The end of the road? Critiquing the nascent trend of secondary education transition data

ABSTRACT

This paper identifies a nascent trend in several countries regarding increased collection, public availability and use of destination data for graduates of secondary education, with policy ambitions to support pupil-level decision-making and drive provider-level accountability. This trend mirrors the previous development of such data for higher education graduates and underpins a policy direction of data visibility and data engineering to support labour market objectives, via an assumed approach to change that privileges financial factors in career decision-making. Reforms in England are identified as an example of extreme practice, illustrating the practical potential of such data as well as potential pitfalls. Building on the pre-existing critique, the authors highlight three biases particularly prevalent in the new data: bias for continued education, bias for more stable, traditional forms of employment that disadvantages particular sectors, and bias for a provider-centric view of outcomes. Mitigations via an enhanced role for adolescent career counselling and improved data are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• School-to-work transitions
• destination data
• accountability frameworks
• career counselling

Disclosure statement

The authors are advisers to a number of organisations, policymakers and stakeholders in this domain, including previous paid work with three organisations referenced in this paper, the Department for Education in England, the Ark Academy Network and The Careers & Enterprise Company. We have disclosed those interests fully to Taylor & Francis. The authors received no funding for the research, authorship or publication of this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chris Percy

Chris Percy is Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Derby and an independent researcher whose interests include labour market transitions and future trends.

Michael Tomlinson

Michael Tomlinson is Associate Professor within Southampton Education School at the University of Southampton. His research interests include policy in relation to higher education, labour market, employability and marketisation.