Graduates' transitions into university and into employment

Abstract

Graduates' transitions into university, their university preparation and transitions to employment are influenced by their contextual learning and experiences. This thesis focuses on the preparation for and entry into work of the 1999 cohort of graduates at one higher education institution in West London. The research uses two research design methodologies to explore the graduates' ultimate entry into work. The research study uses a quantitative employment destination data set to investigate the employment destinations of the graduates. The research also uses a qualitative approach, focusing on individual biographies using semi-structured interviews for data gathering, to investigate the impact of biographical and contextual variation on the 1999 cohort's preparation for employment. The research study explores the impact of graduates' curricular antecedents on their preparation for employment by investigating the way they pass thorough periods of transition within education and into work. It seeks to understand and explain how these transition points interact with their experiences of higher education and how such interactions better shape their preparation for and transition into employment. The results show that graduates' transitions into university, their university preparation and transitions to employment are influenced by a range of contextual and experiential variables.