Youth, the Labor Market, and the Expansion of Higher Education

Abstract

This article presents data about the aspirations of youth in relation to education and work, and it attempts to forecast the likelihood of fulfilling those aspirations. We have found that youth prefer enrolling in institutions of higher education to other educational trajectories; this is true of children whose parents have different socioprofessional statuses. Young people choose education because they want to obtain work that corresponds to their interests and aptitudes, is high-paying and prestigious, and makes it easy to find work in our country and to become a competent worker. However, most students in the ninth and eleventh grades had not made a decision about their future occupation or could not explain the reasons for their choice, and some were not sure of the correctness of their choice. [The Russian secondary school system goes through eleventh grade—Trans.] The authors do not share the belief that youth are behaving irresponsibly in charting their own future, but we do note a lack of appropriate communication between the labor market and its prospective personnel resources. Study of the opportunities for youth to realize their aspirations leads us to conclude that there is persistent differentiation in education, defined as an inequality of opportunities. The increase of a scarce resource (the number of places available in institutions of higher education) primarily increased the opportunities available to “strong” groups. With tightening conditions in the labor market, workers who received a pseudo-education will be replaced by qualified specialists. Differentiation in education will manifest itself in the labor market even more strongly than before. In conclusion, we draw attention to the fact that the aspirations of youth in educational institutions is consistent with global trends, and their positive motivation to work is the guarantee of progress and an important value component of social well-being.