‘Purists’ versus ‘Players’
The perception and management of future employability across graduates from different class backgrounds and institutes of higher education in the Netherlands.
Tim van Loo (10062521) tim_vanloo@hotmail.com
Master’s Thesis Sociology: Comparative Organisation and Labour Studies First reader: Mw. Dr. A.M. (Agnieszka) Kanas
Second reader: Dhr. Dr. K. (Kobe) De Keere 10th of July 2017
2 Table of Contents 1. Introduction p. 3 2. Context p. 6 3. Theoretical framework p. 8 3.1. Introducing Bourdieu p. 8 3.1.1. Field p. 9 3.1.2. Habitus p. 10 3.1.3. Capital p. 11 3.2. Graduate capitals p. 12 3.2.1. Human capital p. 13 3.2.2. Social capital p. 14 3.2.3. Cultural capital p. 15 3.2.4. Identity capital p. 17 3.2.5. Psychological capital p. 18 4. Methods p. 20
4.1. Research design and sample selection p. 20
4.2. Data collection and analysis p. 23
4.3. Ethical considerations p. 24
5. Results p. 25
5.1. The degree as a positional good p. 25
5.2. Attitudes and approaches to networking p. 28
5.3. The ‘collegiate’ lifestyle p. 32
5.4. Extra-curricular activities and the CV p. 37
5.5. The perils of career planning p. 42
6. Final conclusions and discussion p. 44
7. Sources p. 48
8. Appendix A: Topic list p. 51
3 1. Introduction
This thesis investigates how higher education graduates in the Netherlands perceive and manage future employability in an environment that is increasingly competitive. The focus lies on graduates with business or closely related degrees, seeking employment in this field. The conceptual tools developed by Pierre Bourdieu are used in order to examine graduate employability through a capitals approach. To account for a diversified educational participation where students from different class backgrounds nowadays convene, the views of both traditional and first-generation graduates of higher education will be explored. To accurately reflect the Dutch educational landscape, this thesis will also investigate the difference in attending a research-oriented ‘academic’ university (Wetenschappelijk Onderwijs, WO) versus a teaching-oriented ‘vocational’ college (Hoger Beroepsonderwijs, HBO). Class background and institutes of higher education are interrelated because non-traditional graduates have more commonly studied at a vocational college and vice versa.
Participation to higher education is long considered essential to achieving improved labour market outcomes in contemporary society. Graduates are commonly reported to be more resilient against unemployment, enjoy expanded career mobility as well as opportunities and have higher overall earnings. Society at large has come to associate graduateness as a ‘status confirmation’, legitimizing labour market advantage (Brown, 2003). Considering these perceived benefits to graduating it is unsurprising that the number of graduates has increased. The (aspiring) middle-class calls for credentials and providers of higher education answer, resulting in a shift from ‘elite’ to ‘mass’ higher education (Brown, 2000). The very same developments can be observed in the Netherlands where higher education has similarly expanded and diversified (De Zwaan, 2016).
According to Brown and his colleagues’, employers have generally failed to keep up with the increasing number of graduates and can no longer legitimize recruitment decisions on the basis of similar or otherwise indistinguishable credentials (Brown and Hesketh, 2004). Many graduates now seek to differentiate from their competition by cultivating ‘personal capital’, which employers are increasingly valuing (Brown and Tannock, 2009). Other factors such as the abandonment of traditional employment relationships, globalisation and the rise of the knowledge economy further contribute to an overall increasingly competitive environment for new entrants to the labour market (Brown, Lauder, and Ashton, 2011). Graduates now risk being ‘institutionally disappointed’ as suitable jobs appear increasingly out of reach in a situation of ‘social congestion’ (Brown, 2013). Related research by Tomlinson (2008) demonstrates that students are acutely aware of increased competition and stress the need to ‘add’ to a degree that is rapidly losing value, as the differentiating power of such credentials has decreased since that the number of graduates grows. Students feel urged to acquire
4 and mobilise various forms of capital in order to maintain competitiveness and guarantee future ‘employability’. As such, even if labour markets are not quite so cutthroat as one might believe, the social construction of perceived competition is very real. Brown (2003) comments that “if all adopt the same tactics, nobody gets ahead”, yet “if one does not play the game, there is little chance of winning” (p. 3). This is Brown’s ‘opportunity trap’, which hints at how competition between graduates might pan out.
This thesis attempts to add to the above discussed body of literature by investigating higher education graduates’ perception and management of employability in the Netherlands. The research by Tomlinson (2008) has made considerable headway in investigating this subject. However, it is useful to consider that Tomlinson’s sample consists of middle class students, which raises the question if non-traditional students have a similar perception of their future prospects in the labour market and moreover if they retain the same or different strategies to combat the declining value of their credentials. The inclusion of non-traditional graduates also becomes relevant in the sense that the graduate body that formerly consisted out of mostly members of the middle class is now heavily supplemented by students who are the first in their families to attend higher education (SCP, 2014). Based on this rationale, the primary research objective of this thesis is formulated as follows;
RQ1: How do graduates from different class backgrounds perceive and manage their future employability?
A second limitation of Tomlinson’s research is that it is based on a single ‘elite’ institution in the United Kingdom, which does not account for the diversification of higher education institutions. Higher education in the Netherlands is furthermore horizontally stratified; ‘academic’ universities and ‘vocational’ colleges co-exist alongside each other. This is quite different to higher education in the United Kingdom that is highly vertically stratified and knows several different tiers of higher education providers that are ranked on various aspects such as prestige (Di Stasio, 2014). For these reasons, this thesis als includes the type of higher education as a secondary research objective;
RQ2: How do graduates from different institutes of higher education perceive and manage their future employability?
Social class and the difference between vocational and academic higher education are highly interrelated in the Netherlands. Research shows that non-traditional students have a tendency to attend vocational higher education as opposed to academic (Tieben and Wolbers, 2010). Reasons include that it has less pre-requisite entry requirements and is considered a ‘safer’ choice. This is not without reason, as this vocationally oriented type of higher education is commonly understood to
5 focus on providing clear pathways into the labour market by offering specialized degrees towards specific occupations. Students can expect support in becoming employable outside of just learning technical skills. I maintain that this especially benefits non-traditional college students who by merely attending higher education have moved into ‘strange waters’, which makes the relation between class and type of higher education highly interesting to investigate.
