Pathways through VET and their effect on career success

Author(s):

Barbara E. Stalder(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

02. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

02 SES 06 C, Career Pathways and Transitions through VET

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-03

15:30-17:00

Room:

B025 Anfiteatro

Chair:

Charlotte Chadderton

Contribution

Why are some apprentices more successful in their subsequent career than others? This seems to be an important question not only for apprentices, but also for training providers, whose aim is to prepare young people for a successful transition into full employment. Career researchers have, however, only partially explored this question.

Career research has focused on career interests, planning and choice (Hirschi, 2010), the timing and patterning of school-to-work transitions (Bergman, Hupka-Brunner, Keller, Meyer, & Stalder, 2011), on work experiences in the first years of employment (Semmer, Tschan, Elfering, Kälin, & Grebner, 2005), or on school performance, type of education and employment prospects (Bertschy, Cattaneo, & Wolter, 2009). Few researchers have analysed career success after apprenticeship training in a broader sense. One of the reasons could be that “career” has traditionally been understood as advancement to higher positions and better-paid jobs (Arthur, Khapova, & Wilderom, 2005, p. 179) – career experiences, which are not typical for apprentices who have just finished their training.

More recently, career definitions have broadened. Careers can be defined as “...sequence of employment related positions, roles, activities and experiences encountered by a person” (Arnold & Randall, 2010, p. 594). In contrast to traditional definitions, current definitions thus highlight the unique experiences and individual interpretation that an employee may have of the own career (Heslin, 2005).

Career success is defined as “as the accomplishment of desirable work-related outcomes at any point in a person’s work experiences over time” (Arthur et al., 2005, p. 179). Career success is operationalized in two distinct ways. The first includes indicators of career success, which can be observed objectively by others (e.g., salary attainment, prestige, number of promotions). The second uses criteria, which are subjective and capture an individual’s personal judgment of the career outcome (e.g., job or career satisfaction). Subjective success thus takes into account that objective indicators like salary or prestige are not equally important to everybody (Dries, Pepermans, & Carlier, 2008).

Research has proposed and shown that career success can be predicted by socio-demographic variables (e.g. gender, age, ethnic background), human capital (e. g. educational level, work experience), individual differences (e. g. personality, self-efficacy), and organisational factors (e. g. career sponsorship, training possibilities) (Arthur et al., 2005, p. 179; Ng, Eby, Sorensen, & Feldman, 2005). It was shown that human capital and socio-demographic predictors were more strongly related to objective success, and that stable individual differences displayed stronger relationships to subjective success (Ng et al., 2005).

Research examining predictors of career success is often based on cross-sectional designs. Such studies give an important insight about current individual or situational factors linked to career success, but do not explore, whether and how career success can be predicted by earlier career trajectories. Moreover, studies focusing on education have mainly analyzed effects of the educational level obtained, but rarely examined pathway effects. The omission of temporal aspects in career research has been criticized. Gunz and Mayrhofer (2011) argued that the major interest should be on the voyage (i.e. the pathway) and not only on the outcome or the point that someone has reached (i.e. the career success at a certain moment). The outcome cannot be interpreted without knowing the starting point, the duration and the conditions during the journey.

Following the critique of Gunz and Mayrhofer, this paper aims to add to the previous findings by exploring effects of pathways through apprenticeship training on subjective and objective career success. The main research questions are:

Do objective VET-pathways predict later career success?
Do subjective VET-pathways predict later career success?

