Divergent Graduates on the Single Market?Education and Work Relationship of Master’s Degree Graduates in 13 European Countries1

− to explore the actual diversity of the higher education and work relationship in European countries

− on the concrete level of graduates’ own accounts of their studies and transition to working life

− a challenge for harmonizing single market policy

− the graduate point of view:

to have a degree would be about the same thing in each country with relation to labour markets and work

− several reasons to argue for both harmonity and divergence of the higher education and work relationship

− leitmotif: informal ‘non-statistical’ features of the links between higher education and local working life

may be most important in practice

1bachelor in UK

Vocational Enrolment Study Overlapping of Transition /background orientations study and work initial employment- vocational training - average - modes of teaching - proportion of - time point of first- study-related work enrolment age and learning part-time students employment experience - proportion of - vocational orientation - internship and - initial training in first job fast track entrants of the programme work placements - adequacy of field - proportion of - familiarity of content - study-related work and level adult students to employers experience - further education/ - study and work abroad training

course of master’s degree studies

w o r l d o f w o r k

− analysis of 22 contact points of the world of work to the course of the master’s degree studies

− sum up 1: the overall divergence of each country from the European average

− sum up 2: average ‘working life proximity’ of

’Vocational background’ of master’s degree students in 12 European countries:vocational secondary education and study-related work experience before higher education

0 %

10 %

20 %

30 %

40 %

50 %

60 %

70 %

CH AT CZ DE IT FI NO FR PT NL BE ES

both vocational training and study-related work experience work experience only vocational training only none

0,00

0,10

0,20

0,30

0,40

0,50

0,60

0,70

0,80

0,90

1,00

CZ PT FI NO NL FR IT BE ES GB AT CH DE

vocationally orientated employers familiar with the content

Vocational orientation of the study programme and its familiarity to employers as assessed by master’s degree graduates (bachelor in UK)

Proportion of part-time students (%)

Average time spent in study-related work (months)

Time spent in study-related work as % of total study time (mean)

Finland 40 12 16

Austria 37 15 18

Italy 25 4 4

Portugal 23 3 5

Czech Republic 22 7 11

Switzerland 20 4 6

Germany 19 11 15

Netherlands 17 7 11

Norway 16 8 10

Spain 15 2 4

France 14 9 16

United Kingdom 13 2 4

Belgium 7 1 2

Overlapping of study and work: part-time study and study-related work experience of students

0,45

0,50

0,55

0,60

0,65

0,70

0,75

0,80

0,85

NO PT CZ FR AT FI NL CH BE ES GE IT GB

starting work further learning on the job

Degree as a basis for starting work and learning further on the job:average assessment by graduates (1 = to a very high extent 0 = not at all

NL CH CZ NO DE AT FR PT ES IT FI BE GBAverage enrolment age 0,13 0,32 0,45 0,34 0,48 0,19 0,30 0,43 0,58 0,27 0,65 0,83 1,00Fast track entrants 0,28 0,52 0,05 0,33 0,56 0,56 0,34 0,36 0,58 0,58 0,41 1,00 0,15

Adult students 0,13 0,01 0,20 0,01 0,03 0,07 0,10 0,13 0,29 0,23 0,30 0,34 1,00Vocational secondary education 0,32 0,27 1,00 0,31 0,25 0,78 0,23 0,16 0,35 0,65 0,22 0,32

Prior work experience 0,29 1,00 0,16 0,00 0,46 0,40 0,20 0,37 0,49 0,38 0,20 0,42 0,07

Academic emphasis 0,28 0,62 0,71 0,22 0,10 0,05 0,66 0,05 0,38 0,18 0,35 1,00 0,26

Professional emphasis 0,56 0,19 0,36 0,32 0,09 0,02 1,00 0,55 0,60 0,88 0,25 0,40 0,32

Vocational orientation 0,07 0,57 1,00 0,34 0,61 0,41 0,06 0,73 0,33 0,24 0,70 0,26 0,35