There is some duality to be found in the way these research questions are formulated, in that both graduates’ perceptions as well as actual management is included. This was decided because in respect to differences in class and institutions of higher education both are important; graduates may have different perspectives on the accumulation of graduate capitals, but they may also have different ways of going about this process in the sense of actual behaviours and tangible outcomes such as opportunities and new skills or knowledge. That said there is also a clear relation to be found between perspectives and management, as pre-existing opinions, beliefs and everything else that can be shared under a graduates’ perspective is likely to influence graduates’ eventual management.
To insert specificity and for practical reasons discussed in a later chapter, this thesis will be restricted to graduates from business or related programs who are either about to finalize their degrees or have already left higher education and entered the labour market. The primary reasoning behind this is that students from comparable business degrees across both types of higher education in the Netherlands, in principle travel to the same kind of graduate destinations or jobs, which allows the thesis to effectively compare student trajectories across either vocational or academic higher education. Furthermore, the thesis includes students that are either right at or around the ‘grey zone’ between higher education and the labour market. This way the focus lies on graduates, as opposed to students in the research by Tomlinson, who have matured perspectives on their employability and are ‘living’ the transition. Finally, the matter of defining employability. This thesis understands employability as an individual’s capacity to independently find employment in today’s labour market and furthermore to be capable of sustaining employability in the long-term. For graduates, this additionally means finding work that is in line with the level of education attained (Little, 2001).
The rest of this thesis is built up as follows. The theoretical framework provides various sources of relevant literature that will inform the analysis. The subsequent chapter details the methods this thesis employs in regard to sample selection, data gathering and analysis. Following that the results of the research done is presented. The thesis is concluded with final conclusions and a discussion. However, the very next chapter first provides the necessary context specific to the Netherlands, which will also further solidify why it is beneficial to focus on the Netherlands in regard to the themes discussed above.
6 2. Context
Before moving on to the theoretical framework, it is useful to first consider the relevant context surrounding this subject specific to the Netherlands. Much of the literature discussed here concerns research done in the United Kingdom; that said, particularly Brown and his colleagues argue that the issues discussed are relevant for most developed countries that have seen a large increase in educational expansion. The Netherlands is certainly no exception in this regard. Like Brown has reported on the United Kingdom, the educational expansion in the Netherlands has not matched the occupational demands. This results in a mismatch between educational demand and job supply that primarily affects young graduates about to enter the labour market (Wolbers, de Graaf and Ultee, 2001). Not only do graduates risk ending up in a job below their educational level, but they may even have to look in a different field altogether or end up in non-standard employment contracts which have been on the rise in the Netherlands since the 1980s (De Beer, 2001). While the research on the Dutch graduate labour market in this regard seems to have tapered down somewhat in recent years, authors such as De Graaf and Wolbers (2015) maintain in recent publications that the developments described here have continued and report on structurally diminishing returns of credentials in regard to occupational status in the Netherlands.
De Zwaan (2016) illustrates the ‘massification’ of higher education in the Netherlands by observing that participation to universities has increased by half since the new millennium (CBS, 2016), but state contributions per student have equally decreased in the same time period (VSNU, 2016). Higher education in the Netherlands is horizontally stratified; ‘academic’ universities and ‘vocational’ colleges co-exist alongside each other. This horizontal stratification was reaffirmed in 2012 when it was decided that bachelor’s degrees awarded by both institutions are of equal value (Rijksoverheid, n.d.). Both institutions together admitted 141.000 new students in 2016, respectively 8% and 5% more compared to the year before (OCW, 2017). These are surprisingly high numbers, especially considering that higher education participation rates temporarily dropped in 2014 and 2015 after unconditional student grants were replaced by a student loan system (Rijksoverheid, n.d.). It appears that students remain incentivized to invest in higher education regardless of these developments.
Educational trajectories in the Netherlands start at the age of five and ends at the earliest on the age of 16. Having completed primary education at age 12, pupils are allocated into one of three secondary education ‘tracks’. The first concerns a four-year track that prepares the student for upper-secondary vocational education (VMBO). Another track takes up to five years and prepares the student for higher vocational education (HAVO). Lastly a six-year track that prepares the student for an academic education (VWO). The specific track that the pupil enrols in is highly dependent on a standardized test
7 (Cito-toets) and the teacher’s recommendation. The latter two tracks are relevant to this study as they lead directly into higher education. Students preparing for higher vocational education can transfer to academic education through one additional year of study either at high school or at a relevant institute of higher vocational education (Anderson and Nijhuis, 2012). Students that have completed pre-university secondary education can choose between either option. For business students, some additional requirements may apply such as having taken the appropriate level of mathematics. Requirements such as these may restrict student access to programs such as econometrics or business economics which are math-heavy across both types of higher education, however there are many well-regarded alternatives.
There are various differences between higher vocational and academic education. As the name implies, the former is geared towards vocational training for a specific occupation, with a duration of four years of relatively intensive training (20+ teaching hours) and usually including one or two compulsory internships. Higher vocational education is commonly praised for establishing clear links with the labour market that the student can capitalize upon and generally being focused on preparing the student to transition into a suitable job successfully. Particularly through having the student find internships a preliminary network is created and results in valuable work experience. Academic education instead is focused on research and has considerably less teaching hours and very little compulsory activities, other than attending lectures and meeting deadlines. Vocational colleges offer bachelor degrees after the final fourth year examinations of equal standing of bachelor degrees awarded after attending three years of academic university. The difference is that a bachelor’s degree from a vocational college is regarded as a ‘complete’ education whereas bachelor degrees from university are expected to be supplemented with a one or two-year master’s degree (Di Stasio, 2014). Alongside educational expansion also comes diversification. The Dutch student body that formerly comprised of mostly ‘traditional’ students that hail from middle-class families is now being supplemented by ‘non-traditional’ students who are often the first in their families to attend higher education (SCP, 2014). However, related research shows that non-traditional students have a tendency to attend vocational higher education as opposed to academic, as it is considered a ‘safer’ choice and has less pre-requisite entry requirements (Tieben and Wolbers, 2010). The amount of study programmes and institutions of higher education has similarly expanded and diversified as well, to the point where the state intervened in an attempt to control the ‘proliferation’ of various higher education options (Onderwijsraad, 2013). Clearly, higher education in the Netherlands is currently in a state of change. Many developments leave students uncertain about future outcomes, which makes this thesis’s objectives all the more relevant.
