All over the world, universities have to cope with the mission to promote the employability of their graduates, implying that competences should be trained which are relevant for the professional experience. In this context, it is of special interest where graduates work and what they are doing at work. In this study we focus on educational…

Purpose: Using the example of an amalgamated secondary school qualification (International Baccalaureate Career-related Programme--IBCP), in which both vocational education and training (VET) and academic subjects are taught, the paper aims to discuss the use of skills and knowledge gained during the IBCP for post-secondary school activities.…

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) represents a partnership between NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The observatory itself is a Boeing 747 SP that has been modified to serve as the world's largest airborne research observatory. The SOFIA Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors (AAA) program is a component of SOFIA's…

Universities in Germany show an increasing need for specific information on professional demands encountered and addressed by graduates training to become teachers. To provide information on demands and abilities in teaching graduates, a specialised teacher module was developed in the framework of the German Cooperation Project for Graduate Tracer…

The empirical analysis examines differences in salaries and working time of doctorate holders in comparison to graduates with a master or equivalent degree (in Germany, the first university degree is called a "diploma" or "state examination" depending on the field of study. The diploma degree and the state examination are…

This paper presents a cross-level study of German student teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning chemistry. It covers different stages of their teacher training program. The study is based upon drawings of teaching situations, which were analyzed using an evaluation pattern developed using grounded theory. The qualitative scales analyze…

Today, a major goal in higher education is the advancement of students' vocational competences. To assess the extent to which this goal is met, both competences acquired during university studies and later vocational success need to be measured. In our study, we collected self-ratings of competences (t1) and indicators of vocational success (t2)…

This article addresses the question of why fields of study differ in early labour market returns. It is argued that the higher the potential training costs of a field of study the more problematic the labour market integration of graduates. This is due to the fact that employers use the occupational specificity and selectivity of a study programme…

In the financial services sector in Germany the proportion of trainees qualified to go on to university is particularly high. But what induces school leavers not to go (straight) to university? A written survey of over 500 trainees in the banking and insurance sectors examined the motivations for the choice of educational pathway. Only some of the…

Mandatory internships are implemented in higher education curricula in order to ease the labour market integration of graduates. This article evaluates the utility of mandatory internships in Germany by assessing the effect on graduates' transition from higher education to work. The authors examine whether these compulsory programmes provide extra…

In this article, we examine the social dimension of inequality in educational participation. We look at the social transmission and gender-specific channelling of education and further training in the context of employment and family. Based on quantitative survey data and qualitative interview data collected from a multi-level empirical…

This article analyses the kinds of pedagogical approaches in universities that are provided for young and mature students and produce relevant outcomes for them in Germany, the UK and Japan. Andragogy is a concept of pedagogical approaches for adult learners in lifelong learning, but it should be empirically examined now in higher education in…

Taking an international comparative perspective, the paper seeks to identify conditions that favour or impede participation in continuing higher education (CHE), and to answer the question what lessons can be learned from other countries. To this end we present selected findings of a secondary analysis of data from seven countries and…

Surveyed German doctoral degree holders to examine the processes and outcomes of doctoral training and their impact on subsequent careers and work affiliations. Found a positive outcome of the Ph.D. on the labor market, and that selection for doctoral training is biased by social origin while later career attainment among Ph.D. holders is not. (EV)

This chapter discusses applications of alumni research at the University of Kassel and key results from the CHEERS study: Careers After Higher Education--a European Research Study. (Contains 5 tables and 1 figure.)