WP7 Regional/local Case Studies

This report provides an in depth and transversal analysis of the policy Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) in Glasgow City Region and Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshrie Region. It analyses the correspondence of meanings attributed to the policy by national policymakers, regional managers, practitioners and young adults’ beneficiaries of the DYW policy, as well as identifying governance issues and (un)intended consequences on young peoples’ lives

Overeducation: concept, theories, and empirical evidence

The educational expansion experienced in most advanced economies in the past few decades has triggered a thriving debate on overeducation. Research on overeducation has traditionally been addressed from an economic perspective, mainly focusing on wage returns to extra years of education. More recently, the sociological literature has contributed to overeducation research by identifying individual characteristics that help us to differentiate overeducated from non-overeducated workers. Moreover, the sociological perspective has explored more in depth the role of educational and labour market institutions in assessing overeducation incidence and duration across countries. These contributions have eased the path to frame overeducation as a form of social stratification, rather than as an inefficient educational investment in economic terms. The present article reviews the economic literature on overeducation and incorporates the sociological perspective, understanding overeducation as a disadvantageous form of employment

WP6 Comparative Analysis Skills Supply and Demand

This report addresses the regional governance of the skills supply and demand in Glasgow City Region and Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshrie Region. The document describes and analyses how actors in the two Scottish regions understand and face the developmental challenges and how their skills agendas are constructed. The document also focuses on the levels and mechanisms of coordination among actors to implement the regional skills agenda given the socioeconomic context and regional skills (mis)matches

WP3 Policy Mapping, Review and Analysis

This report presents the mapping, review and analysis of the most relevant LLL policies for young adults in Glasgow City Region and Aberdeen/ Aberdeenshire. The report first reviews the national Scottish LLL policies which influence the implementation of LLL for young adults in the two regions under study. This report provides findings and analysis to comply with the H2020 YOUNG_ADULLLT Research Project, Work Package 3 (WP3). We have used the requirements and guidance in the WP3 proposal to select two appropriate Functional Regions (FRs): The Glasgow City Region and Aberdeen/Aberdeenshire. These FRs provide a focus for the WP3 mapping but also frame the other data gathering for the YOUNG_ADULLLT project. The mapping has provided material to facilitate an understanding of the policy landscape, including the different policy sectors of the two FRs set in the national context. The mapping required the selection of three detailed examples of LLL/Skills policies with their associated material actions in each of the two FRs. Currently, we have mapped four in each FR. Our mapping reflects the distinctiveness of Scottish public policy in that national policies provide the main framework for regional and locally devolved enactment and associated actions

Does grammar school attendance increase the likelihood of attending a prestigious UK university?

In 2018 the UK government launched a £50 million scheme to fund the expansion of existing grammar schools provided that they increase efforts to attract more pupils from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. This initiative assumed that grammar school attendance boosts the educational attainment and the higher education progression rates of pupils judged to be of high ability. It is already well established that grammar school pupils' higher average levels of educational attainment are due largely to their academic and social selectivity. The evidence in relation to higher education enrolment conditional on educational attainment, however, is more mixed. This paper sets out to update and improve on previous studies of the impact of grammar school attendance on higher education enrolment. Our analysis of data from the Next Steps longitudinal survey linked to National Pupil Database records finds that propensities to enrol in higher education generally, and at prestigious Russell Group universities specifically, are no better for grammar school pupils than for non-selective state school pupils with the same level of attainment at GCSE and A-level. This nil effect of grammar school attendance on progression to higher education net of the effects of educational attainment holds regardless of pupils' socioeconomic background, suggesting that grammar schools are no better than non-selective state schools as facilitators of upward social mobility

Sub-national variation of skill formation regimes: a comparative analysis of skill mismatch across 18 European regions

This article adopts the skill ecosystem approach to the comparative analysis of skill mismatch across European regions within different skill formation regimes. Institutional arrangements of skill formation regimes are designed at national level. However, they are enacted in regions with very different Labor market and socioeconomic conditions, which mediate the relationship between the institutional setting and its effects on the mismatch between the supply and demand of skills in a given region. Our analysis draws on quantitative and qualitative data from an EU Horizon 2020 project on lifelong learning policies for young adults that compares 18 regions in nine European countries. The data analyses show the importance of regional demand side factors in explaining skill shortages and skill surplus, and the coexistence of low-skill and high-skill equilibria in urban regions with high levels of skill polarization. Skill formation regimes present divergent effects on skill mismatch depending on the availability of jobs in the region and the level of skills demanded by the local economy. These findings suggest that combining skill formation regime and skill ecosystem approaches in comparative education research can provide better suited explanations of skill mismatch at regional and sectoral level

Educationalisation of youth unemployment through lifelong learning policies in Europe

In the aftermath of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, European authorities reinforced the economic objectives of European lifelong learning policy, promoting employability solutions to address youth unemployment, and increasing their political influence on the implementation of national lifelong learning reforms. This article investigates to what extent these supranational policy orientations have been translated into concrete national lifelong learning initiatives. Although European countries were not equally affected in terms of time and intensity by the rise in youth unemployment rates, the political responses from their governments shared a central focus on employability solutions to youth unemployment in lifelong learning policy reforms. Our comparative analysis shows how different lifelong learning policy initiatives managed to ‘educationalise’ a structural economic problem (i.e. youth unemployment) into an individual educational concern (i.e. lack of education and skills). We argue that the ‘educationalisation’ of youth unemployment through lifelong learning policies is a crisis management strategy, which has allowed governments to focus on the individual symptoms of the problem while avoiding offering solutions to the underlying structural causes of young people’s poor labour market prospects

