‘Talent-spotting’ or ‘social magic’? Inequality, cultural sorting and constructions of the ideal graduate in elite professions

Graduate outcomes – including rates of employment and earnings – are marked by persistent inequalities related to social class, as well as gender, ethnicity and institution. Despite national policy agendas related to social mobility and ‘fair access to the professions’, high-status occupations are disproportionately composed of those from socially privileged backgrounds, and evidence suggests that in recent decades many professions have become less socially representative. This article makes an original contribution to sociological studies of inequalities in graduate transitions and elite reproduction through a distinct focus on the ‘pre-hiring’ practices of graduate employers. It does this through a critical analysis of the graduate recruitment material of two popular graduate employers. It shows how, despite espousing commitments to diversity and inclusion, constructions of the ‘ideal’ graduate privilege individuals who can mobilise and embody certain valued capitals. Using Bourdieusian concepts of ‘social magic’ and ‘institutional habitus’, the article argues that more attention must be paid to how graduate employers’ practices constitute tacit processes of social exclusion and thus militate against the achievement of more equitable graduate outcomes and fair access to the ‘top jobs

The ‘Skills Drain’ of Health Professionals from the developing World:a Framework for Policy Formulation

This paper examines policy towards health professionals’ migration from economic and governance perspectives

Changing skills required by the industries: perceptions of what makes business graduates employable

This study relates to the employers assessment of graduates skills as deem required by the industries. The business need for accelerated performance levels induces a responding desire for rapid changes in the skills required by universities graduates. A changing environment with resultant organizational restructuring means graduates now find jobs are more demanding as the needs of business to be more competitive. Whereas in the past, managerial competence went hand in hand with the possession of specific skills and abilities, it now seems to involve more. Empirical evidence from the research suggests that respondents share a basic commitment to the development of common skills within the context of a business and management studies programme. Clearly the employers participating in this study placed greater emphasis on major subjects of management and business (53.5%) and less on elective subjects (18.4%). Interestingly, the Quality Assurance Unit in Ministry of Higher Education in Malaysia also made a guideline of 50-60% of major subjects in Management and Business programme for undergraduate programme. On the other hand, this study confirmed that the industry also have the same views on programme composition in Management and Business programme in Malaysia.In-term of key skills in management and business programme, verbal and written communication skill were ranked higher and less on innumeracy skill. This finding also supported findings in the programme structure, where is the communication subject must play an important role in designing management and business syllabus. In academic and intellectual skills, be independence and ability to solve business problem placed most important skills by the employers. In line with that result, the employers also expected that the graduates will be able to carry out responsibilities assigned and always on time or can keep appointments. From this finding, it is imperative that higher learning institutions gave greater emphasis in developing soft skills of the students as well as preparing them with good attitude for employment

Employability of graduates and development of competencies: mind the gap and mind the step! Empirical evidence for Italy

education; competencies; employability

Unions Implementing Managerial Techniques

[Excerpt] National unions are gradually adopting the sophisticated management selection and training practices of business and government but employment and promotion decisions remain essentially political

To recruit skilled workers or to train one's own? : vocational training in the face of uncertainty as to the rate of retention of trainees on completion of training

"The article deals with the impact of uncertainty as regards the retention of trainees completing vocational training programmes on firms' training behaviour. As an alternative to vocational training, the external recruitment of skilled workers is considered via an opportunity costs approach. The uncertainty is traced back to staff turnover, considerable product market competition and changing skill requirements. Indicators of these causes of uncertainty are examined as to their impact on vocational training and the recruitment of skilled workers with a fractional logit model, using a seemingly unrelated cluster-adjusted sandwich estimator with data from the IAB Establishment Panel. There is no confirmation that the presumed correlations exist in manufacturing. A negative correlation is identified in the service sector between high staff turnover coupled with rapid change in the skills required on the one hand, and commitment to vocational training on the other, while there is a positive link with the external recruitment of skilled workers. This is interpreted as an indication that uncertainty with regard to retention after training can go some way towards explaining the growing gap between employment and vocational training in the tertiary sector." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) Additional Information Kurzfassung (deutsch) Executive summary (English)Betrieb, Personalpolitik, betriebliche Berufsausbildung, Ausbildungsverhalten, Auszubildende, Ausbildungsabsolventen, beruflicher Verbleib, zwischenbetriebliche Mobilität, Arbeitsplatzwechsel, Qualifikationsanforderungen, Personaleinstellung, Fachkräfte, verarbeitendes Gewerbe, Dienstleistungsbereich, Bildungsökonomie, IAB-Betriebspanel

Gearing Up: An Interim Report on the Sectoral Employment Initiative

Gearing Up is the first P/PV report on the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation's Sectoral Employment Initiative. It provides information about the various strategies being pursued, who is participating, and the sites' successes and struggles through the initiative's first two years. The report concludes with observations on those factors that appear critical to participating organizations' attaining their goals

The impact on firms of ICT skill-supply strategies: an Anglo-German comparison

This paper compares the supply of specialist ICT skills in Britain and Germany from higher education and from apprenticeship and assesses the relative impact on companies in the two countries. In contrast to Britain, where numbers of ICT graduates have expanded rapidly, the supply of university graduates in Germany has not increased. Combined with the constraints of the German occupational model of work organization, it is concluded that this failure of supply may have contributed to slower growth of ICT employment in Germany. At the same time, German firms have turned to a newly developed model of apprenticeship to supply routine technical ICT skills. This strategy contrasts with British firms which recruit from a wide range of graduate specialisms and invest more heavily in graduate training. Probably in part as a consequence, apprenticeship in ICT occupations in Britain has failed to develop