Not going to university: examining the role of ‘learning identities’ in young people’s decisions to embark on alternative post-18 pathways

ABSTRACT

In the UK, transition to university has become regarded as the ‘normative’ next step for young people following completion of their post-16 education. This paper examines the views of 23 young people who, despite being suitably qualified to progress to university, were anticipating alternative pathways and options. The paper illuminates the centrality of young people’s ‘learning identities’ in their decisions and the role of wider social contexts in structuring their opportunities to embark on higher education. Their ‘learning identities’ informed their views on the value of higher education and other options in securing future employment. The implications of these findings are highly significant in the context of congested and competitive UK labour markets in which obtaining a degree has become, in very many contexts, the bare minimum for securing employment.

KEYWORDS:

• Young people
• higher education
• learning identities

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank The British Academy for supporting this research (project code SRG1819\190225) and for the colleges and young people who took part in it. I would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their generous and highly instructive feedback on earlier versions of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 A child or young person below age 16 is entitled to free school meals if their parents are in receipt of some form of government financial support such as universal credit, income support such or income-based job seekers allowance. FSM is therefore routinely used as a proxy indicator of socio-economic disadvantage in social research.

2 Level three qualifications include a range of academic and vocational qualifications (such as A-levels, apprenticeships and International Diplomas). They are typically pursued by students at the post-16 stage of education in England and Wales.

3 Two of the A-level students were studying for a combination of A-levels and vocational qualifications.

4 This is with the exception of one student, Toby, who was going to embark on a Degree Apprenticeship at a university in England in September 2019.