Higher education graduates’ employment and the uncertainty of working life

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to examine how the uncertainty and instability of working life is reflected in Finnish polytechnic graduates’ employment. The present study investigates the fields of business and engineering by comparing two graduate cohorts. The societal context in which new graduates enter working life is that of an increasing precariousness in the labour market, which affects higher education graduates as well as the general population. Nowadays, a higher education qualification is not necessarily a guaranteed path to a high income and high social status as it used to be. Insecurity and uncertainty in society and working life can be considered as general features of late modern (postmodern) society. Using questionnaires, data have been collected pertaining to polytechnic graduates (Business and Administration, in 2003: n = 625, in 2005: n = 508; Technology and Transport, in 2003: n = 638, in 2005: n = 542). The findings show that polytechnic graduates have been successful in obtaining employment. Their transition into the world of work was quite smooth. The great majority of these graduates were in paid work and had regular employment. However, from the first graduate cohort to the later one, there is a perceptible weakening in graduates’ employment success; for example, the proportion of those who did not have adequate employment increased.