This paper examines the relation between the nature of updates in training curricula and graduates' skills and wages. Using vocational education and training (VET) curriculum texts as data, we apply natural language processing methods to identify the nature of changes in curriculum updates based on before-after comparisons of the skills the…

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the effect of different educational orientations at the upper-secondary level on labour market outcomes across European countries. The study separates safety net effect and the diversion effect of Vocational Education and Training (VET). Using PIAAC data, we show cross-national differences in the early…

This article reports on a nation-wide tracer study conducted by the Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (IEPA), which examined how her graduates were utilised by employers in sectors of the Ghanaian economy. Considering the nature of the research context and the dearth of information regarding placement and utilisation of IEPA…

By virtue of the internationalisation of economies, international student mobility is considered increasingly important for professional careers. However, most studies focus on the supply-side by using graduate surveys, which face problems of graduates' self-selection. Other studies on employers' opinions often lack rigour analysis and report…

While there is a growing body of scholarship on the creative industries and on the career trajectories of graduates from creative industries programmes, there has to date only been a limited amount of research that examines in detail, the careers of fine arts graduates. Fine art is arguably the least "vocational" of creative disciplines,…

This article explores Finnish polytechnic master's degree graduates' career development about one year after graduation. Twenty interviewed graduates were first classified on the basis of their initial educational motives yielding a typology of goal-oriented, learning-oriented and drifters. After this, their career development was analysed. As a…

The Czech Republic is one of the post-communist countries where the transformation from late industrial to knowledge economies and knowledge societies was complicated by the simultaneous transformations from communist centrally planned economies to democratic regimes and market economies. Furthermore, the transformation of higher education itself…

In this article, we ask what role both digital and artistic human capital play in the creative economy by examining employment patterns of digital technology (DT) and creative arts and design (CAD) graduates. Using student micro-data collected by the Higher Education Statistical Agency (HESA) in the United Kingdom, we investigate the…

This paper explores graduates' views on the relationship between higher education and employment. It draws on a major European study involving graduates five years after graduation and highlights similarities and differences between UK graduates' experiences and their European counterparts. Specifically, we address questions raised in the study…

This article draws upon results from an ESRC-funded research project exploring young graduates' attitudes to, and experiences of, further education or learning postgraduation. Respondents' narratives indicated a strong emphasis upon job-based learning, or training, over and above an oft-stated desire to do further study "for its own sake". Whilst…

This article examines the claim that the Irish educational system was one cause of Ireland's rapid economic growth in the 1990s. For decades Irish economic policy has assumed that economic growth depended on foreign direct investment (FDI). During the 1990s, Irish exports largely comprised high-technology manufacturing products; foreign-owned…

This paper analyses polytechnic graduate placement in Finnish manufacturing. The paper uses a register-based data source covering white-collar manufacturing workers over the period 1995-2004. Taken together, the results show that wages and job classification are higher for polytechnic graduates, once other covariates are controlled for. Despite…

This article focuses on the impact of ethnic background on employment and earnings among people with a vocational education in Norway. I differentiate between three different groups: majority, first-generation non-Westerners and second-generation non-Westerners. Panel data from several public register databases of the entire population of…

In this study, the effects of several educational and non-educational indicators of competence on short-term labour market outcomes for university graduates are estimated. The research question is: to what extent do indications of specific and generic competence during the educational program predict labour market outcomes? Labour market outcomes…