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The onset of the Fourth Industrial Revolution - automation, robotics, artificial intelligence and digital technology - and challenges of Brexit and an ageing population are creating rising demand for those with qualifications above Level 4 (Higher National Certificates/Diplomas (HNC/Ds), foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate degrees). This report looks at the rapid pace of change and increasing complexity of work, and highlights the need for continual skill upgrading, lifelong learning and study of higher education qualifications at all levels. The report considers some of the implications of these challenges in terms of the impact on knowledge, skills and careers, and ultimately the future role of universities in meeting workforce demands. It then looks at what skills the UK economy needs, the pattern of existing higher level provision and how effectively this meets current demands, and what shape demand will take in the future. It tests and updates existing models and considers their relevance, given the increased scale of uncertainty.

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This report provides an overview of the youth situation in Moldova in terms of demography and educational profile, participation in the labour market, as well as characteristics of youth transition from school to work. The report reviews the laws/regulations and institutions responsible for youth policies and services. It also provides an inventory of existing measures supporting youth transition from school to work in the country and an assessment of their implementation on the ground.

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This information sheet has been developed to inform policy and decision makers, and forestry industry stakeholders, about the diverse people and communities that contribute to the Australian forestry industry. The information sheet defines the forestry industry as: forestry and logging (includes native and plantation forests); wood product manufacturing; pulp, paper and converted paper manufacturing; timber wholesaling; and forestry support services.

Statistics and information are provided about: Australia's forestry employees; income and work status; education; Indigenous people in the forestry industry; people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds in the forestry industry; women in the forestry industry; and young people in the forestry industry.

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Using novel adult skills surveys, this article analyses cross-country patterns in skill achievement and labour market returns, comparing the outcomes for a subset of developing countries with the results previously found for high-income economies. Apart from displaying lower average cognitive skills, developing countries also exhibit wider disparities in levels of skills by subgroups of educational attainment, gender, and parental education. Meanwhile, baseline estimates of returns to skills reveal that a one-standard deviation increase in literacy skills is associated with an earnings increase of 14.6 per cent in developing countries, which is statistically indistinguishable from the average returns of 17.7 estimated for developed countries. Nonetheless, there is considerable heterogeneity in the returns across developing countries, with the lowest estimates found in Armenia and Ukraine at 2 per cent (not statistically significant) and 6 per cent, respectively, and the highest reported in Kenya at above 30 per cent. Differences in the type of employment opportunities and the degree of employment selection in these labour markets are important determinants of the observed gap in returns. International comparisons of returns should take this into consideration.

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This study of [European Qualifications Framework] EQF level 5 qualifications on the basis of learning outcomes reveals much greater complexity, diversity and dynamism than previously assumed. But where they fit within the spectrum of education and training is not always clear. Typical level 5 qualifications are provided by short-cycle higher education programs; yet the study finds that half of learning outcomes at this level are vocational education and training or outside the formal system. The more accurate picture of level 5 qualifications provided by the study demonstrates how policy-makers can use the EQF to identify gaps in their education and training systems.

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More and more Canadians are pursuing graduate studies, often to increase their chances of getting a better-paying job. But is there a payoff associated with a master's degree or a doctorate, relative to a bachelor's degree in the same field? Using data from the 2016 Census, this study examines the extent to which median earnings of workers with a master's degree or doctorate differ from their counterparts with a bachelor's degree, focusing on differences across fields of study. The target population includes paid employees aged 30 to 59 who worked full year and full time during the year preceding the census, and whose highest educational qualification was obtained in Canada. To more accurately make comparisons between fields of study and levels of education, the value of earnings used in this study controls for other factors that could influence earnings, such as age, immigrant status, and geography. The study has two major findings. First, it finds that the earnings advantage associated with pursuing a master's degree or a doctorate varies by field of study. Second, differences in the occupational profile of bachelor degree holders and graduate degree holders largely explain the disparities in earnings.

