The Role of University Degree in Youth Transition to Work

The deep changes in the labour market claimed for extending education and training time and generated a non-linear trajectory of the education within the individual life course. At the end o secondary education youth are facing a range of decisions, influencing to great extend even not entirely their adult professional career, among which higher education promises a better starting point on the labour market. 

In the context of the universalization of higher education (Teichler, 2008), but restricted job opportunities mainly in term of reward, as has been the Romanian case in the last two decades, the study has a look on university graduates questioning the role the university has played in smoothing their relation to the labour market. Empirical evidence reveals functional reasons for the choice of tertiary education prevailing over the more inner reason of vocation or excellence in career. Among the former one can find delaying the entrance on the labour market, better position in negotiation for the desired starting point on the labour market, given by higher or larger range of qualifications, or the right answer to the fashion in qualifications in national, but as well in international arena in the view of a probable future migration.    

The study is a step forward, testing this hypothesis based on an online quantitative type survey conducted by the authors, mirroring the structure of the tertiary education by domains. Social background, education, work opportunities and experience, motivations of these young people are looked as determinants for crossing the uncertainty of the transition to adulthood, in which developing professional competence is the key to success.