8 3. Theoretical framework
The previous chapters have outlined the research goals of this thesis within the relevant contexts of the graduate labour market and higher education in the Netherlands. This subsequent chapter provides a theoretical framework that informs the analysis, primarily drawing from the works of Bourdieu and a capitals approach to understanding graduate employability. The chapter is split in two sections. First, I introduce key Bourdieusian concepts and discuss their application to this thesis. Second, I review the literature on what constitutes graduate employability and how social class and different institutes of higher education might relate.
3.1. Introducing Bourdieu
The application of Bourdieu’ to higher education and in extension graduate employability has been contested by a number of researchers. Sullivan (2002) argues at some length that Bourdieu’s work is too ambitious and in the end empirically unhelpful, “at once too all-inclusive and too vacuous to be of any use” (p. 163). Sullivan is less critical on the notion of ‘cultural capital’ mentioning that is has led to valuable research despite lacking insight into the actual mechanisms, the real-life processes, that explain why capital is so influential.
While the ambiguity found in Bourdieu’s often complex prose is a concern, a number of researchers advocate for Bourdieu’s work and argue how it can help better understand class relations within a number of different contexts and contrary to Sullivan, its effortless application to higher education. For instance Maton (2005) emphasizes how the notion of ‘field’ allows researchers to examine higher education without having to reduce the subject to simplifications and Deer (2003) demonstrates how Bourdieu’s ideas are resilient to the troubles of studying higher education in a state of change, as it has been continually evolving since Bourdieu initially set sights upon it in the 1980s and 1990s. This thesis will take note of the reported flaws in Bourdieu’s work and seeks to primarily use it as a foundation to which relevant research on higher education and graduate employability can be added to as needed. This way the critique formulated by Sullivan (2002) can be alleviated at least in part since additional research can help better inform those areas where Bourdieu alone falls short by providing further evidence from the field. Bourdieu’s theoretical approach is furthermore useful to the aims of this thesis because it manages to uniquely connect social class to graduate employability without compromising the value of either one. That is, it allows the thesis to locate class within the greater context of graduate employability and to work with both themes without having one take a back seat relative to the other.
9 Bourdieu’s conceptual tools provide a handhold to investigate the trajectories of individuals from classed social backgrounds through different institutes of higher education and into the graduate labour market. Central to Bourdieu’s are the concepts of ‘field’, ‘habitus’ and ‘capital’, some of which have already been briefly mentioned. These concepts are widely considered Bourdieu’s most influential theoretical contributions and will be discussed next.
3.1.1. Field
Bourdieu conceptualises our social surroundings as a series of interlinked fields described as “relatively autonomous social microcosms” (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992, p. 97). A field is constructed around agents, which can be individuals, groups, or institutions, that are each configured in a specific position in relation to the others. These agents have conflicting interests as they seek to improve their relative position within the field. The field can in this sense be understood as an institutional ‘arena’ where agents compete for the unequal distribution of power. The general structure of the field is determined by the relations between each position, but crucially, these relationships do not just constitute simple interaction – agents can be positionally in relation to other agents that they will never meet of have ever come across.
Fields are furthermore ‘relatively autonomous’ meaning that the field can be considered as existing separately to other larger or overlapping fields. It is autonomous in the sense that a field is capable of generating characteristics inherent to that field alone, such as its own specific logics and rules which agents within the field unconditionally accept. Bourdieu and Wacquant (1992) make reference to football which is a helpful analogy; as a non-invested spectator, all sports and their rules may seem nonsensical, yet for players in the heat of the game they are taken for granted and generally accepted without question. However, being relatively autonomous means that the field is not impassive to the outside influence of other fields in determining its structure nor is it impassive to change from within – less powerful agents may take radical stance in an attempt to change a field’s logics or rules versus the likely more conservative stance of agents in powerful positions.
The concept of field is widely applicable to a multitude of contexts both large and small, such as an organization, a profession, or an entire labour market. For the purposes of this thesis it is useful to consider higher education and the graduate labour market as sets of relatively autonomous fields, constructed around agents and specific interests, so that the rest of Bourdieu’s theoretical approach can be applied in full. The agent’s position within the field is determined not only by its specific logics and rules, but also dependent on the agent’s habitus. To better understand this, I now consider both concepts together.
10 3.1.2. Habitus
Habitus links together the notions of field and capital and is Bourdieu’s answer to the structure versus agency debate on what shapes human behaviour (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992). Habitus indicates the pre-existing, embodied behaviours and dispositions that organize how individuals understand the social world. Individuals are conditioned to these specific dispositions based on the conditions of their being, the day-to-day experiences and common practices from their early childhood on. A key implication here is that if individuals experience similar ‘conditioning conditions’, it is likely that a similar habitus is produced. Assuming today’s society remains a classed one, Bourdieu argues that members of a same class origin are more likely to encounter similar experiences compared to members of a different class. As such, individuals from the same social origins are likely to be conditioned similarly and there comes into existence a ‘class habitus’, which individuals take with them everywhere, including higher education and the graduate labour market (Bourdieu, 1990). The habitus in part determines an agent’s relative position within a field, to the extent that it generates behaviours that the field is structured to reward. Bourdieu’s corresponding notion of having a “feel for the game” (1990, p. 64) is useful to understand this notion and furthermore to relate habitus and more specifically the classed habitus to graduate employability. Strategically navigating the fields of higher education and the graduate labour market is crucial to playing the graduate employability ‘game’ right, and knowing all the rules to the game in order to do so successfully is indicative of a well attuned habitus within this particular field. However, individuals may have a different interpretation of field rules based on their (social) backgrounds, experiences and ultimately habitus. Referring back to the sports analogy, most sports have set rules that all players accept, yet there can be a different understanding of what is ultimately acceptable such as overemphasizing or even faking an injury. Bourdieu furthermore discusses ‘social forces’ of attraction. Habitus organizes an individual’s perception of the social world in such a way that it tends to orient the individual towards areas that are unlikely to challenge it. Conversely the habitus causes a certain inertia when it comes to opposite contexts that it doesn’t recognize. For graduate employability this becomes relevant in the way that the class habitus orients individuals differently towards certain areas of higher education and the labour market – possibly restricting the individual to stay away from ‘strange waters’ and remain in the comfort zone.
