Learning and work in the lives of young adults

Abstract

It is clear that for many young people the balance between learning, work and leisure has shifted considerably over recent decades. Many students now work throughout the whole of their post‐compulsory education, entering the labour market well before any higher education applications have been made, and continue to work throughout their time at university. In part, this may be driven by: young people’s desires to maintain a particular ‘consumer lifestyles’; shifts towards flexible labour in many sectors of the economy that have provided more opportunities for student employment; as well as the increasing costs of studying for a degree. Within this context, many young people have become very practised at ‘juggling’ a job, an education and a social life. Drawing on a study of 30 graduates in their mid‐twenties, this paper explores whether the experience of combining education and employment may facilitate lifelong learning, through the ‘normalisation’ of these patterns or whether, conversely, the financial pressures that many young people experience during their post‐compulsory education act as a disincentive to pursue further learning.

Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to the 30 young graduates who gave up considerable amounts of time to tell me their life histories, and to the Nuffield Foundation for funding this research.

Notes

1. This draws on the typology developed by Miller (2000). He distinguishes between a ‘realist’ approach to life history interviews, based on an inductive approach to data collection and analysis, a ‘neo‐positivist’ approach, with deduction at its core, and a ‘narrative’ approach, which places primary emphasis on the development of the respondent’s view during the telling of the life history.

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Notes on contributors

Rachel Brooks

Rachel Brooks is Senior Lecturer in Social Policy at the University of Surrey and co‐convenor of the British Sociological Associations Youth Study Group. Her research interests focus on young people’s engagement with education and training.