Wider access, opportunities and outcomes

1. Wider access, opportunities and outcomes A presentation to the Graduate Labour Market Forum, 15th December 2003, Westminster, London Nick Wilton and Kate Purcell University of the West of England Peter Elias, University of Warwick

2. Three age-group categories… • ‘Young’ graduates, who graduated before the age of 24 • ‘Young mature’ graduates, who graduated between the ages of 24-30 • ‘Older mature’ graduates, who were over 30 when they completed their undergraduate degrees

3. Characteristics of the 3 age-group categories

4. Percentage of employed graduates stating that a degree had been required for their job, by age at graduation

5. Degree a requirement for current job by age group

6. Percentage of employed graduates stating that they were using the knowledge acquired on their 1995 degree course, by age at graduation

7. Percentage of employed graduates stating that they were using the skills developed on their 1995 degree course

8. Levels of satisfaction with career to date by age group & gender

9. Differing motivations & expectations • Intrinsic motivation for study - Study for personal development/interest - Unfinished business • Instrumental motivation for study • Career ‘kick-start’ • Career ‘acceleration’ • Search for direction • Impacts on expectations of employment and subsequent satisfaction

10. The need to modify expectations of opportunities ‘I thought that employers would look at me and think, “as old as he is… he’s been made redundant, he’s got a degree, it shows drive and enthusiasm to get on and do things”. But it didn’t work out that way: it took about four years before I got a job that I though I should have been able to achieve two or three years beforehand. So, I was almost getting disheartened… It was rather a naïve idea that I would leave university [thinking that] there would be would be jobs and opportunities out there. I didn’t expect it to be quite as difficult as it was to get this kind of job…’ (Transport Planner, age 48, graduated with a 2:1 in Rural Resources Development from a new university)

11. Labour market advantage of studying as a mature graduate ‘I think as a graduate from engineering, I had a very practical background prior to university, so in one sense the academic qualifications are what you need to join the profession but I probably also had some extra qualities that the other run-of-the-mill graduates didn’t have, so I was bringing extra to the equation’. (Forensic engineer, aged 33, graduated in engineering from a 1960s university)

12. Career ‘acceleration’ – The importance of credentials ‘The reason I did a degree was because... I felt that in order to progress my career, I would have to become chartered and doing the degree was the most obvious way of doing it. That’s why I embarked on a degree, to increase my promotion prospects. There are several routes to becoming a chartered engineer, but the easiest route that I could see was to get a degree... It was impossible to get beyond a certain level without the charter... I didn’t fancy spending the next 20 years of my working career at senior engineer level.’ (Principal Engineer, Local Authority, with 2.2 in Civil Engineering, new university)

13. Employers’ discriminatory practices… ‘Out of 40 applications I got three offers of interviews after finishing my Masters… I think once I stopped putting my age on my CV I got more interviews. I spoke to a number of recruitment people while I was doing my temping and they recommend that you don’t put your age, you don’t put your marital status… you try and block out, try and prevent or anticipate as many HR biases as you can’. (Senior Project Co-ordinator working in Business Services, with 2.1 in Psychology from ‘old’ university, aged 39, female)

14. ...reflecting confusion between age, generation and experience ‘Unfortunately, because I was 37 at the time I was feeling very much that age was against me… When you come out with your brand new degree certificate and you go for jobs, people either assume that you should be young if you want to come in at the lower level or that you age must give you some automatic experience in the specialist field that you’re entering. They don’t know quite where to put you unless of course they are particularly far-sighted and accept that you might be able to bring quite a lot to a more junior role’’ (Senior Project Co-ordinator aged 39, 2:1 in Psychology from an old university)

15. Concluding Remarks • Mature graduates are not a homogeneous category and have differing aspirations and rationales for study which affect subsequent expectations and values… • Of those with career-related reasons for study most had achieved appropriate levels of employment • However, older mature graduates experience greater difficulty in accessing such employment and appear to need to modify their expectations and demonstrate greater determination and resilience to do so… • …and male older mature graduates were significantly less likely than younger graduates to report satisfaction with their career to date • Findings reinforce the greater need for careers guidance amongst ‘non-traditional’ graduates

17. Type of institution by social class background* *NSSEC 5-way Classification

18. Career paths of students from ‘managerial and professional’ backgrounds

19. Career paths of students from ‘semi-routine and routine occupations’ backgrounds

20. SOC(HE) according to social class background* *NSSEC 5-way Classification

21. Satisfaction with career to date according to social class background* *NSSEC 5-way Classification

22. First generation graduate • Events officer working for a political Think Tank, graduated with a 2:1 in English from old university • “I’d been so focused on getting to university… I was the first person in my family to go to university so… We didn’t really know what happened once you got there. There was always the assumption that you would get a better job because you went to university, that was the whole point of striving for it, but there was then no idea of what actually that job would be. So, that’s all been learnt since”.

23. ‘Cultural capital’ ‘I’d say the one criticism of my university was that it didn’t necessarily give people a great deal of confidence about their expectations when they left university. I think a lot of people already had that because they went to nice, public schools and so they knew how to do it but it was a lot of people that didn’t get that encouragement. It was just assumed that you would get a decent job…’

24. Material & psychological advantage ‘[My] experience is that [with] people who come from public school backgrounds the one advantage that they have isn’t necessarily intellectual, it’s usually a confidence thing and I think that they seem to do better on graduating because they have the confidence… and also the financial background to go into a position and say, “I’ll work here for a couple of months for free” or to go into an interview and say, “actually I am brilliant, give me a job”, as opposed to “hi, I’ve done a degree, I know I’ve got no experience, but please, please, please give me a job” which is what myself and some of my contemporaries probably did.’

25. ‘Fitting the bill’? Detective constable graduated with 2:2 in law from old university, female ‘I found that whilst I was going for my interviews, I had a number of interviews to get a pupilage when I was waiting for my exam results, that there was an element of “your parents are police constables…” certainly I did think that it is still a class-ist profession… so I was a bit disillusioned by it all really, having worked so hard for so many years and been so focused on it, it was a bit of a kick in the teeth’