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Session Information
23 SES 07 A, Navigating Shifting Geographies of Lifelong Learning Policies Part 1
Symposium to be continued in 23 SES 08 A
Contribution
It is widely assumed that the group of highly educated people is the least vulnerable group on the labour market due to their low level of unemployment compared with groups with lower levels of education. But this assumption neglects the widespread tendency in recent years for graduates to be often employed in jobs that do not require a university diploma (European Commission 2012). This paper aims to explore the role of lifelong learning policies for preventing and overcoming graduates’ education-job mismatch, and to reveal the local embeddedness of the national lifelong learning policies. The analysis uses Bulgaria and one of its regions – Blagoevgrad – as a case study. The adopted theoretical approach to graduate employability highlights its two sides, the individual’s and the socio-structural aspects (Boyadjieva, Ilieva-Trichkova 2015). Whereas the individual’s side is related to the graduates’ opportunities to act independently and to make choices based on their acquired skills, attitudes and values, the socio-structural side refers to the social conditions and the positions of the graduates in the labour market that are determined by the structure and overall situation of the market and of higher education. The individual side of employability is important because there are different gender sensitive mechanisms leading to job education mismatches. Taking into account the socio-structural side does not allow falling into the trap of ‘blaming the victims’. The paper differentiates between different forms of education–job mismatch and focuses on two of them (Støren and Arnesen, 2011: 200): unemployment (assumed to be the most severe form of mismatch) and vertical educational mismatch, which refers to the lack of correspondence between the acquired level of education and the level required for the job. The analysis is based on both quantitative and qualitative data as it relies on lifelong learning policies, data from the Bulgarian Universities Ranking System and the National Social Security Institute, and interviews with young adults and experts engaged in two lifelong learning programmes. The analysis uses descriptive statistics and multilevel modelling. The paper argues that the labour market misbalances for highly educated people mirror structural problems in the economy and the education and skills formation system. The study reveals that the level of vertical education-job mismatch depends on profiles of higher education institutions and professional field. It also shows that the national lifelong learning policies targeted at graduates who experienced education-job mismatch are embedded in the local social (economic and educational) context.
References
Boyadjieva, P., Ilieva-Trichkova, P. 2015. “Institutional diversity and graduate employability: The Bulgarian case”. In: R.M.O. Pritchard, M. Klumpp and U. Teichler (Еds.) Diversity and excellence in higher education: Can the challenges be reconciled? Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 153–171. European Commission 2012. EU Youth Report. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. Støren, L. A., Arnesen, C. A. 2011. “Winners and losers”. In: J. Allen and R. Van der Velden (eds.) The flexible professional in the knowledge society. New challenges for higher education. Dordrecht: Springer, 199–240.
Programme by Networks, ECER 2021
00. Central Events (Keynotes, EERA-Panel, EERJ Round Table, Invited Sessions)
Network 1. Continuing Professional Development: Learning for Individuals, Leaders, and Organisations
Network 2. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)
Network 3. Curriculum Innovation
Network 4. Inclusive Education
Network 5. Children and Youth at Risk and Urban Education
Network 6. Open Learning: Media, Environments and Cultures
Network 7. Social Justice and Intercultural Education
Network 8. Research on Health Education
Network 9. Assessment, Evaluation, Testing and Measurement
Network 10. Teacher Education Research
Network 11. Educational Effectiveness and Quality Assurance
Network 12. LISnet - Library and Information Science Network
Network 13. Philosophy of Education
Network 14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research
Network 15. Research Partnerships in Education
Network 16. ICT in Education and Training
Network 17. Histories of Education
Network 18. Research in Sport Pedagogy
Network 19. Ethnography
Network 20. Research in Innovative Intercultural Learning Environments
Network 22. Research in Higher Education
Network 23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education
Network 24. Mathematics Education Research
Network 25. Research on Children's Rights in Education
Network 26. Educational Leadership
Network 27. Didactics – Learning and Teaching
Network 28. Sociologies of Education
Network 29. Reserach on Arts Education
Network 30. Research on Environmental und Sustainability Education
Network 31. Research on Language and Education (LEd)
Network 32. Organizational Education
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