Labour Market Relevance Research Articles

Digital technologies in music education − The prospects of interactive course development in primary school music education

Within the framework of the 'Education Innovation - Modernisation of the training structure, methods and content in higher education, enhancement of its labour market relevance', we conducted a course material development project for the length of two terms at the Institute of Education and Social Sciences, Apáczai Csere János Faculty of Humanities, Széchenyi István University. We devised course material to be applied in e-learning and in a place-based studying environment (VR course material). The aim of the project was to create support material that assists teacher candidates in processing and acquiring the material of primary school music education. Its necessity and timeliness are justified by the insufficient level of music skills of newly admitted teacher candidates. The present paper is intended to display a summary and short-term evaluation of the project.

Returns on vocational education over the life cycle: Between immediate labour market preparation and lifelong employability

An important issue in the design of secondary-level education is the balance between conveying general and occupation-specific (vocational) skills. On the one hand, vocationally oriented programmes, providing occupation-specific skills with immediate labour market relevance, have repeatedly been shown to secure safe pathways into employment. On the other hand, these programmes tend to put less emphasis on developing general knowledge, skills and competencies, including numeracy and literacy, which are foundational to lifelong learning. Hence, when the needs of the labour market change, employees who opted for a vocational track when they were at secondary school risk being less flexible in adapting to such changes later in their career. The authors of this article examine whether this results in a trade-off between short-term gains and long-term losses by considering differences in the labour market careers of vocationally and generally educated respondents in the 2012 Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). Their results suggest that early labour market benefits of vocational specialisation decrease over time; the authors relate this to its lower ability to equip secondary school students – future employees – with skills for lifelong learning.

Nullifying quality: the marketisation of higher education

The increasing dominance of educational markets means that quality of higher education has the character of open signifiers of periodic occurrence, embedded institutionally as ways of consensual communication on how to go on as smoothly as possible. This promotes the growth of context dependent and local interpretations of how to meet in agreement regarding quality in everyday practices. All interpretations are contextualised and as a result are nullified outside the context in which they occur. Discourses on quality promote flexibility and create periodic legitimacy through discursive nullification processes. On the other hand, institutions have to adopt standards in education as a measure of outcome indicators for benchmarking. When quality is replaced by standards and if standards are equivalent to labour market relevance this might signal the beginning of overall external control over higher education. In the long run it will hardly benefit educational programmes if institutions of higher educations fail to ‘stand for’ quality that, in the very least, can supplement the fulfilment of politically determined targets and standards. In this way the market will have not only graduates who are going into employment but also engaged citizens who can transform and challenge the market.

The labour market relevance of PhDs: an issue for academic research and policy-makers

In the difficult current socio-economic context, overqualified graduates are increasingly facing challenges in terms of entering the job market and finding jobs which fit their levels of qualifications and satisfaction. Grounded in an auto-ethnography approach, this paper reflects on the challenges that the author (a young female European PhD graduate) experienced when she entered the job market. The ultimate aim is to contribute to the understanding of some aspects of the current situation of numerous overqualified young people, especially in social sciences and the humanities, who have difficulties in terms of simply finding jobs or jobs which fit their levels of qualifications and salary expectations. In this regard, it highlights the responsibility of higher education policies and academic institutions for contributing to the degradation of PhDs’ unemployment and overskilling. Ultimately, it points out possible some solutions such as the potential of interdisciplinary academic research (including higher education and gender research) to successfully inform higher education policy in view of tackling the issue of the labour market relevance of PhDs’ skills and attributes.

Excellent prospects for beautiful minds: marketing international education

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how Finnish higher education institutions communicate market differentiation on the admissions webpages of their international business and technology programmes when attempting to appeal to prospective students and distinguish themselves from other institutions. Design/methodology/approach – The sample included admissions webpages of 68 bachelor’s and master’s programmes representing both Finnish universities and universities of applied sciences. The analysis method was a qualitative content analysis. Findings – The international programmes heavily accentuated their labour market relevance in their advertising and generated strong claims regarding the future career prospects of the graduates. In addition, the programmes emphasised their pedagogical methods and international atmosphere. References to non-academic life were not observed. Research limitations/implications – The analysis was only based on text and included two study fields. Practical implications – The results of this study can be used by marketers to critically examine their own marketing differentiation efforts and promises made to students. Social implications – Finnish business and technology programmes send an unequivocal marketing message that education has an instrumental value and students are considered consumers of education. Originality/value – This study is the first comprehensive study of the marketing communication practices of international higher education programmes in Finland. Moreover, this study contributes to the study of global international market mechanisms and research on marketing communication practised by higher education institutions.