Familiarity to employers 0,02 0,18 0,47 1,00 0,33 0,29 0,04 0,13 0,17 0,54 0,39 0,05 0,56

Abroad during studies 0,77 0,38 0,18 0,01 0,24 0,56 0,84 1,00 0,54 0,75 0,43 0,01 0,77

Abroad after studies 0,32 0,10 0,05 0,62 0,48 0,62 0,44 0,41 0,29 0,59 0,16 1,00 0,02Part-time students 0,18 0,04 0,08 0,26 0,07 0,83 0,33 0,15 0,27 0,22 1,00 0,72 0,41

Internship 0,62 0,18 0,34 0,54 0,70 0,25 1,00 0,17 0,09 0,88 0,34 0,02 0,53

Work experience during studies 0,10 0,09 0,11 0,43 0,50 0,83 1,00 0,63 0,76 0,76 0,93 0,82 0,83

Average work experience 0,02 0,30 0,05 0,15 0,54 1,00 0,23 0,39 0,48 0,26 0,64 0,64 0,56

Immediate employment 0,15 0,41 0,13 0,01 0,02 0,28 0,41 0,09 0,35 0,45 1,00 0,68 0,41

Initial training in first job 0,15 0,06 0,87 0,16 0,66 0,08 0,23 0,52 0,09 0,26 1,00 0,11 0,21

Vertical correspondence 0,48 0,64 0,26 0,22 0,49 0,23 0,24 0,70 1,00 0,38 0,30 0,11 0,68

Horizontal correspondence 0,17 0,15 0,12 0,20 0,23 0,06 0,10 0,36 0,34 0,10 0,29 0,10 1,00Basis for starting work 0,03 0,01 0,39 1,00 0,51 0,12 0,23 0,58 0,40 0,65 0,05 0,12 0,73

Basis for forther learning 0,28 0,06 0,06 1,00 0,81 0,38 0,14 0,51 0,52 0,49 0,69 0,60 1,00Further training 0,20 0,28 0,44 0,42 0,18 0,35 0,52 0,42 0,34 0,05 0,16 1,00 0,05Overall divergence (mean) 0,25 0,29 0,34 0,36 0,38 0,38 0,39 0,40 0,42 0,45 0,48 0,48 0,52

Country-specific overall divergence from the European average with regard to higher education and work relationship(0 = average, 1 = highest divergence observed)

− range .25 to .52 from the most average country (NL) to the most divergent one (UK)

− ‘diversity of divergence’: each country average in some respects but highly divergent in others

FI FR CZ AT DE NO PT NL CH GB IT ES BEVocational secondary education (%) 5 5 43 36 4 2 7 2 3 32 1 2Adult students (%) 9 4 2 6 5 5 3 3 5 18 2 1 0,5Study-related work experience before HE (%) 27 14 26 34 36 21 8 11 54 19 8 4 7Emphasis on professional mode of learning (mean) 43 51 37 41 42 38 47 47 39 44 32 35 37Vocational orientation of study programme (mean) 58 45 63 39 35 51 58 47 36 40 42 40 41Familiarity of study content to employers (mean) 57 52 58 47 47 65 49 51 49 43 44 54 50Part-time students (%) 40 14 22 37 19 16 23 17 20 13 25 15 7Participated in work placement or internships (%) 64 90 37 41 78 29 57 75 43 30 16 47 50Study-related work experience during HE (%) 75 77 49 71 61 59 26 43 49 20 22 22 20Employed before graduation (%) 45 15 21 25 12 16 21 16 15 19 14 14 5First job corresponding to the field of study (%) 89 83 84 82 87 86 90 76 85 55 78 72 84Study programme as a basis for starting work (mean) 65 67 69 66 59 76 71 65 65 56 57 60 63Did not start further education or training (%) 81 89 88 70 74 87 87 82 71 77 79 70 55mean: Working life proximity 50,5 46,6 46,2 45,8 42,9 42,4 42,2 41,2 41,1 36,1 34,7 33,4 32,3

’Working life proximity’ of European master’s degrees