scholarly journals Degrees on the side: student employment and the neoliberal university

Soundings ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (76) ◽  
pp. 69-81
Author(s):  
Jessica Simpson
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Young People ◽  
Female Students ◽  
Labour Markets ◽  
Student Employment ◽  
Income Generation ◽  
Paid Employment ◽  
Undergraduate Experience ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Structural Inequalities

This article draws on interviews with 39 female students who work, in order to refute contradictory, and class-blind, narratives that see students as either workshy, or as 'failing' to prioritise their education over paid employment. The data reveals that dominant ideas of the undergraduate experience are outmoded and fail to represent the multiplicity and complexity of students' lives. The experiences of the interviewees make it clear just how wide of the mark universities and governments are in their understanding of the employment pressures faced by many students. Rather than being un/employed, young people are now engaging with university and work in 'new' ways, in response to the increased neoliberalisation of higher education and the labour markets. Participants ranged from students with side-jobs to students who were doing their degrees 'on the side'; either as a strategic form of income generation and/or as a result of structural inequalities. The findings from the study add to scholarship demonstrating the need to rethink higher education and how it is delivered in the UK.

scholarly journals Navigating an Uncertain Labor Market in the UK: The Role of Structure and Agency in the Transition from School to Work

2020 ◽  
Vol 688 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-92
Author(s):  
Ingrid Schoon
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Young People ◽  
School To Work ◽  
Occupational Attainment ◽  
Employment Opportunities ◽  
Age Cohorts ◽  
Structure And Agency ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Career Options

This article reviews the evidence on young people in the UK making the transition from school to work in a changing socioeconomic climate. The review draws largely on evidence from national representative panels and follows the lives of different age cohorts. I show that there has been a trend toward increasingly uncertain and precarious employment opportunities for young people since the 1970s, as well as persisting inequalities in educational and occupational attainment. The joint role of social structure and human agency in shaping youth transitions is discussed. I argue that current UK policies have forgotten about half of the population of young people who do not go to university, by not providing viable pathways and leaving more and more young people excluded from good jobs and employment prospects. Recommendations are made for policies aimed at supporting the vulnerable and at provision of career options for those not engaged in higher education.

Progression of Skills and Competencies through University to Employment

1998 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 290-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Hobrough ◽  
Rodney Bates
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Work Experience ◽  
Leadership Skills ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Graduate Employment ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Undergraduate Experience ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Business Sectors

This paper discusses findings of a research project comparing skills of business-related advanced GNVQ/GCE students in the UK, together with perceptions as to how skills develop through undergraduate experience into employment. Expectations of employers in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are also indicated. GNVQ students seem more aware of business needs than GCE students, and appear to have a greater awareness of teamworking. GCE students tend towards a recognition of leadership skills and improvement of self-sufficiency during higher education. Work experience is identified as the major need within higher education for SME employment across Europe and the acquisition of a foreign language is identified as a growing need for graduate employment, not only in Europe but also in certain UK business sectors.

scholarly journals Young People’s Services in an Age of Neoliberalism

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-206
Author(s):  
Graham Brotherton ◽  
Christina Hyland ◽  
Iain Jones ◽  
Terry Potter
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Young People ◽  
Higher Education Policy ◽  
Coalition Government ◽  
Youth Services ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Way

Abstract This article brings together four different perspectives which explore the way in which various policy initiatives in recent years have sought to construct young people resident in the United Kingdom within particular policy discourses shaped by neoliberalism. In order to do this it firstly considers the way in which the assumptions of neoliberalism have increasingly been applied by the new Coalition Government to young people and the services provided for them; it then considers the particular role of New Labour in the UK in applying these ideas in practice. Specific examples from the areas of young people’s participation in youth services and higher education policy are then considered.

scholarly journals Risk, Choice and Social Disadvantage: Young People's Decision-Making in a Marketised Higher Education System

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 110-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheryl Clark ◽  
Anna Mountford-Zimdars ◽  
Becky Francis
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Young People ◽  
Social Disadvantage ◽  
Widening Participation ◽  
Tuition Fees ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
High Achieving Students ◽  
Risk Choice ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Relationship

Rising tuition fees in England have been accompanied by a policy mandate for universities to widen participation by attracting students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. This article focuses on one such group of high achieving students and their responses to rising tuition fees within the context of their participation in an outreach scheme at a research-intensive university in the UK. Our findings suggest that rather than being deterred from attending university as a result of fee increases, these young people demonstrated a detailed and fairly sophisticated understanding of higher education provision as a stratified and marketised system and justified fees within a discourse of ‘private good.’ Our analysis situates their ‘risk’ responses within the discursive tensions of the fees/widening participation mandate. We suggest that this tension highlights an intensified commodification of the relationship between higher education institutions and potential students from disadvantaged backgrounds in which widening participation agendas have shifted towards recruitment exercises. We argue that an ongoing effect of this shift has resulted in increased instrumentalism and a narrowing of choices for young people faced with the task of seeking out ‘value for money’ in their degrees whilst concurrently engaging in a number of personalised strategies aimed at compensating for social disadvantage in a system beset by structural inequalities.

