The role of education in the labor market transition is an established fact for the developed countries. Two other factors are traditionally associated with the quality of school-to-work transition and are often imbricated: professional experience, on one hand, and the social capital on the other hand. Thus, beyond the classical approach in term of human Capital, economists and sociologists, admitted that human relations also participate in the constitution of a capital useful in the labour market transition (Becker 1964; Coleman; 1988; Bourdieu, 1980) and defined social capital as all the resources available and useful du to the relational network. In this approach in terms of social capital in school to work transition analysis, two questions arise : the one of its origin and the one of its effects. Regarding its origin, social background (familly and environment) are traditionally associated to the constitution of a social capital. This helps understand differences in job transition for graduates with the same level of education but from different social background, as a multiplicating effect of social capital described by Bourdieu and empiricaly evidenced in France (Poullaouec, 2004).

Then, if the family or the social environment can contribute to the constitution of a social capital, we can wonder if it is the case for higher education institutions. Actually, beyond its organizational diversity (i.e university versus higher schools for example), French higher educational system is also widely socialy segregated as far as courses of study are considered. The orientation in different fields of study and institutions stresses the differences between higher education institutions (Landrier and Nakhili, 2011). Thus, the questions that raise are 1/ the effect, on social capital, of studiing in these diversified and segregated contexts of higher education and 2/ the effect of the accumulated social capital on the labor market for students from this differents higher education institutions. Indeed, with a same level of higher education, the courses of study generate differences in the quality of labour market integration (i.e position, wages, type of contract). Would the accumulation of social capital and the trend to mobilize it differ according higher education institution ? Would these differences be significant on school-to-work transition ?

Becker G., 1964, Human Capital. Columbia University Press, 187p. Bourdieu P., 1980, “Le capital social, Notes provisoires”, Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, vol. 31, pp. 2-3 Coleman J., 1988, “social capital in the creation of human capital”, American Journal of Sociology, 94, pp. 95-120. Landrier S., Nakhili N., 2010, « Comment l'orientation contribue aux inégalités de parcours scolaires en France: les apports de la recherche ». Formation et Emploi, Revue des Sciences Sociales, 109, 23-36. Poullaouec, T. 2004, « Les familles ouvrières face au devenir de leurs enfants », Economie et statistique, N° 371, pp 3-22.