Bourdieu (1990) explains how an individual habitus can manifest in bodily dispositions such as the way individuals carries themselves, but also in specific ways of thinking and what is considered as ‘the done thing’, all of which might become meaningful in various ways to higher education and the labour
11 market. Brown and Hesketh (2004) provide an example of two different understandings of field rules by the way of the ‘purists’ and ‘players’ typology. These indicate two distinct strategies in navigating the fields of higher education and graduate employment. Purists acknowledge that the competition for jobs is increasing, but perceive the labour market to be mostly fair and meritocratic. Graduate recruitment is thus about finding the right fit considering the job content and their specific skills. In contrast, players invest in differentiating themselves from the competition in order to be the best possible applicant. They are likely to custom-build a narrative of employability that is suitable to the job opening. However, the actual fit between job content and their skills is of lesser importance. Purists and players are intended as ‘ideal types’ representing extreme ends on a spectrum of different approaches – in reality individuals are more likely to fall in-between either ends of this spectrum. However, the typology shows how one habitus within the field of the graduate labour market may differ from another and how there can be a differing understanding of field rules; purists believe the labour market to be fair and with principles of merit, players consider it unfair, purists seek out a personal fit, player seek to game the system.
3.1.3. Capital
The missing link that completes the application of Bourdieu’s theoretical approach to this thesis concerns the notion of capital. Bourdieu advanced the original definition of capital as money or assets to include anything that can be acquired cumulatively over time and put to use to better an individual’s position within a particular field. Bourdieu has been known to often refer to economic, social and cultural variants of capital as its principal forms, but it is not limited to these variants. Capital is part stake, part weapon within any particular field. As such, capital can be anything that the field is structured to recognize. Symbolic capital, representing recognition or prestige, is an example of a type of capital that is heavily shaped by the field and its history (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992).
A sort of capital that is meaningful specific to the field of the graduate labour market is reflected in work of Brown and Tannock (2009), who argue that members of the middle class strive to maintain their class advantage by acquiring and mobilising ‘personal capital’ so that they can differentiate from the competition. Personal capital refers to behavioural competences and can include personal qualities as well as abilities that are not usually conveyed through educational credentials, such as organizational and interpersonal skills. Brown and his colleagues have demonstrated that, at least within the field of the graduate labour market, personal capital can matter as much as economic or social capital because key players within this field – employers – are receptive to its language.
12 Bourdieu (1984) argues that these capitals are the tools for the reproduction of class inequality and as such are especially relevant to this thesis. The obvious implication here is that members of the middle class have better access to the relevant capitals in the first place, such as economic capital through inheritance or social capital through family networks. Particularly cultural capital, exclusively transmitted through the family, is a tenacious disadvantage that is not easily detected or remedied. However, research by Lareau (2003) also shows how through ‘concerted cultivation’ middle class families prepare their children to successfully acquire and mobilise necessary capitals in order reproduce class advantage – reminiscent of the habitus and having a ´feel for the game´. In sum, the middle class is not just dealt the better cards but also knows better how and when to play them.
3.2. Graduate capitals
So far in this chapter I have introduced Bourdieu’s theoretical approach and demonstrated how this is relevant for this thesis. Bourdieu is clear on the matter that the concepts of field, habitus and capitals can only exist in relation to each other, i.e. when understood and applied as a whole. Agents compete within fields and their specific rules and logics according to their habitus and the resources in this competition are the available capitals. This raises the question which capitals exactly are relevant within these particular fields, how these capitals are possibly acquired and mobilized and what difference they can make. This and more will be discussed in the second part of this chapter.
I draw from the graduate employability model as constructed by Tomlinson (2017). This model highlights five key forms of capital that that are especially important for graduate employability. In agreement with this thesis, Tomlinson argues how the various facets that make up a graduate’s employability is best conceptualized through a capitals approach. Doing so allows researchers to de-emphasize the graduate skillset as a principal cause for graduate under- or unemployment, which has been the dominant voice within educational policy in recent years. While this economically oriented approach is not without obvious merits, the added focus on class of this thesis requires some more sociological approaches. A capitals approach allows for combining both.
The various capitals that constitute graduate employability include human, social, cultural, identity and psychological capital. These capitals do not exist solely in isolation from each other. Conversely, they build upon and strengthen each other. For example, human capital is rendered useless when a graduate lacks the required social capital to get in touch with employers that might very well be interested in his or her skill set. Additionally, actively building identity capital might very well result in added human capital by undertaking new activities or expanding one’s social network because these activities force the graduate from the confines of the university.
13 There is more to these capitals than meets the eye. For the remainder of this chapter I will discuss them in more detail and directly relate them to graduate employability, as well as potential differences pertaining to class or institutes of higher education. Doing so also allows for some expected outcomes of this thesis’s research to be formulated. I have mentioned before that Bourdieu’s work serves as a foundation to which relevant research van be added to as needed. This part very much seeks to supplement our understanding of graduate employability with additional research. The framework developed by Tomlinson (2017), along with Bourdieu’s conceptual tools, offers a clear manner of categorizing. I will commence with human capital and discuss each capital in order for purposes of readability.
3.2.1. Human capital
Traditionally, discourse surrounding the value of higher education has been dominated by human capital theories. Stemming from the works of Becker (1964), this approach maintains that education is an investment which yields several returns, most notably a wage premium, but also more promising career opportunities and extended mobility options within the labour market. Individuals gain human capital from education, meaning additional competencies in the form of knowledge and skills, which they can use for their benefit. Central to this approach is that people make highly individualised decisions on higher education participation, including a cost-benefit analysis. In the assumptions that underlie this there is little doubt that investment in human capital, even in times of educational expansion, will lead to increased productivity. Competition in the labour market is dealt with based on principles of merit, where the most suitable candidate for the job, based on skills and abilities, will be hired. Because actors behave rationally, they will only invest in education if they can reap the rewards in the labour market (Bell, 1973).
