Experiences in the labour market (Spring 09)

Experiences in the labour market: how do UK and European graduates compare?
Summary
Introduction
What happened five years after graduation?
Income and the gender pay gap
Education and skills match
Work experience, training and development
What do graduates value most in a job?
Conclusion

Experiences in the labour market: how do UK and European graduates compare?

Summary

The REFLEX project is an European Commission initiative which investigates the demand of a modern knowledge society made of graduates across Europe, and the role played by higher education institutions in equipping their graduates with these skills. In this article, Pearl Mok from HECSU summarises some of the key findings from the UK strand of the research, undertaken and reported by the Centre for Higher Education Research and Information (CHERI) at the Open University. The study found that although UK graduates were less likely than their other European counterparts to feel well prepared for their first employment, five years after graduation, their experiences and skills-match were comparable to the European average.

Introduction

The REFLEX project, ‘Research into Employment and professional FLEXibility’, was a major study into the demands the knowledge society places on graduates, and the degree to which higher education institutions (HEIs) in Europe have equipped their graduates with the required competencies. As part of the project, a survey of the employment experiences of graduates over the five years since their graduation in 2000 was conducted across a number of European countries. This resulted in just under 34,000 responses, including 1,578 in the UK. In this article, we look at some of the key findings of the UK strand of the research, undertaken by the Centre for Higher Education Research and Information (CHERI) at the Open University, and see how they compare with those of other European countries. ,

For the survey, graduates from the 1999/2000 graduating cohort were contacted in the spring of 2005. The UK sample comprised graduates with a bachelors degree, unlike in most other European countries where the sample consisted wholly (or mainly) of graduates with a masters degree, which was seen as the main ‘exit’ qualification.

What happened five years after graduation?

A third (34%) of UK graduates had experienced at least one period of unemployment since graduating in 2000, with the average duration being 6.3 months, which compared well with the European average of 36% and 7.9 months. On the other hand, 61% of Spanish graduates had been unemployed, lasting 10.3 months on average. At the time of the survey in 2005, 4% of UK graduates were out of work, compared with 5% across all countries. Spain (9%), France (8%) and Italy (7%) had the highest unemployment rates, whilst Norway and Czech Republic had the lowest (both at 2%).

In the UK, 3% of female graduates were out of work in 2005 compared with 5% of males. This pattern of lower unemployment amongst female graduates, both immediately after graduation and several years on, is consistent with that found by other research on the employment of UK graduates. On average across all countries, however, females were more likely to be unemployed than males (6% vs 4%). The gender differences were particularly pronounced for Spain and Italy, where 11% and 10% respectively of female graduates were out of work, compared with less than half these figures for male graduates.

UK graduates, however, were less likely to be self-employed compared to their European counterparts. Only 5% of UK graduates were self-employed five years after graduation, the lowest amongst all countries (average 9%) except Switzerland (3%). On the contrary, one in five (22%) graduates from Italy, and one in seven graduates from Austria, Germany and Czech Republic were self-employed.

Income and the gender pay gap

Five years after graduation in 2005, UK graduates in full-time employment earned a median gross monthly income of £1,690, an increase of about £540 a month compared to their first job, and more than the European average of £1,570 and £360 a month respectively. Swiss, German, and Norwegian graduates earned the most, even after correcting for differences in purchasing power, whilst Czech, Spanish and Italian graduates had the lowest income.

Men earned more than women in all countries, with the gender pay gap being 20% for graduates’ first employment, widening to 28% five years later. The gender income differentials were less steep in the UK: 11% for first employment, rising to 17% by 2005.

Education and skills match

Two in five (38%) UK graduates thought that the level of education required in their first job was below that of higher education, and 35% reported that their first job did not require a particular field of study – the highest amongst all countries (European average: 18% and 13 % respectively). Unlike in continental Europe where the emphasis of higher education is more on subject specialism, higher education in the UK is seen to be more fairly broadly based, which could perhaps explain some of the differences between the UK and other European graduates’ responses. On the contrary, German graduates (91%) were the most likely to report a match of education level and job requirements in their first employment.

