What Employers Really Look for: the Employers and Graduates Perceptions?

Author(s):

Marge Unt(presenting / submitting)Ellu Saar(presenting)Kristel Siilak

Conference:

ECER 2011

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

22 SES 08 C, Employability and Transition to Work of Higher Education Graduates

Paper Session

Time:

2011-09-15

08:30-10:00

Room:

KL 29/235,1 FL., 28

Chair:

Caroline Berggren

Contribution

It has been argued that the labour market entry process and the early career have changed tremendously since the 1980s in Europe. Major factors behind these changes are growing economic globalization and economic restructuring (Blossfeld, Buchholz, Bukodi, Kurz, 2008). As the upskilling of occupational structure has occurred at the much lower speed than educational expansion, it means that youth faces growing competition on the labour market. Also the economic crisis since 2008 has contributed to the rising unemployment rates of youth (Unt, Saar, in press). Most previous studies concentrate on supply side and analyzed the role of education in the youth labour market entry as the explanatory variable of different labour market outcome equations (Blossfeld et al 2008; Kogan, Gebel, Noelke 2010; Saar 2005; Unt 2010). The demand side, specifically the actions of employers, has gained much less attention (Jackson 2001, 2002; Jackson, Goldthorpe, Mills 2002). We would like to combine the perceptions of two key actors in labour market entry process on micro level: employers and graduates. Specifically, we would concentrate on the actions of employers and on the ways in which the educational attainments of potential employees, will enter into the personnel decisions. We would contrast employers perceptions about key competencies of employee’s with graduates perceptions. What is the role of education in recruitment process? Does it differ by activities of employers and by graduated field of study? What are the other factors contributing to the success at the job interview? How the graduates’ perception of key selection criteria of employers differs by employers’ perception?

Thus, the aim of our paper is to analyze the role of education and other factors in recruiting tertiary graduates in case of Estonia.

Method

Our analysis is based on various data sources. Firstly, we use semi-structured interviews with 15 biggest employers with different economic activities. Secondly, focus groups with 65 recent graduates from tertiary level institutions. For the general context, we use Estonian Labour Force Survey and Estonian Social Survey (part of EU-SILC).

Expected Outcomes

In the context of educational expansion, education has less signalling value for employers. It is hard for employers to decide only based on educational information as there are too many graduates. Still, the perceived "value" of education is different by the field of study. Graduates from engineering are believed to have applicable knowledge by employers. For business graduates, education is not perceived so much as a sign for applicable knowledge and skills, but rather a sign for ability to learn and aquire new skills easily. Still, there are discrepancies between the employers and graduates views on recruitment practises. Graduates underestimate the role of individual characteristics, while employers put a very important emphasis on these.

References

Kogan I., Noelke C. and Gebel M. (Eds.) (2011). Making the Transition: Education and Labor Market Entry in Central- and Eastern Europe. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Unt, Marge (2011). Youth Entry into the Labour Market and Early Career Outcomes . Ellu Saar (Toim.). TOWARDS A NORMAL STRATIFICATION ORDER Actual and Perceived Social Stratification in Post-Socialist Estonia (111 - 142).P. Lang

Author Information

Marge Unt (presenting / submitting)

Tallinn University

Institute of International and Social Studies

Tallinn

Ellu Saar (presenting)

Institute of International and Social Studies, tallinn University

Social Stratification

Tallinn

Kristel Siilak

Tallinn University, Estonia

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