scholarly journals Improving Educational Outcomes through Getting It Right for Every Child in Glasgow

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (S1) ◽  
pp. S86-S92
Author(s):  
Maureen McKenna
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Young People ◽  
Educational Outcomes ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Prior Experience ◽  
Universities And Colleges ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The City

This article sketches the context of education in Glasgow, which is Scotland’s largest local authority, serving some of the most deprived communities in Scotland and the UK. It considers the ways in which we work with our schools to raise aspirations and extend young people’s horizons, and explores some of the successes and some of the challenges we have faced and continue to face in bridging the gap between school and higher education. In Scotland, higher education can be delivered through colleges as well as universities. This is an important dimension for our young people, as colleges offer a different learning experience for them and, for some, this can be a more successful learning pathway. There are also other pathways to higher education, for example through work-based learning, such as apprenticeships. Our partnerships with universities and colleges is very strong. Through this partnership there is a range of programmes which support young people across the city to learn about life in university. This is especially important for young people from deprived communities as, often, their families do not have prior experience of higher education. The means of funding and planning these programmes can be viewed as both an enabler and a barrier in certain contexts.

Are There too Many Graduates in the UK?

2004 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 243-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamsin Bowers-Brown ◽  
Lee Harvey
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Young People ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Knowledge Economy ◽  
White Paper ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Annual Increase ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Uk

The recent White Paper, The Future of Higher Education, and the annual increase in the number of young people achieving passes at A-level (the final secondary-school examinations) have fuelled an ongoing debate on whether too many people are now entering higher education in the UK. At the centre of the ‘too many graduates’ argument is the issue of employability: is the nation producing enough graduates to meet the needs of the knowledge economy or is there an abundance of graduates in the workplace who do not need degrees to do their jobs? This article identifies key arguments in the increasing participation and employability debate.

scholarly journals Foreword

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-73
Author(s):  
Sir Keith Burnett
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Young People ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Uk

At a time when the UK is making crucial choices about the future of universities and the costs which are borne by students, it is essential that the debate about what higher education is for and how it should be funded reaches beyond party politics. We need to hear the insights of students and business, of parents and universities. We need to consider what is being paid, by whom and on what terms. The future of the UK's productivity, of our great universities and of young people themselves demands that we think hard about what is right.

Transition From School to Work

2019 ◽  
pp. 100-121
Author(s):  
Çiğdem Apaydın
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Labor Market ◽  
Young People ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
School To Work ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Labor Market Programs

Although the pattern and issue of transition from school to work (TSW) is commonly discussed in France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK, and the US, it cannot find a place as a topic of discussion in the press and academe in Turkey. In reality, transition from school to work constitutes one of the most critical steps in young people's careers. It is therefore necessary to discuss the power of public policies to improve policies for young people, such as the regulation of the labor market, labor market programs, the effect of education on having a profession, and transition from higher education to work, all of which are underlined in the literature. The aim of this chapter is to discuss the process of transition from higher education to work within the context of Turkey based on the literature.

Graduate Transition into Employment in Hospitality SMEs

2005 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rick Holden ◽  
Stephanie Jameson ◽  
Conrad Lashley
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Young People ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
New Graduates ◽  
Hospitality Sector ◽  
The Uk

In the context of the UK government's target of 50% participation by young people in higher education, issues relating to the use of graduates in firms assume renewed significance. Increasing attention is paid to the potential for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to absorb a larger number of new graduates. With reference to the hospitality sector, this paper analyses survey data on the employment and use of graduates by SMEs. Data are presented on two specific themes: first, the characteristics of firms employing graduates and, second, owner-managers' perceptions of graduate labour and its use. The authors raise questions about the extent to which the skills of graduates employed in hospitality SMEs are being used.

Conclusion: Inequality, Liminality and Risk

2019 ◽  
pp. 139-158
Author(s):  
Pauline Leonard ◽  
Rachel J. Wilde
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Young People ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
The Self ◽  
Labour Markets ◽  
Youth Employment ◽  
Employment Policy ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Uk

This chapter provides an overview of the book by drawing out four key themes which emerged through the chapters as of key significance for understanding youth employability in the United Kingdom: regionality, social inequality, liminality and risk. Taking each of these in turn, the chapter demonstrates how the pervasive force of neoliberalism shapes youth employment policy and youth labour markets in the diverse regions of the UK. In order to ‘get in’ and then to ‘get on’, Britain’s young people must demonstrate neoliberal qualities such as individualisation, responsibilisation and resilience to risk. At the same time, the ability to perform this version of the self is powerfully shaped by social structure.

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