Socioeconomic Differences in the Transition From Higher Education to the Labour Market: A Systematic Review

Abstract

The transition from higher education to the labour market is considered an important and uncertain life stage wherein young adults exchange an academic environment for an often-chaotic entry into the labour market. Specifically, for graduates with a lower socioeconomic status (SES), this transition involves several difficulties. Investigating these persisting SES differences in the transition is becoming more relevant given the increasing participation of students from lower SES backgrounds in higher education. This systematic review studies SES differences in the transition by looking through the lens of resource acquisition. The results demonstrate that graduates from lower SES backgrounds have more difficulty finding suitable employment and often experience lower job quality. Moreover, our findings show that the strong interdependence between the importance of different forms of capital and the (implicit) symbolic value attached to these capitals makes it difficult for graduates from lower SES backgrounds to overcome barriers in the transition.

Exploring the impact of an industrial placement year on students' competency development: a three-cohort, longitudinal study

“…A placement has been shown to offer significant benefits to the student (De Schepper et al ., 2023), including increased self-perceived employability (Donald et al ., 2019). A key reason to do a work placement is to “increase skills and competencies highly sought after by employers” (Smith, 2021, Online).…”

“…Graduate employability and career development literature streams have tended to develop independently with limited theoretical or practical exchange (Healy et al ., 2022). Nevertheless, a dominant theme is that participating in an industrial placement during a university degree benefits the student (De Schepper et al ., 2023). For the purpose of this study, we define an industrial placement (hereafter placement) from the UK perspective as a structured programme forming a mandatory part of an undergraduate degree, whereby students spend up to 12 months gaining work experience relevant to their degree of study, before completing their final year of study.…”

Social inequality in the association between life transitions into adulthood and depressed mood: a 27-year longitudinal study

“…A systematic review by van der Noordt, Ijzelenberg ( 47 ) report that employment is a strong protective factor against developing depression and mental illness across both age groups and genders. Still, this might not hold true for lower SES youths who often struggle finding decent and stable employment upon transitioning from higher education ( 48 ). Together, these findings point to the need for more research to test if life transitions could play a critical role in shaping long-term social disparities in adult depressive outcomes.…”

Facilitating the education-to-work transition

“…However, the transition process reaches well beyond the point of obtaining employment after graduation. Graduates encounter several challenges as they exchange the relatively stable and known context of higher education for a context that is dynamic, uncertain, and sometimes even unknown (De Schepper et al, 2023;Kowtha, 2011). When graduates have secured a job after graduation, they need to adapt to this new context, learn their new job tasks, and take on a new role as an employee with new responsibilities.…”

“…This also raises the question when a transition is considered successful. As seen in the first study of this dissertation (Chapter 2) and drawing on previous literature (e.g., de Oliveira et al, 2016;De Schepper et al, 2023), indicators of a successful transition can include both objective and subjective measures.…”