Labour Market Relevance of European University Education. From Enrolment to Professional Employment in 12 Countries

In accordance with the education policy which puts human capital at its heart, higher education is expected to produce marketable competent professionals in response to the needs of an expansive knowledge‐based economy. In one reading, to support competitive knowledge‐based economy, higher education students should graduate as young and fast as possible. The article asks whether it is credible that the young & fast principle as an objective for university education would provide a feasible way of enhancing professional labour force to serve knowledge economies. The analysis of study careers of 17,000 European second cycle university graduates shows that transitions from school to higher education to professional employment vary considerably in the 12 countries. The key finding is that countries with rather slow progression in the initial part of the transition tend to do better in the end, and vice versa. Belgium (Flanders) is the most obvious example of young and fast‐graduating students that need a relatively long period after graduation to start their professional careers. In Finland, Austria, and Norway, relatively old and experienced graduates are employed rapidly. The time before professional employment after graduation is short for students who have acquired relevant work experience and acquainted themselves with professional fields. The youngest professionals are found in France where they tend to have access to opportunities for professionally relevant training. However, professional employment cannot be fostered by simply trying to recruit student populations as young as possible, but rather by enriching the labour market relevance of their student careers.

Students' choice of courses: Determining factors, sources of information, and relationship with the labour market demands in Nigeria

At the point of entryt, many prospective undergraduates believe that having a university degree or certificate alone would necessarily guarantee employment. Eventually, a few find employment, but many do not, possibly because the latter group chose courses that were not labour market relevant. In this study, some of the graduates produced between 1996 and 2006 who found employment were tracked, and the factors that determined the choice of their courses were investigated, as well as their sources of information on career choices. The relationship between their courses of study and the demands of the labour market were also determined. Results showed that the choice of courses by these graduates was largely based on parents' wishes (; SD = 0.99), while labour market relevance was considered less important. Those that got information on career choice from secondary school Guidance Counsellors were 35.6%, while 10.2% had no access to career information. Incidentally, there was a positive relationship (r = 0.461; df = 1450; P < 0.05) between course preferences and the demands of the labour market. This positive relationship suggests that parents and Guidance Counsellors, from whom most of the graduates obtained direction, were aware of labour market activities. Parents and counsellors are therefore equally up-to-date with the happenings in the labour market, and so can guide prospective students in the right direction.

Non-Cognitive Skills and Personality Traits: Labour Market Relevance and Their Development in Education &amp; Training Systems

This paper reviews the empirical economic literature on the relative importance of non cognitive skills for school and labour market outcomes, with a focus on Europe. There is evidence that high cognitive test scores are likely to result not only from high cognitive skills but also from high motivation and adequate personality traits. This suggests that part of the contribution of cognitive skills to economic growth could be due to personality traits. Across large parts of the literature, there is consensus that non cognitive skills have important effects both on school attainment and on labour market outcomes. These effects might be as important as the effects of cognitive skills. Less consensus exists on the malleability of non cognitive skills, with some arguing that these skills can be altered until the end of teenage years and others claiming that emotional intelligence can be changed at any age. Most of what economists know about the technology of non cognitive skill formation concerns early educational levels, such as preschools and schools. While it is difficult to argue that all relevant skill formation ends before labour market entry, there is scant evidence on the role of the workplace in the maintenance and development of existing skills. Clearly, more research in this area is needed.

Skills for work?: From skills development to decent livelihoods in Ghana's rural informal economy

In developing countries, skills development has been neglected. Skills development does not appear in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) or in many poverty reduction strategies and has been side-lined in favour of investment in primary education. However, it is hoped that discussion of skills development in the 2005 Global Monitoring Report and the World Summit in September 2005, will refocus attention on skills. In Ghana, skills development has received too little actual emphasis, despite the rhetoric of the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (2003–2005), the new Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (2006–2009), and more than 150 years of preoccupation with making education more relevant to the world of work. This paper argues that the current state of, and recent trends in, skills development opportunities in rural Ghana fail to adequately address the multiple occupational pathways of the youth, and especially the poor, as they attempt to become fully and productively engaged in decent livelihoods in the rural informal economy. Skills development interventions follow a top-down strategy, with programmes having little labour market relevance, and post-training support that is either absent or weak. Support for skills development in the informal economy, which is by far the largest destination for school leavers, is virtually non-existent. This paper will analyse and critique skills development in relation to Ghana's rural informal economy. This paper argues that the underlying assumption of the Ghanaian skills development agenda, that skills training solves un/under-employment and leads to economic growth and poverty reduction, will not be realised unless an effective and innovative pro-poor informal economy strategy is developed in order for skills development to result in livelihood outcomes that are both decent and productive.