Method

The research questions are tested using data from the Swiss longitudinal study TREE with 750 young employees, who had been in apprenticeship training from 2001 up to 2005 and were followed up in yearly surveys until the year 2010 (Stalder, Meyer, & Hupka-Brunner, 2011). Up to present, 8 waves have been carried out. Data used include information about apprenticeship programmes (occupation, level of intellectual demands, employer) and apprenticeship pathways (e.g., interruptions, dropout, change of employer, change of occupation, diploma obtained), as well as data on career success (prestige, salary, job and career satisfaction) two and six years after the apprenticeship. Objective VET-pathways were categorized based on criteria such as linearity vs. discontinuity, obtainment vs. failing to obtain a diploma, and intellectual demands of the apprenticeship. Six different pathways were distinguished (e.g., linear pathway and diploma with high demands, discontinuous pathway and VET-diploma with low demands, discontinuous pathway in low-demanding VET and without diploma). Subjective VET-pathways were coded based on the reported educational satisfaction during apprenticeship (five pathways, e.g., always dissatisfied, increasingly satisfied, always satisfied). Career success was assessed two and six years after apprenticeship. Objective career success was measured by salary and occupational status; subjective success was measured by job satisfaction and career satisfaction. Gender and core self-evaluations (composite variable including self-esteem, self-efficacy and negative affect) are introduced as control variables. Hierarchical regression analyses are used to test whether career success can be predicted by objective and subjective VET-pathways.

Expected Outcomes

First results show that subjective pathways predict subjective career success and that objective pathways predict objective career success after apprenticeship training. Subjective pathways are not related to objective success and objective careers not related to subjective success. Intellectual demands of VET predict prestige and salary levels of employees two and six years after the apprenticeship. Employees, who had finished their VET-training in apprenticeships with low intellectual demands, were found to work in jobs with lower prestige and lower salary than employees who did their training in an apprenticeship with high demands. Pathway discontinuities and the obtainment of a VET-diploma seem to play a marginal role. Satisfaction with apprenticeship training predicts job satisfaction two and six years later, but not career satisfaction. Employees, who had always been satisfied with their training, were more satisfied with their later jobs than employees who had always or increasingly been unhappy. In line with what has been proposed by previous research, first results suggest that apprentices' subjective experiences accumulated during apprenticeship have long-term effects on their later job situation. Objective and subjective apprenticeship pathways and career success indicators seem to be little related to each other and empirically distinct. Results and their implications will have to be elaborated in detail and discussed with reference to other findings in career research.

References

Arnold, J., & Randall, R. (2010). Work psychology. Understanding human behavior in the work place. (5th ed.). Essex: Pearson Education. Arthur, M. B., Khapova, S. N., & Wilderom, C. P. M. (2005). Career success in a boundaryless career world. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26, 177-202. Bergman, M. M., Hupka-Brunner, S., Keller, A., Meyer, T., & Stalder, B. E. (Eds.). (2011). Youth transitions in Switzerland: Results from the TREE panel study. Zürich: Seismo. Bertschy, K., Cattaneo, M. A., & Wolter, S. C. (2009). PISA and the transition into the labour market. Labour, 23(Special Issue), 111-137. Dries, N., Pepermans, R., & Carlier, O. (2008). Career success: Constructing a multidimensional model. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 73(3), 254-267. Gunz, H., & Mayrhofer, W. (2011). Re-conceptualizing career success: a contextual approach. Journal for Labour Market Research, 43(3), 251-260. Heslin, P. (2005). Conceptualizing and evaluating career success. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26(2), 113-136. Hirschi, A. (2010). Individual predictors of adolescents’ vocational interest stabilities. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance, 10(1), 5-19. Ng, T. W. H., Eby, L. T., Sorensen, K. L., & Feldman, D. C. (2005). Predictors of objective and subjective career success: a meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 58(2), 367-408. Semmer, N. K., Tschan, F., Elfering, A., Kälin, W., & Grebner, S. (2005). Young Adults Entering the Workforce in Switzerland: Working Conditions and Well-Being. In H. Kriesi, P. Farago, M. Kohli & M. Zarin-Nejadan (Eds.), Contemporary Switzerland (pp. 163-189). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Stalder, B. E., Meyer, T., & Hupka-Brunner, S. (2011). TREE Project documentation. In M. M. Bergman, S. Hupka-Brunner, A. Keller, T. Meyer & B. E. Stalder (Eds.), Youth transitions in Switzerland: Results from the TREE panel study (pp. 66-87). Zürich: Seismo.

Author Information

Barbara E. Stalder (presenting / submitting)

University of Teacher Education, Switzerland

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