At the end of compulsory schooling, young people face an important transition: they have to decide whether to pursue either further schooling or vocational training. Choices are crucial phenomena in transitions: they are based on what a person considers to be options and follow preferences shaped by their social position and context. Using a…

A growing number of scholars have investigated how extracurricular activities (ECA) are intimately tied to graduates' positional competition and enhancement of employability. Prior studies have shown that the strategic tendency towards ECA especially applies to privileged, high-achieving students from a high-status university. Yet studies…

The benefits of growth in university enrolments are contingent on the articulation of university expansion with changes in other areas, particularly the economy. The costs of a mismatch are felt at the societal level, but especially by individual graduates. This article describes problems faced by professionals in one country that has experienced…

In the harsh Chinese graduate labor market, urban, middle-class students continue to outpace those from rural, underprivileged backgrounds in job access and occupational attainment. Literature attributes this graduate employment gap to varied accumulation of social capital embedded in their social network, leading to advantages of middle-class.…

At a time when colleges and universities are anxious to prove that their graduates are employable, internships are being increasingly touted as valuable 'high-impact' practices. However, how students themselves conceptualise internships is poorly understood, which inhibits the inclusion of their voices in the employability discourse and…

This paper contributes to critical understandings of the significance of employability in current debates about the transformation of Higher Education (HE). We express our concerns about the implications of orientating HE to utilitarian demands in the light of a tendency to align discussions about the significance of studying at university with…

Teaching students aspiring to media work presents the educator with a fundamental dilemma. On the one hand, students require the knowledge and skills necessary to find and sustain employment within existing industry practices, systems and structures. On the other hand, students need to be prepared for the uncertain and shifting nature of media…

The Palestinian information technology (IT) sector is growing. Meanwhile, an ongoing out-migration of IT professionals and graduates is taking place. Drawing on group, pair and individual interviews, as well as fieldwork observations, this paper investigates highly skilled IT students' intentions to stay in or to leave the West Bank. In…

High educational aspirations are considered to be a crucial factor for educational success and social advancement. As is also the case in many western European countries, migrants in Germany have higher aspirations than non-migrants. Although migrants' average school performance levels are significantly lower, their greater educational aspirations…

This paper explores the perceptions of degree students at two UK universities regarding their work placement and part-time working activities, to assess if the two activities converge. The research comprises three stages: interviews for preliminary exploration of students' perceptions towards work placement and part-time work; interviews to…

For young people in the southern Mediterranean, labour market entry is long and difficult. Empirical tests carried out in one Moroccan region show that informal employment largely predominates among young people. Even if a qualification does not protect them from unemployment, it is necessary for access to formal jobs. Experience in the labour…

The U.S. workforce has been changing rapidly. Close to half of working adults are women, and as the U.S. population becomes ever more racially and ethnically diverse, so too does the labour force. Using data collected from 13-18-year-old teenagers over three time periods across two decades, 1992 to 2012, this study examines changes in the career…

We empirically investigate whether the relationship between the fraction of filled apprenticeships in a particular occupation in the past and the fraction of prospective apprentices having very early intentions to train in this occupation has an impact on the decision to change the intended choice of occupation. We use a unique dataset from…

This article examines the educational trajectories envisioned by immigrant-origin youths. The mixed-methods research draws upon quantitative (N = 445) and interview data (n = 112). Whereas most prior research focuses on educational achievement or educational attainment of immigrant-origin youth, this article focuses on their outlooks concerning…

'Enterprise' has increasingly become part of the United Kingdom's political grammar and efforts to develop entrepreneurial traits and activities in young people have been a key strand of this policy focus. As the 2008 economic recession saw a curtailed youth labour market, enterprise emerged as an appealing policy 'solution' to youth unemployment.…