Five years after graduation, however, almost three-quarters (72%) of UK graduates felt that their level of education was appropriate for their ‘current job’, a rise from 55% reported for first employment and the biggest increase over the five-year period amongst all countries. This (five-year) figure was also comparable to the European average of 73%. On the other hand, only 58% of French graduates felt that their level of education was appropriate for their current employment – no change from the figure reported for their first job.

Overall, just under half (48%) of UK graduates felt that their study programme was a good basis for starting work, compared with the European average of 58%. They were also less likely than other European graduates to describe their programme as vocationally orientated, but more likely to describe it as ‘academically prestigious’. Norwegian graduates appeared to be most likely to rate their studies as valuable for their employment and career overall.

The competencies which UK graduates felt they possessed were similar to those rated highly by other European graduates. The only substantial difference is the ‘ability to write and speak in a foreign language’. Only one in five (19%) UK graduates rated their foreign language skills as high or very high and 9% reported that this skill was required at work, compared with the European average of 51% and 39% respectively.

Work experience, training and development

Less than a third (29%) of UK graduates had participated in work placements/internships during their study – the second lowest amongst all countries, above only Italy (European average: 55%). UK graduates were also the least likely to have gained study-related work experience during HE – only one in five (21%) reported having done so compared with the European average of 49%. Italian and Spanish graduates also showed a similar pattern to UK graduates. On the other hand, three-quarters or more graduates from Germany, The Netherlands and Finland had participated in work placements/internships, and over two-thirds of graduates from Austria and Finland had obtained study-related work experience during higher education.

Perhaps related to their relative lack of experience, the shorter duration of study in the UK and the ‘looseness of fit’ between study and employment, UK graduates received the longest training period in their first employment, averaging 11.2 months compared with the European average of 7.9 months. During the 12 months before the survey in 2005, 69% of UK graduates had also undertaken work-related training in their employment, slightly higher than the European average of 63%. Italian (48%), French (48%) and Norwegian (53%) graduates were least likely to participate in work-related training. In the case of Norwegian graduates, this was perhaps related to the fact that the majority felt that their study programme had already given them a good basis for doing their job efficiently.

What do graduates value most in a job?

Both UK and European graduates rated the ‘opportunity to learn new things’ as the most important job characteristic, and this was much more valuable than ‘high earnings’ and ‘social status’. UK graduates, however, were the least likely to feel that a job which offered a ‘good chance to combine work with family tasks’ as very important: only 45% of UK graduates felt this was the case, compared with the European average of 72%. The low UK figure might partly be explained by the younger age of their graduates: almost three-quarters of UK graduates were aged 20-24 at the time of graduation, compared with the European average of only 40%. UK graduates thus were probably less likely than their older continental European counterparts to have started a family of their own.

Conclusion

The study concluded that UK graduates were more likely than other European graduates to feel that they were overqualified for their first employment, but also seemed to be most flexible when obtaining work, reflecting a looser link between higher education and employment in the UK. Five years after graduating, most UK graduates were in jobs appropriate to their level of qualification and their employment experience compared well with other European graduates. The shorter duration of study in the UK and the younger age of many graduates need to be taken into account when interpreting some of the results. In addition, whether the differences in figures found between UK and other European graduates were due to the differences in the economies, or the higher education systems of the respective countries, will warrant further investigations.

References

See www.reflexproject.org, including The Flexible Professional in the Knowledge Society: General results of the REFLEX project, J Allen et al.

The series of reports on The Flexible Professional in the Knowledge Society – new demands on higher education in Europe, are available at: www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/rdreports/2008/rd22_08/. This article is a summary of the key findings of Report 1, The Employment of UK Graduates: comparisons with Europe, by J Brennan and W Tang.

See, for example, Graduates’ First Destinations by Age, Ethnicity and Gender. P Mok, August 2006. www.hecsu.ac.uk/hecsu.rd/research_reports_125.htm. The Class of ‘99: A study of the early labour market experience of recent graduates. K Purcell, P Elias, R Davis and N Wilton, Oct 2005. www.hecsu.ac.uk/hecsu.rd/research_reports_142.htm.

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