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In the context of the expansion of upper secondary education, young people without an upper secondary education might be considered an at-risk group in the labour market. The present investigation is a longitudinal study of career both in school and at work for young people without upper secondary education. The study is part of a nationwide school research project, in which a national sample of pupils (9000) has been followed from the age of 13 through their school careers. Employment data were collected via a questionnaire given to young people without upper secondary education in 1991 when they were 23-24 years old. The results show that even though 97 per cent of the age cohort applied to upper secondary school in their final year of compulsory school, about one-fifth lacked an upper secondary education at the age of 20. The dominant pattern of young people without upper secondary education was a blue-collar home background, extensive special education, low and declining school achievements, and low self-esteem. A similar pattern also characterised the comparison group with a two-year vocational education in upper secondary school. Their school achievements were, however, not quite so low as for young people without upper secondary education. Although the majority of young people without upper secondary school had great difficulties in school they never experienced real unemployment but entered the regular labour market no later than at age 20. The context of these findings is the long economic boom of the 1980s.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner.

This author presented a paper at the ECER 99 conference held in Lahti, Finland, September 22-25 1999, indexed at TD/TNC 62.584. Show less

Education can be seen as a social structure that reproduces existing levels of social, economic, and cultural distributions. Using Vietnam as a case study, this paper seeks to examine how these theories hold up in a socio-political and socio-economic context that has been less examined, specifically in one of the few remaining single-party socialist countries that advocates Communism. The findings suggest prior levels of social stratification are predictive of educational attainment, and educational attainment is predictive of employment. Higher educational attainment is also predictive of having occupations in economic sectors with less repetitive work and more autonomy.

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This study aims to provide a detailed understanding of the underutilised workforce in New Zealand (NZ). The International Labour Organisation (ILO) considers workers to be underutilised if they are unemployed, time-related underemployed (referred to as underemployed hereinafter) or belong to the potential labour force. The primary data source for this report comes from the Household Labour Force Survey, specifically a period of results from between June 2016 and June 2018, which incorporated new variables and introduced information to identify the underutilised workforce in NZ, in line with ILO definitions. Some key findings from the study include: (1) underutilised workers tend to be significantly younger and female (one third of underemployed were aged 15-24); (2) characteristics linked with being more likely to be underutilised included low educational attainment, ethnic minorities, and large household size; (3) underemployed workers are most likely to be community and personal service workers or labourers and most likely to be found in accommodation and food services or retail trade; (4) the primary reason provided for their underemployment was 'not enough work available' (59.5 per cent) while women were four times more likely than men to cite 'difficulty in finding suitable childcare' as their reason (4.1 per cent versus 1.1 per cent); and (5) there was some evidence to indicate that underutilisation is a short-term phenomenon, with a 50.4 per cent probability that an underemployed person will be fully utilised in the next quarter they are surveyed, and an 84.8 per cent chance after a year.

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Maternal employment formed a central plank in the former Labour Government's strategy to reduce child poverty. Even where potential jobs were low-skilled and low-paid, policy was explicitly work (rather than training) first, and lone parents in particular were given direct and indirect financial subsidies to enter employment of any kind. The explicit assumption was that a low-paid job would be a stepping-stone to better things. From 2008 a little more stick was introduced to what had been a largely carrot-based approach to encouraging employment, a shift that has continued under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Government in power from May 2010. However, there is little evidence in practice that a low-paid job when one's child is young is a reliable route to improved future prospects. This paper uses the British Household Panel Survey to explore this issue further. It examines the employment trajectories of 929 women for the 10 years after the birth of their youngest child, asking two main questions. Do mothers tend to remain in employment once they have taken a job? And do wages and other employment outcomes further down the line (when their youngest child is 10) reflect the employment pathway taken? In both cases the paper focuses in particular on differences between women with higher and lower levels of qualifications. The paper finds mothers following a variety of employment pathways, with instability much more common than steady work trajectories. One in three mothers moves in and out of work over the decade after the birth of their youngest child, and this is true for both lower-skilled and higher-skilled mothers. Stable work histories do appear to carry benefits in terms of wages when the youngest reaches 10, but the benefits are substantially higher for women with higher levels of qualifications, as might be predicted by human capital theory. More highly qualified women who moved in and out of work over the decade had an hourly wage at 10 which was 33 per cent lower than similar women with a stable work history; for women with few or no qualifications the corresponding figure was 14 per cent. Levels of occupational progression as measured by change in [National Statistics Socio-economic Classification] NS-SEC status over the decade were encouraging, but for both higher and lower skilled women job satisfaction when the youngest is 10 appears unrelated to the pathway taken.

Published abstract. Copyright Kitty Stewart. Show less