Any discussion of human capital is incomplete when not discussing the contrasting positional conflict or ‘credentialist’ interpretation, which can be traced back to Spence (1973) and Arrow (1973). This approach instead highlights that the labour market and employers have to rely on signals to select job candidates. Education is one such signal that indicates productivity or trainability. A useful complement by Thurow (1977) provides the example of a figurative ‘queue’, on which job candidates are positioned according to their educational credentials. Employers, who are reliant on signals, are inclined to start recruiting from the beginning of this queue. As such, education functions as a positional good and is about attaining a position that is better relative to the competition. This same principle also applies to graduates or job-seekers in general, who similarly rank available job opportunities on a figurative queue and tend to select the employer that is in their eyes the most attractive. This notion in extension explains why graduates who have trouble finding suitable
14 employment are very likely to move towards areas where they can outperform the competition, for example by applying for jobs where having a degree is not necessary or common. Many subsequent scholars that adhere to this approach have argued that educational expansion does not indicate an absolute increase in skills and even less an actual demand for these skills. Jobseekers continue to invest in education precisely because they are not rational and simply seek to improve their position on the figurative ‘queue’ (Brown, 2000).
Research by Brown and his colleagues and in extension Tomlinson (2008) strongly indicate that job-seeking individuals indeed engage in what can be described as a ‘rat race’ in regard to achieving the best possible credentials in order to improve their relative positions compared to others. The actual human capital gained in this process is only a secondary objective; a means to an end. However, this particular research by Brown and Tannock (2004) is predominantly focused on the United Kingdom that features a higher educational landscape that is heavily vertically stratified where universities are ranked according to prestige, and as such lends itself very well for the figurative rat-race for the best possible credentials. For this reason, I have reason to believe that a similar mechanism may not apply in the Netherlands where higher education is horizontally stratified and there is relatively little difference between institutions of higher education. Particularly higher vocational graduates have been trained for specific occupations and may attach more value to their credentials in a technical or human capital sense instead of the degree as a positional good. Furthermore, while the students in the sample studied by Tomlinson viewed their credentials very much from a positional good perspective, these were all traditional graduates from middle class families. Possibly the ‘rules of the game’ in this sense are understood otherwise by non-traditional graduates that employ a different habitus compared to their middle-class peers.
3.2.2. Social capital
Bourdieu’s (1986) understanding of social capital refers to the available resources that individuals have because of access to particular groups or ‘networks’ that offer various opportunity structures. This entails being aware of such opportunities as well as having access or knowing how to capitalize upon them. Social capital exists in various forms. Family ties, friends, past or current colleagues easily come to mind, yet social capital also exists in an institutional context such as having a membership to political parties or other groups and organizations. Participation to higher education has traditionally been a valuable source of social capital, but arguably less in today’s mass higher education. The book Bowling Alone by Putnam (1999) offers to distinct ways of interpreting social capital and refers to ‘bonding’ and ‘bridging’ ties. Bonding ties come to exist between people in relatively homogenous groups that are in similar situations, such as family or good friends. Putnam explains that bonding ties
15 serve purposes such as building loyalty or group solidarity, yet a downside is that it can also produce antagonistic sentiments towards other groups. Bridging ties conversely refers to distant and usually weaker ties across homogenous groups, such as colleagues or classmates. Bridging ties are capable of broadening the individual’s horizon, exposing him or her to new identities and information, yet are also fragile and can easily cease to exist. Putnam furthermore explains that one interpretation of social capital does not exclude the other, bonding and bridging ties coexist mutually and only together are they most powerful.
The concepts of ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ ties developed by Granovetter (1985) help us further understand and differentiate between different kinds of social connections. The value of strong ties is apparent to most, meaning that significant others, such as family members, can easily transfer awareness of employability opportunities – that is if such knowledge is present within these significant others. However, Granovetter has thoroughly advocated and demonstrated the strength of weak ties as being at least equal or stronger compared to strong ties. Not unlike the bridging ties as understood by Putnam (1999), weak ties allow for better sharing of new information and as such has the potential to expand an individual’s horizon. Weak ties are often more numerous compared to strong ties and having more different ties within a single network is more likely to result in new chances and having the confidence and knowledge to engage such opportunities. For graduate employability it is easy to imagine that bridging or weak ties offer more pathways and opportunities into employment. This is especially relevant for non-traditional graduates whose strong ties are less likely to offer similar opportunities, whereas traditional graduates can more frequently rely on family networks to offer them chances. I expect graduates from academic universities to face more challenges in building social capital with weak or bridging ties compared to their vocationally educated counterparts. The latter have been incentivized to build a network though the mandatory internships that they can now use to look for fulltime employment.
3.2.3. Cultural capital
Cultural capital can be understood as the entirety of culturally appreciated knowledge, behaviour and dispositions (Bourdieu, 1984). In the context of a ‘massified’ higher education, where institutionalized cultural capital in the way of credentials is diminishing in value, objectified or embodied forms of capital remain very relevant. Particularly the latter is important as it relates to having a good understanding of field rules as well as having an attuned habitus that translates to a confidence in comfortably moving around within the specific field. Certain graduates may preclude some aspects of higher education or specific areas in the labour market that they are not comfortable in whereas others might be specifically drawn towards these areas.
16 Referring back to distinction as understood by Bourdieu (1984), value-added knowledge, behaviours and achievements are tools to be used by graduates to distinguish themselves from the competition. Research by Brown and Hesketh (2004) indeed shows that certain behaviours including those signalling interpersonal skills strongly influence recruitment decisions on the employer side. These can be embodied through mannerisms or a way of speaking such as a particular accent. Recruiters usually want a technical fit through human capital to be supplemented with a cultural fit with the firm. Economically this makes sense as the employer wants to negate any and all risk of the new hire dropping out, however for graduates this presents yet another entry requirement that some graduates might be disadvantaged to adapt to.
Recent research by Lindberg (2013) on graduate medical practitioners shows how applicants having attended conferences or other wider cultural achievements was highly valued by people involved in the recruitment process. The study reported that the applicant’s medical expertise was taken for granted and the recruitment process was mostly about ensuring that these potential future colleagues could integrate well into the existing team. What is especially interesting about this research is that it highlights how strong the firm’s drive to recruit ‘one of us’ is and how certain cultural markers are believed to indicate a likely fit. For graduates seeking employment in such a firm it is important to figure out which cultural markers, that is the added-value knowledge, behaviour and achievements, are appreciated in their target workplace, and if needed, to adapt towards it. This can be understood as acquiring and mobilising cultural capital in this context.
