Adult graduates’ employability and mid-career trajectories after graduation with Finnish UAS Master’s degree

ABSTRACT

Graduate employability research typically focuses on young graduates’ entry to the labour market. Little is known about the careers of adults who attain higher education degrees in mid-life. This article explores Finnish University of Applied Sciences (UAS) Master’s degree graduates’ mid-career trajectories using retrospectively collected longitudinal survey data (N = 1025) on their employment relations, transitions and career breaks. The specific research questions are as follows: (1) What are the types of mid-career trajectories of the adult graduates with Finnish UAS Master’s degree? (2) What is the prevalence of the different career trajectories among the sample of graduates? (3) In what ways different career trajectories are able to take advantage of graduation with a Master’s degree? As a result, we recognised five types of mid-career trajectories: rising career, renewing career, entrepreneurial career, continuous career and unstable career. Adult degrees can re-orient and enhance different career trajectories, e.g. by providing formal qualifications, new expertise and entrepreneurial skills, as well as by validating prior experience. Understanding the nature of career trajectories of adult graduates at a Master’s level is interesting not only in the Finnish but also in the international context and this study opens up a rich array of opportunities for further studies.

KEYWORDS:

• Adult graduates
• graduate employability
• mid-career trajectory
• Master’s degree
• career typology research

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The alternative view is that the economy expands to accommodate graduates: the more graduates there are, the more high-level jobs are created (Brynner et al. 2002, 30).

2. The emergence of new types of career patterns does not mean that all employment relations have changed. So-called normal employment relationships, i.e. full-time, permanent employment contracts, have remained the main form of labour market participation in Finland. The qualitative changes at work do not appear in statistics. (Vuorinen-Lampila 2018; Statistics of Finland 2017; 2013).

3. The respondent was asked to fill in the appropriate number: 1 = permanent full-time employment, 2 = temporary full-time employment, 3 = permanent part-time employment, 4 = temporary part-time employment, 5 = entrepreneur, 6 = full-time qualifying study, 7 = unemployment, 8 = parenting leave (maternity, paternity, parenting and/or child care leave), 9 = other.

4. The respondent was asked to fill in the appropriate number: 1 = state, government enterprise, 2 = municipality, public organisation owned by a group of municipalities, municipal enterprise, 3 = privately-owned enterprise, 4 = organisation, foundation, parish or the like, 5 = entrepreneur, sole trader or the like, 6 = other.

5. The respondent was asked to fill in the appropriate number: 1 = top-level manager, 2 = middle-level manager or other superior position, 3 = developing, planning or other expert position, 4 = educational, training or guidance position, 5 = operational-level position, 6 = entrepreneur, 7 = other.

6. We did not model the career types of the graduates who were outside the workplace (n = 15). These graduates had hardly any employment after graduation. They were typically unemployed or on family leave or they had transitioned to a full-time graduate student after completing a Master’s degree. In addition, 21 of the respondents of the questionnaire did not respond to the question regarding career development.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Academy of Finland [(HighEmploy) 2608069911]; The Finnish Work Environment Fund [117418].

Notes on contributors

Kristiina Ojala

Kristiina Ojala works as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Turku. Her research interests are higher education graduates’ careers and employability, adult education, quantitative and qualitative research.

Ulpukka Isopahkala-Bouret

Ulpukka Isopahkala-Bouret works as a professor at University of Turku. Her research interest are educational equality, higher education graduates' employability, access to higher education, career transitions, professional expertise and agency.

Mervi Varhelahti

Mervi Varhelahti works as a Management and Communication Trainer at Master School at Turku University of Applied Sciences. She is specialized in the use of media in corporate communication and the utilization of social media in teaching. I addition to teaching duties, she is researching virtual communication, emotions in social media and working life relevance of UAS Master´s studies.