents in both urban and rural areas. Upper-rung employment was associated with gender and educational attainment, but the most consistent explanation of occupational distribution emphasizes psychological and social…

In a Norwegian study, mature adult graduates had low rates of unemployment compared to traditional graduates, women were likely to have high-status jobs, and ageism was greater in the private sector. In Britain, mature graduates have higher unemployment, are excluded from better paying jobs, and are more commonly in the public sector, especially…

This study of unemployment among university graduates in West Bengal (India), Bangladesh, and the Philippines provides socioeconomic and educational characteristics of these areas, a comparative analysis of unemployment, and suggested measures for reducing unemployment. The International Institute for Educational Planning studies, focusing on…

An analysis of a 1979 questionnaire and interviews with young women leaving school or continuing their education in country areas of Tasmania revealed that the females were having greater difficulty in obtaining employment and were the most isolated when unemployed. For this reason it was considered desirable to continue the study. A questionnaire…

Based on a secondary analysis of the Scottish School Leavers Surveys from 1978-96, a study focused on low attainment with particular reference to gender. Findings indicated the proportion of low-attainers at ordinary or standard grade had more than halved since the 1970s; it declined more among women than men. Low S4 attainment was associated with…

A study analyzed a range of factors associated with male and female low attainment and the subsequent routes of low attainers leaving S4 up to the age of 19, using the Scottish School Leavers Survey data from 1978-96. The most significant trend was the extent to which low attainment declined, although significant differences in terms of gender…

Data that were originally gathered during the 1978-1990, 1994, and 1996 Scottish School Leavers Surveys were subjected to a secondary analysis to identify the qualifications, characteristics, and choices of high-attaining female school leavers. The following were among the key findings of the analysis: (1) on average, young women from all social…

This project aimed to develop a more comprehensive conceptual framework of school-to-work transitions in different national contexts and apply this framework to the empirical analysis of transition processes across European countries. It drew on these two data sources: European Community Labor Force Survey and integrated databases on national…

Lifelong learning and skill flexibility are especially important for workers in China, where structural economic adjustment has generated 22 million layoffs from state-owned enterprises since 1997. Skills that were in huge demand in previous years, such as accounting, international trade, and language translation, are now facing serious oversupply…

The private internal rate of return to investment is evaluated in two levels in each of the following four educational programs: computer science, nursing, nutrition, and social work. In these fields, a situation occurs in which many bachelor's degree graduates and community college vocational degree holders perform exactly the same work and…

The relationship between literacy, numeracy, and employability was examined by analyzing data on basic skills that were collected in two of Great Britain's birth cohort studies--the National Child Development Study and the 1970 British Cohort Study. The functional literacy and numeracy skills of samples of 10% of the participants in each study…