What is discussed here is especially relevant for graduates from different class origins. British literature on the subject strongly suggests that the groups this thesis classifies as non-traditional college graduates are likely to preclude certain areas of higher education or the labour market or face greater challenges in navigating these fields (e.g. Burke, 2015). This fits with Bourdieu’s notion of habitus; those that do venture in these ‘strange waters’ are met with additional challenges because the habitus is not properly adjusted and due to a lack of cultural capital. Along with this line of reasoning, I expect traditional graduates in my sample to face less challenges in this regard. They have likely already acquired substantial cultural capital through their families and are more easily capable of mobilising cultural capital within various fields. I have mentioned before how cultural capital is silently but strongly transmitted primarily within the family. This concerns an issue that is not easily remedied, converse to how a lack of economic capital can be alleviated through student grants or loans. In agreement with Bourdieu (1984) I expect that this remains a tenacious problem that even teaching-oriented institutions of higher education, such as vocational higher education the Netherlands, have trouble resolving.
17 3.2.4. Identity capital
Brown and Hesketh (2004) argue that as the value of hard credentials diminishes, employers and graduates alike place more and more emphasis on ‘soft’ credentials that show a ‘narrative of employability’ demonstrated by experiences and achievements well outside of higher education itself. Sociologists such as Giddens (1991) have demonstrated the importance of building such a narrative, or acquiring identity capital, especially in times where society becomes more and more individualised and the concept of work is understood in a more flexible sense. Building such a narrative or ‘work identity’ can best be understood as acquiring and mobilising identity capital. This also relates to the level of investment that a graduate makes into his or her work identity and orientation towards the future career, including the graduate’s overall commitment to work itself and having a career – working to live, or living to work. Earlier work by Tomlinson (2007) suggests that graduates who have acquired substantial amounts of identity capital usually have a clear idea of a career ‘destination’ and actively work towards this destination through undertaking various relevant activities.
Graduates nowadays need not only develop such an identity but also demonstrate this process, for example by accounting for their time spent during (or in-between) their higher-education going years. Brown and Hesketh (2004) comments elsewhere that it is not enough to have travelled, one needs to have “canoed up the amazon backwards” and also demonstrate why that experience is relevant to the employer. Activities that supplement employability identities outside of the degree, usually placed under the umbrella of ‘extra-curricular activities’, can be presented as evidence of future performance and behaviour. However, it is important for graduates to recognize that not every activity spent outside of higher education is equal. Some may have stronger demonstrative powers to employers, other may result more in the building of a work identity.
Arguably the primary medium through which to communicate an employability narrative or identity is the Curriculum Vitae. The CV has been described as an autobiographical piece that allows those seeking employment to highlight and present activities of significance and capability to demonstrate future behaviour (Morgan and Miller, 1993). This is especially important for those leaving higher education to enter the labour market yet presents another challenge as graduates per definition have little to no actual work experience to show. Roulin and Bangerter (2013) shows that graduates instead make use of extra-curricular activities, such as paid or unpaid part-time or temporary work experience, student societies, sports and more to compensate for their lack of a career history, and to present a larger and more encompassing picture of their assumed work identities through the CV.
18 Research by Lareau (2003) indicates that, as explained earlier in this section, middle-class families set up their children to be capable of acquiring and mobilising the relevant capitals needed to maintain class differences. For this reason, I expect traditional graduates to recognize the necessity of acquiring and mobilising identity capital and capitalize heavily on it – their class habitus is likely to quickly understand that the field is structured to recognize identity capital and how to use this to secure future employability. Conversely, it is possible that non-traditional graduates do not necessarily see the need to build identity capital right away. However, as CV-building and related exercises in demonstrating employability becomes better known, I expect vocational higher education to facilitate some level of identity capital building that benefits their graduates.
3.2.5. Psychological capital
Psychological capital is exemplified by the graduate’s ability to proactively manage the upcoming career challenges that the graduate is likely face when leaving higher education. Referring to the context of the contemporary graduate labour market described earlier in this thesis, the challenges of the school-to-work transition have undoubtedly increased in the last decades. Potential psychological challenges include periods of under- or unemployment, redirecting their career when these periods become unsustainable and more generally navigating new, ‘strange waters’ (Fugate et al., 2004). Tomlinson (2008) demonstrated in earlier work that his sample of middle-class graduates is aware that the degree is no longer ‘enough’ and none of them anticipate a smooth and easy transition from school to work, which comes with a toll on their required psychological capacities and resilience. Clearly, graduates of all kinds heavily rely on having sufficient psychological capitals.
Psychological capital becomes relevant to graduate employability in various ways. One of these concerns developing strategies to deal with career challenges. The concept of career ‘adaptability’ by Savickas and Porfeli (2012) can be understood in this context as the graduate’s capacity to adapt career planning to changing, unexpected or even unwanted circumstances. Research by Brown et al. (2012) more generally highlights the importance of such adaptability in today’s graduate labour market. Proper management of expectations is another important factor in this regard.
Brown (2013) comments elsewhere how graduates face the possibility of being ‘institutionally disappointed’, where graduates somewhere along the line come to expect to easily transition into a fitting job in relation with their educational levels. While the research by Tomlinson (2008) does not necessarily indicate this, quite oppositely in fact, the sample used in that study is limited to middle-class graduates at a high-end university. Particularly non-traditional graduates from different institutes of higher education might be at risk in this sense. Additionally, some graduates may need to
19 come to understand that unlike their parent’s traditional career pathways they are instead more likely to engage in what is commonly referred to as the ‘protean career’, which constitutes a flexible career spanning multiple jobs and labour markets instead of a linear career with relatively little change in jobs or even firms.
The literature described here that psychological capitals is important for graduates of all kinds, across class origins or type of higher education. However, drawing from Bourdieu’s notion of habitus it is possible that non-traditional graduates face additional challenges in building psychological capital because of a possibly unadjusted habitus. They may also have less time to psychologically prepare for entering the labour market as they have their hands full adjusting to higher education during their time at university or college. As far as type of higher education is concerned I expect vocational colleges to spend more time preparing graduates to successfully manage their careers to a certain extent. Conversely as programs within higher vocational education are usually geared towards certain occupations, graduates from these institutions may have more trouble practicing career adaptability should their target destinations end up unreachable for the time being.
