Research problem:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We know little about the longitudinal processes of employability that HE graduates encounter as they enter the world of work and the tensions and conflicts that they encounter on this path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Research questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. How do HE graduates navigate in the competitive labour market? How do they interpret, negotiate and manage employability and labour market trajectories including transitions and mobility?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. How does the level of degree (Bachelor\u2019s\/Master\u2019s), institutional setting (research university\/university of applied sciences) and the location of the institution (Western\/Eastern Finland) relate to HE graduates\u2019 self-perceptions of employability and their labour market trajectories?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. What kinds of HE graduate work identities and related abilities are constructed and negotiated in terms of the past, present and future?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. How do HE graduates interpret and negotiate social differences (e.g. age, gender, social class) in relation to employability?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The aim is to analyse the labour market trajectories, including transitions from HE to the labour market and in the labour market as well as potential national or international mobility, of HE graduates with Bachelor\u2019s and Master\u2019s degrees in business and administration from the two institutional settings of the Finnish dual HE system (research university\/university of applied sciences) situated in two university towns, one vibrant and big situated on the west coast, one middle-sized on the remote area of the eastern border. The unemployment rates of both towns are similar, slightly over the average in Finland (Statistics Finland 2017a), but their economic structures are different and in the western region there are 57 professional fields that lack employees whereas the figure is 30 in the eastern region (Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment 2017). These locations represent interesting points of comparison due to their geographic locations and different economic structures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Business and administration was chosen since corresponding degrees can be gained in both research universities and universities of applied sciences, thus making comparison possible. The degrees from these two types of universities are hierarchically differentiated as theoretical and practical with respective abilities (Siivonen et al. 2016) and, thus, also differently valued in the labour market (Isopahkala-Bouret 2015a; 2018). In addition business and administration is one of the largest study fields in both institutional settings covering high volumes of graduates (in the research universities 31% of graduates; in the universities of applied sciences 55% of graduates) with a fairly equal distribution of both female and male graduates (Vuorinen-Lampila 2016). It is also a generalist field in which unemployment rates are among most severely affected by economic fluctuations (Taulu 2017) as most of the graduates are employed in the private sector (Vuorinen-Lampila & Stenstr\u00f6m 2012).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Studying HE graduates\u2019 trajectories and employability and related work identities and ability selves with a longitudinal qualitative design represents a major contribution in its holistic understanding of a complex social process which entails the active positioning of graduates within the wider labour market context within which they are located. This relates to the way in which graduates make sense of, and interact with, the world of work. This interaction is itself constitutive of the types of labour market identities and dispositions they are developing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Contextualized and longitudinal analysis of HE graduates\u2019 employability and labour market trajectories Research problem: We know little about the longitudinal processes of employability that HE graduates encounter as they enter the world of work and the tensions and conflicts that they encounter on this path. Research questions: 1. How do HE graduates navigate in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":500,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-102","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n