Zeng Lin and Coauthors Robert Sweet from Lakehead University and Paul Anisef from York University examine the transitions from school to work for university students who have chosen liberal arts or vocational education in Canada.
The theoretical perspective employed in developing a model for labor market outcomes to university graduates relates to the work of Beck who argues that we now live in a "risk society" where school-work transitions are no longer linear. Transitions to work are more uncertain than in the past. In this study, the success of graduates school-to-work transitions are interpreted based on both structural (e.g., SES) and individual features (e.g., personal efforts). Within this framework of 'structured individualism', the balance between personal and structural influences on career building is explored. While considerable research has been conducted in Europe on the individualization hypothesis, there have been relatively few applications to American post-secondary education, especially in relationship to the debate of liberal arts or vocational education in higher learning.
Data for this study come from the National Graduate Survey, a nationally representative survey in Canada. Factor analyses were used to examine two major dependent variables: labor market outcomes and employability skills. These two dependent variables were separately regressed (linear regression) on gender, SES, age, ethnicity and fields of study. The research shows clear evidence that the labor market favors vocational over liberal arts graduates with regard to employment status, income, job security and continuity, and job satisfaction. In all instances, vocational graduates enjoy significantly greater labor market returns than liberal arts education graduates. However, what we found was a surprising lack of difference between liberal arts and vocational graduates in their employability skills (e.g., writing, speaking, decision-making, critical thinking and cooperative working). Employers were nevertheless more likely to utilize employability skills from vocational rather than liberal arts graduates. The equal employability skills and unequal labor market outcomes challenge the core values of higher learning.
The editor of Higher Education Policy describes that the research touches one of core issues of higher education in North America, which is closely related to the tension between liberal and vocational education. The similar employability skills and different labor market outcomes reflect a biased cultural orientation against a broad knowledge-based higher education. The research results call for an embedded liberal arts education, which reconciles liberal arts and vocational education in the stage of mass postsecondary education. The new proposed policy will make relatively equal returns between liberal arts and vocational graduates, which will eventually make higher education more sustainable and healthy in Canada.
Beck, U. (1992). Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. London: Sage Publication.
Lin, Z., Sweet, R., Anisef, P. (2003). Consequences and Policy Implications for University Students Who Have Chosen Liberal or Vocational Education in Canada: Labor Market Outcomes and Employability Skills. Higher Education Policy, 2003, Vol. 16, pp 55-85.
© 2008 Illinois State University • An equal opportunity/affirmative action university encouraging diversity • Privacy Statement • Contact Us • Check COE faculty and staff e-mail