20 4. Methods
The methods adopted in this thesis include a qualitative approach, where data is collected through semi-structured interviews with a number of suitable participants. In this chapter, I discuss the research approach; the sample used and the methods of collecting and analysing data. Additionally, I describe at some length my personal process of data gathering and analysis; the issues that I have encountered and what steps I have taken to counteract these
4.1. Research design and sample selection
The data presented in this thesis was collected among graduates from institutions of higher education in the Netherlands from different class backgrounds. More specifically, the graduates in this thesis include young people ranging from 21 to 26 years old who are at minimum three months away from graduating within their specific program or have already entered the labour market for a maximum of six months. Now that this thesis is completed, all graduates have successfully graduated except one who ended up suddenly dropping out due to personal circumstances. Inevitably this discrepancy between participants that have yet to enter the labour market versus those that already have results in a loss of homogeneity with the sample. For example, some graduates who were particularly adept at building employability found themselves in gainful employment very shortly after graduating whereas others were still ‘in-between’ at the time of interviewing. Similarly, some participants that had not yet graduated were already actively seeking out short-term job opportunities whereas some others were too busy finalizing their degrees. Overall this did not diminish the quality of the sample but rather improved it, as it allowed for the discussion of various situations that were very much context specific, such as the recruitment processes of high-end employers that tend to recruit right out of college – well before the graduate actually graduates – as well as the psychological stresses that come from being graduated yet without immediate job opportunities. Furthermore, all pre-determined interview topics could still be adequately discussed – when interviewing participants that had already left higher education a retrospective view was often adopted.
Previous research has shown that it can be exceedingly hard to accurately differentiate between different class backgrounds. Simply looking at occupational status has some pitfalls as some highly educated people have poorly paid jobs and the other way around. Class was initially operationalized through differentiating parental educational attainment. In effect participants were distinguished between graduates whose (both) parents have not attained any form of post-secondary education, the non-traditional students. Conversely the traditional graduates in this sample are selected on the criteria that at least one of their parents has completed some kind of tertiary education, including
21 non-academic variants. In practice, this way of differentiating proved insufficient. I came across families where both parents held high-status jobs but have never attended higher education and whose sons and daughters did not identify as non-traditional graduates. Because of this I specified my criteria so that (non-)traditional college graduates were selected not only on parental level of education but occupational status as well. In result, all traditional graduate participants to this thesis have parents who have attended higher education and hold high-status jobs such as management positions in banking, financial services, but also journalism and similar occupations. Conversely, the non-traditional graduate participants have parents who have neither much in the way of educational attainment or high-status occupations. Lastly, I required all participants to ‘self-identify’ within the specific categories as traditional or non-traditional graduates.
In addition to class, this thesis also includes how studying at an academic university versus a vocational college. As mentioned in the introduction, higher education in the Netherlands is offered at both vocational colleges and academic universities. Initially this thesis intended to focus exclusively on the Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA) and the Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA), respectively a vocational and academic institution who share close institutional roots as well as a geographical location in Amsterdam. However, this proved unfeasible for two reasons. Most of all, it appears to be common practice for many graduates of academic higher education to attain a bachelor’s degree at one university and a master’s degree at another. To solve this, all academic graduates that were eventually included in this thesis have completed their bachelor’s degrees in Amsterdam, but a number of graduates that completed their master’s in places such as the Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (EUR) or the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RUG) were also included. Additionally, it proved more difficult for me to reach enough graduates from the Universiteit van Amsterdam than expected, so a number of graduates from the Vrije Universiteit (VU), the second academic university located within Amsterdam, were also included. That said, the majority of the academic graduates hold at least bachelor degrees from the Universiteit van Amsterdam (n = 12/16) and all vocational graduates have graduated from the Hogeschool van Amsterdam.
Field of study is another important factor to take into account, as graduate school-to-work trajectories may significantly depend on this. Ideally the sample had included graduates from a large number of different types of degrees. However, I felt that this would ‘cut’ the sample size overmuch or required a far larger sample than would be feasible within my time-frame. In order to solve this issue, I have only included students from comparable ‘business’ degrees that generally lead to commercial position within firms. Additionally, to highlight differences between institutions, only graduates from study programmes that in principle lead to the same kind of graduate destinations or jobs are included. For
22 this reason, degrees in law, which are offered in both type of higher education but in practice have very different graduate destinations, are similarly not included. Academic graduate participants in this thesis have completed master’s degrees that are very closely related to graduate destinations such as finance, human resources or business consulting. ‘Vocational’ graduates have all been recruited from study programs within the ‘domain’ of Economie & Management (Economics & Management) which includes a large of number of specialized degrees. This worked out well, as I came across various participants with similar target careers (such as HR) across different institutions of higher education. Furthermore, it is important to note that all participants have clearly indicated to apply for positions at currently existing employers, and not to start their own business or engage in non-standard forms of employment, at the least for the short term.
Differentiation in ethnicity or ‘race’ will not be accounted for in the sample nor will it be analysed. From the theoretical framework, I expect class and type of institution clearly to be the salient variable(s) in this context. In order to discuss ethnicity or ‘race’ in a meaningful way would require a different approach not only in regards the theories used but also in the construction of the sample. The way that the theoretical framework is structured, with an explicit focus on class a la Bourdieu, would not have properly accommodated possible unique or new insights from participants with minority ethnicities and as such would not have influenced the results in any significant way. While participants with ethnicities other than ‘Dutch’ were not intentionally excluded in any way, the resulting sample does not include any. That said, the research does maintain a relatively equal gender split. However, the bulk of the findings do not relate to gender in any way.
I initially set out to collect data from 32 participants, 16 from each type of class background and 16 from each type of higher education, equally split across. Because the focus lies on class in the way of traditional and non-traditional graduates as well as vocational and academic higher education, the sample needed to be split into two parts and then two parts again to account for a sufficiently divided yet representative enough sample for the (qualitative) aims. In the end 30 participants that are well-suited to this thesis’s research goals have been successfully included in the study. Based on the target sample a male traditional graduate as well as a female non-traditional graduate from a vocational college is missing. It is noteworthy to mention that particularly female non-traditional graduates from an academic university were hard to find, which is a minor finding in itself. While an equal gender split was more-or-less maintained, the sample is skewed in favour of men by 5 participants. Barring these shortcomings, the sample has nonetheless provided rich data from each category, meaning that no additional participants needed to be recruited. For more detailed information about the sample and its exact split, refer to appendix B.
