Curriculum choices and school-to-work transitions among upper-secondary school leavers in Scotland and Ireland

(2017) - Cristina Iannelli, Emer Smyth

Journal: Journal of Education and Work
Link:: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13639080.2017.1383093
DOI:: 10.1080/13639080.2017.1383093
Links::
Tags:: #paper #Transition #school-to-work #SchoolType
Cite Key:: [@iannelliCurriculumChoicesSchooltowork2017]

Abstract

David Raffe was a highly influential figure in the field of transitions research. His work carefully delineated how national institutional policies shape transition processes and outcomes. Curriculum structure and organisation were seen as key features of these transition systems, his work tracing the relative impact of vocational and academic qualifications across countries and exploring tendencies towards, and away from, unified qualification frameworks. This paper builds upon David’s work by unpacking the influence of curriculum choices in secondary education on young people’s labour market destinations in Ireland and Scotland, two countries which share many similarities in their transition and post-16 education systems but differ in the degree of student subject choice at upper-secondary level. Using regression analyses of school leavers’ survey data from both countries, we analysed the extent to which subjects studied and grades achieved in secondary school matter for young people’s occupational opportunities. We found that subject choice matters for employment chances and access to higher status positions in Scotland but to only a limited extent in Ireland. Grades matter for employment chances in Ireland while higher grades enhance access to higher quality jobs in both countries. The conclusions offer some reflections on David’s most recent work and his legacy.

Notes

“Despite a wide international literature on the effect of vocational and general education on school-to-work transition, relatively little is known about the role of having studied specific subjects in explaining inequalities in young people’s labour market outcomes” (Iannelli and Duta, 2018, p. 56)

“we found little gender differences but strong parental background differences in school leavers’ employment status and type of occupation entered.” (Iannelli and Duta, 2018, p. 56)

“Moreover, after controlling for social origin and grades, only history and business for lower-secondary leavers and maths for upper-secondary leavers were associated with a reduction in the chances of being unemployed/ inactive.” (Iannelli and Duta, 2018, p. 56)

“Flexibility in curriculum choices is often seen as a positive feature of education systems because it allows pupils to take ownership over their learning and reduces the probability of disengaging them by imposing the same curriculum on all (see for example Noddings, 2011).” (Iannelli and Duta, 2018, p. 56)

“By focusing on Scotland, we are able to assess whether school subject choices matter for youth labour market outcomes in an education system characterised by low stratification (i.e. no school tracks), low standardisation of certifications, and weak links between education and the labour market (Allmendinger, 1989).” (Iannelli and Duta, 2018, p. 57)

“We analyse the labour market outcomes of two groups of school leavers in Scotland: those who left school at the earliest possible time (i.e. at the end of compulsory education) and those who left at the end of secondary school. By focusing on inequalities in labour market outcomes of these two groups and the role that curriculum choices may have in reproducing these inequalities, we intend to provide important new evidence to address pressing policy concerns on improving youth employment, eradicating poverty, and reducing inequalities (Scottish Government, 2014).” (Iannelli and Duta, 2018, p. 57)

“The relationship between a low level of educational attainment and the risk of unemployment, low-paid jobs and labour market marginalisation is well known (Hannan, Hövels, Van den Berg, & White, 1995; Shavit & Müller, 1998; Solga, 2008), and its causes have been found to be context specific (Gesthuizen, Solga, & Künster, 2011).” (Iannelli and Duta, 2018, p. 58)

“Moreover, low attainment is often associated with social class, gender, and ethnicity (Furlong & Cartmel, 2007; Hills et al., 2010).” (Iannelli and Duta, 2018, p. 58)

“Research on school-to-work transition has shown that, in countries with a strong vocational training component (such as Germany and the Netherlands), vocational education has been found to provide a‘safety net’for young people against unemployment or unskilled manual jobs (Shavit & Müller, 2000). However, at the same time, it constrains young people’s chances of continuing into higher education and gaining access to more rewarding occupations.” (Iannelli and Duta, 2018, p. 58)

“Countries with more general education systems (such as Scotland and the UK more generally), on the other hand, usually have weaker connections between education and labour market outcomes and young people’s transitions tend to be more turbulent, characterised by unemployment spells, early job mismatches, and lower immediate occupational returns (Müller & Gangl, 2003). In these systems variation in young people’s labour market outcomes is strongly associated with the level of education completed or their academic performance (Crawford, Duckworth, Vignoles, & Wyness, 2011; Howieson & Iannelli, 2008). Vocational education is usually a less valued credential in the labour market, often signalling low academic ability and more disadvantaged social circumstances.” (Iannelli and Duta, 2018, p. 58)

“Iannelli (2013) found that, of people included in the National Child Development Study (NCDS) born in Britain in 1958, those who studied subjects such as English, maths, languages, and science in secondary school had higher chances of entering top-level occupations (such as professional and managerial jobs) and avoiding unskilled jobs.” (Iannelli and Duta, 2018, p. 58)

“Using the NCDS data for England, Dolton and Vignoles (2002) estimated that, after controlling for family background measures and personal attributes including prior ability measures, people who had studied A-level mathematics benefited from an earnings premium between 7% and 10% at age 33.” (Iannelli and Duta, 2018, p. 59)

“Occupational status is measured by the International Socio-Economic Index of Occupational Status (ISEI) (Ganzeboom, De Graaf, & Treiman, 1992). ISEI is a continuous measure ranging from 10 to 90 which was derived from the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) codes. For a detailed explanation of how ISEI can be constructed please see Ganzeboom (2010) and Ganzeboom et al. (1992)” (Iannelli and Duta, 2018, p. 61)

“School-related explanatory variables are subjects studied and attainment at the end of S4 (GR1) or S5/S6 (GR2). We distinguish between 12 subjects: English, maths, languages, biology, chemistry, physics, geography, history, cultural studies, business, technology, others (e.g. home economics, physical education). They were included as dummy variables (i.e. whether young people studied these subjects or not) in the modelling” (Iannelli and Duta, 2018, p. 62)

“Binary logistic regressions were used to analyse the employment status of young people after leaving school. We estimated the probability of an individual being unemployed/inactive compared to being employed. To solve the issue of the lack of comparability of logit coefficients across statistical models (Breen, Karlson, & Holm, 2013) we present average marginal effects (AMEs) derived from the logistic coefficients (Mood, 2010).” (Iannelli and Duta, 2018, p. 62)

“Figure 1. Post-school destinations of S4 and S5/S6 leavers.” (Iannelli and Duta, 2018, p. 63)

“Figure 2. Models estimating the probability of being not in employment, Gr 1.” (Iannelli and Duta, 2018, p. 67)

“While we found very little evidence of gender differences in school leavers’labour market outcomes, our analysis found strong parental background differences, in particular between the most disadvantaged and the most advantaged.” (Iannelli and Duta, 2018, p. 70)

“In conclusion, inequalities in school-to-work transitions in Scotland can be only partly explained by curriculum choices.” (Iannelli and Duta, 2018, p. 71)