Youth want workforce policies and programs that reflect their unique needs. If policymakers listen, they will create more inclusive opportunities that benefit communities, local businesses, and youth themselves. Jobs for the Future (JFF) held a series of focus groups with young people ages 16 to 24 focused on their career aspirations and…

This first report of the "Paths of Opportunity" series explores how young people's experiences during their high school years shaped their economic and social mobility in adulthood, using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997. Findings reveal that: (1) Few young people who experienced poverty in adolescence experienced…

This study aims to gain a deeper understanding of knowledge transfer as an outcome of transnational education. Based on the case of a Finnish-Vietnamese transnational education program, this paper analyzes the role of students as knowledge mediators between the study program, students' personal development and work life. Although students should…

This article explores the complex future of work and how projected changes in the workplace will inevitably influence college students. We examine workforce trends and predictions with a focus on the rise of automation and artificial intelligence, including how an increasing reliance on machines will replace and reshape millions of jobs. In…

Purpose: The paradigm of school-to-work transition is changing, with an increasing number of students combining work and study. Furthermore, there exists some mixed evidence for the impact of student employment on future earnings and employment likelihood. The purpose of the present paper is to examine additional evidence that would shed light on…

This article examines the teaching of collaboration within tertiary education, critiquing the hegemony of a neoliberal mandate. This review of academic literature first identifies the significance of social capital and an intrinsic motivation to collaborate, to theorize how an important and complex graduate attribute (termed here 'collaborative…

What we understand about the world is determined by what the world is, who we are, and how we conduct our inquiries. Action research privileges the question "why are things as they are?" This article explores how neoliberalism, with its key principle that competition is the defining characteristic of human relations, reshapes our work as…

Occupational prestige, the hierarchical perception of occupations, is a neglected issue in studies on vocational education and training, although the attractiveness of apprenticeship programs is strongly affected by their prestige. Based on a qualitative study, this article examines the identity strategies of apprentices whose training programs…

There has been a massification of higher education in Hong Kong since the late 1980s. In addition to programmes offered by local higher education institutions, there are plenty of off-shore degree programmes provided by overseas institutions. In the meantime, Hong Kong has been restructured to an international financial centre, and its financial…

The last decade has seen a shrinking of degree-level employment opportunities for young people (aged under 24 years) in Australia and globally. This research aims to better understand the job advertisements to which our graduates are exposed. This article presents a universal method to collect and process advertisements from an online job board.…

This research has a singular and notable importance, because if something should concern a Higher Education Institution, it is knowing what is the destiny within society of the human resource trained in its classrooms, that product that the institution delivers to the community who are its graduates and professionals. For the Institutions of…

A recent college graduate working as a coffee shop barista, earning minimum wage and carrying thousands of dollars in student loan debt, is a familiar trope in conversations about the value of a bachelor's degree. In the college-for-all era, young people are encouraged to attain a bachelor's degree to bolster their labor market opportunities…

With increasing tuition rates and decreasing financial resources, more college students are working on campus to pay for higher education (Watson, 2013). Campus work opportunities provide students with financial support and also assist universities in completing operational functions (Wallace, 2005). Higher education leaders should be aware that…

This paper argues that micro-credentials are gig credentials for the gig economy. Micro-credentials are short competency-based industry-aligned units of learning, while the gig economy comprises contingent work by individual 'suppliers'. Both can be facilitated by (often the same) digital platforms, and both are underpinned by social relations of…

This article aims to examine alternative explanations of social disadvantage on the university-to-work transition experiences of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) students. 'Becoming employable' during the university-to-work transition is reflected in three ways: students' cognition/patterns of thinking (i.e. perceived…