Transitioning between university and work: Unequal trajectories and affirmative policies

Abstract

The article analyzes the transition process between higher education and the labor market, as experienced by graduates of a prestigious institution that helped pioneer affirmative action programs. A panel was created to track the occupational pathways taken by the first two sets of graduates that went through the program (enrolled in 2005 and 2006). The article contains four parts: The case; the methodological construction of the panel; the results, highlighting the diversity of the trajectories and the chances for accessing quality employment among beneficiaries, or not, of inclusion policies; and the effects of the program on the occupational destinations of its graduates.