YOUNG_ADULLLT Scotland: Key Messages for Scottish Policy Actors

This dissemination paper presents findings and recommendations produced from the research project entitled Policies Supporting Young Adults in their Life Course: A Comparative Study of Lifelong Learning and Inclusion in Education and Work in Europe (YOUNG_ADULLLT). The project ran from 2016 to 2019 and was funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation initiative. This paper is intended for use by Scottish policymakers, practitioners and researchers in the fields of adult education, lifelong learning, youth policy and skills policy, as well as international audiences interested in the case of Scotland

Overeducation: incidence, persistence and institutional differences across countries: the influence of field of study and social origin on graduates' overeducation risk

This dissertation studies overeducation incidence and persistence among graduates from different fields of study and social origin from a social stratification standpoint. Empirical research has shown that overeducation probability varies across graduates from different fields of study and social origin, but the relevance of social background in predicting overeducation might differ depending on the field of study of graduation. This research explores the (in)existence of the unevenly distributed effect of social origin on overeducation probability across fields of study from a cross-sectional, cross-national and longitudinal perspective. The dissertation is structured in three empirical articles, preceded by an introduction and a methodological chapter discussing overeducation measurement. The first empirical article focuses on the overeducation incidence of a sample of Italian graduates from different fields of study and social origin. The second article assesses the different strengths of field of study and social origin in predicting overeducation risk across countries with different arrangements in their national education systems. Finally, the third article addresses overeducation persistence and the variation in graduates’ likelihood of exiting overeducation across fields of study and social origin.Aquesta tesis doctoral estudia la incidència i la persistència en la sobreeducació entre els graduats universitaris de diferents camps d’estudi i origen social des de la perspectiva de l’estratificació social. La recerca empírica ha mostrat que la probabilitat de sobreeducació varia en funció del camp d’estudi i l’origen social, però la rellevància de l’origen social a l’hora de predir la sobreeducació pot variar en funció del camp d’estudi de graduació. La present investigació explora la possible existència d’aquest efecte diferenciat de l’origen social segons el camp d’estudi en la probabilitat de sobreeducació des d’una perspectiva transversal, longitudinal i comparada entre països. Aquesta tesis doctoral està estructurada en tres articles empírics, precedits per una introducció i un capítol metodològic on es discuteixen les diferents formes de mesurar la sobreeducació. El primer article empíric es centra en la incidència de la sobreeducació utilitzant una mostra representativa de graduats universitaris italians de diferents camps d’estudi i origen social. El segon article aborda la variació en la capacitat predictiva que el camp d’estudi i l’origen social tenen en la sobreeducació en diferents tipus de sistemes educatius. Finalment, el tercer article estudia la persistència en la sobreeducació i les diferents probabilitats de sortir-ne segons el camp d’estudi i origen social del graduat universitari

Overeducation: incidence, persistence and institutional differences across countries: the influence of field of study and social origin on graduates' overeducation risk

This dissertation studies overeducation incidence and persistence among graduates from different fields of study and social origin from a social stratification standpoint. Empirical research has shown that overeducation probability varies across graduates from different fields of study and social origin, but the relevance of social background in predicting overeducation might differ depending on the field of study of graduation. This research explores the (in)existence of the unevenly distributed effect of social origin on overeducation probability across fields of study from a cross-sectional, cross-national and longitudinal perspective. The dissertation is structured in three empirical articles, preceded by an introduction and a methodological chapter discussing overeducation measurement. The first empirical article focuses on the overeducation incidence of a sample of Italian graduates from different fields of study and social origin. The second article assesses the different strengths of field of study and social origin in predicting overeducation risk across countries with different arrangements in their national education systems. Finally, the third article addresses overeducation persistence and the variation in graduates’ likelihood of exiting overeducation across fields of study and social origin.Aquesta tesis doctoral estudia la incidència i la persistència en la sobreeducació entre els graduats universitaris de diferents camps d’estudi i origen social des de la perspectiva de l’estratificació social. La recerca empírica ha mostrat que la probabilitat de sobreeducació varia en funció del camp d’estudi i l’origen social, però la rellevància de l’origen social a l’hora de predir la sobreeducació pot variar en funció del camp d’estudi de graduació. La present investigació explora la possible existència d’aquest efecte diferenciat de l’origen social segons el camp d’estudi en la probabilitat de sobreeducació des d’una perspectiva transversal, longitudinal i comparada entre països. Aquesta tesis doctoral està estructurada en tres articles empírics, precedits per una introducció i un capítol metodològic on es discuteixen les diferents formes de mesurar la sobreeducació. El primer article empíric es centra en la incidència de la sobreeducació utilitzant una mostra representativa de graduats universitaris italians de diferents camps d’estudi i origen social. El segon article aborda la variació en la capacitat predictiva que el camp d’estudi i l’origen social tenen en la sobreeducació en diferents tipus de sistemes educatius. Finalment, el tercer article estudia la persistència en la sobreeducació i les diferents probabilitats de sortir-ne segons el camp d’estudi i origen social del graduat universitari