23 4.2. Data collection and analysis
I was ‘in the field’ collecting data from April 20th until the 29th of May. As mentioned before, I adopted a qualitative approach where data was collected through semi-structured interviews with the participants. Because the objective of this thesis was in part to explore graduates’ understanding of employability, using a quantitative approach with the same research questions would have led to data that is less ‘rich’. Semi-structured interviews furthermore allow for a deeper level of questioning, which is not possible through fully structured interviews and questionnaires or surveys. Semi-structured interviews allow for having a clear goal in data-gathering, but are also flexible enough to pursue new and perhaps unanticipated streams of thought.
The interview questions closely followed the theoretical framework and concerned graduates’ understanding (including opinions and beliefs) accumulation and in some cases the application of five distinct graduate capitals as discussed in the previous chapter. For an overview of these questions refer to appendix A. All 30 interviews were audio recorded and transcribed by hand. While this is a large effort – accurately transcribing an interview usually takes up to three or even four times longer than the duration of the interview – doing so allowed me to ‘get a feel’ for the results well before actually analysing them. It is important to note that the interviews themselves, the transcription and later coding and analysing was all done in Dutch as this was the participants’ and researcher’s native language. Relevant quotes were later translated into English – colloquialisms and slang included – to the best of my ability. After transcription, the interview data was analysed to assigning broad, thematic codes, using Atlas.ti coding software. The interview data was first split and assigned to the five distinct capitals that are discussed in the theoretical framework, such as ‘social capital’. Within these classifications, relevant passages from these separate sections would again be assigned more specific codes when and where applicable, resulting in codes such as ‘networking’. This way I was able to discern what themes are relevant in regard to a specific type of graduate capital.
Interview sessions were organized in ‘waves’; after finalizing an interview with a traditional graduate I would usually focus on finding a non-traditional graduate so that I could immediately juxtapose the two. The participants from the first few ‘waves’ or so were recruited from my own social network – friends and acquaintances that happened to fit my criteria. I would ask every one of these to recommend me someone else that might fit the criteria from within their own networks, not overlapping with mine own, and request their permission to approach these possible participants. In the end, I knew about half of the participants beforehand, the other half I met for the very first time when the moment for the interview had arrived. There are benefits and disadvantages to finding and interviewing friends, acquaintances and strangers – the latter could be defensive at times and the
24 interview sometimes risked becoming overly formal, whereas some closer friends would lose sight of the aim of my visit and the conversation risked becoming overly familiar. Generally, though, I consider all interviews to be of a very high quality. Part of this I think is because I guaranteed every participant’s willingness to participate to this thesis prior to the interview taking place.
About half of the interviews were conducted through Skype, the other half in person. Skype proved invaluable because many participants were pressed for time – they were either finalizing their degrees or transitioning towards a full-time job schedule that has considerable less flexible or free hours compared to the typical student schedule. Initially I had doubts about how video-conferencing would influence the quality of the interviews. This was unfounded as Skype often provided a silent and focused environment for conversation; you do not set up a Skype call in a bustling cafe but rather in the living room or otherwise private quarters. The face-to-face interviews conversely were often held in more busy places such as in cafes over coffee or in pubs over a beer, but also within the workplace or on campus. These considerably louder environments made for annoyances when later transcribing interviews, but otherwise did not affect interview quality.
4.3. Ethical considerations
There are a number of important ethical considerations that I have attempted to reconcile to the best of my abilities, particularly in regard to the collection, analysis and presentation of data. While the subject of this thesis is not subject to overt taboo and/or stigma, it does involve class struggles and conflict. Additionally, in-depth interviews where I ask the study participants to speak freely, truthfully, and wholly about the participants him or herself, are per definition intimate in various ways (Allmark et al., 2009). Especially concerning the non-traditional college graduates that I sought out, a lot of effort was put in ensuring that the participants understood why they were approached. I also wanted to confirm their willingness and enthusiasm in participating to this thesis prior to commencing the interviews. Finally, I have urged each and every one to only share with me what they wanted to share or feel is relevant to the thesis. Since all interviews were audio-recorded it is important to mention that I have agreed with all participants that the audio files would strictly be used for purposes of transcription, and that only myself and the people involved in grading this thesis would have access. To protect the privacy of the participants to this thesis I have replaced all first names with aliases, as well as redacted any and all markers that could possibly be used to confirm the participants identity. This primarily concerns last names, but also the names of firms where the graduates have interned or are in the process of applying to and the names of place they have lived. All of these privacy-sensitive matters can still be found in the transcriptions of the audio recordings, but since these will not be published this is not an issue.
25 5. Results
This chapter presents and discusses all the results that have been gathered. The chapter is divided in 5 sections that can be considered minor chapters in their own right and feature their own conclusions. Each section roughly corresponds to the graduate capitals discussed in the theoretical framework, but have been titled closer to their actual content. The empirical findings of this thesis are presented through selected citations from participating graduates that illuminate in various ways the themes that this thesis investigates. Each citation is labelled with the graduate’s name from which the gender can als be deduced also, the graduate’s ‘traditional’ or conversely ‘non-traditional class background and finally whether the graduate has attended ‘vocational’ or ‘academic’ higher education. The labels have been shortened to the descriptions shown here in parentheses for purposes of readability.
5.1. The degree as a positional good
Perceptions relating to a traditional human capital interpretation of higher education credentials, where skills and abilities conferred through attaining the degree are expected to be the dominant discourse, were remarkably absent in graduates’ accounts of the value of their degree. Instead, most participants clearly adhered to a positional good, or credentialist, interpretation. Mark explains how any degree in itself distinguishes from everyone without a degree.
“… the degree, it signifies something. You have a degree, and most people still don’t, even if the amount of people with higher education degrees is growing, but you still have yours so you can distinguish from that group, which are a lot of people.” [Mark, traditional, vocational] The sentiments shown above is almost universally present across all participants. Mark also mentions that the amount of people within higher education is growing. This was commonly expressed as a fear amongst many of his peers. They point towards the sheer size of the graduate body as one of the leading causes that higher educational degrees are losing value in the competition for jobs. Participants in this sample appear to take for granted that fellow graduates with similar degrees possess the very same human capital as themselves. Pieter explains just how large and diverse he perceives the competition to be.
“No, it’s not enough by a long shot. […] There are several hundreds of us. Not just in my specific program, but also considering the numerous comparable programs and numerous other universities and vocational colleges. So, you’re just one of many.” [Pieter, traditional, academic]
