Dual Job Market for Universities' Graduates – Comparing Educational Paths and Careers of Science and Humanities Graduates

During last twenty years huge expansion of tertiary education could be observed in Poland. Number of students has risen from less than half a million in the begging of the nineties to almost two millions in recent years (GUS, 2011). For most of the time in this period the number of students of humanities, especially social sciences, was rising at fastest pace. At the same time a shortage of technically skilled employees has occurred in the Polish economy. This led to number of polices aimed at increasing popularity of technical and scientific studies among secondary schools graduates and reversal of the aforementioned trend (MNiSW, 2013). These changes have yet to satisfy the demand for skilled labour force.

 We will present results of multiple research projects conducted for the last five years among students and graduates of University of Warsaw – the biggest university in Poland. We combine results of statistical analyses of surveys and administrative registers with results of qualitative research (Jasinski et al., 2012). One of main conclusions is that there is a dual labour market for university graduates: one for highly demanded graduates of sciences and the other for the graduates of humanities. Representatives of these two clusters prove to have different approach towards their studies and tend to develop different strategies for entering the labour market: students of sciences concentrate on gaining knowledge and specific skills, whereas humanists tend to seek job experience during their studies to enhance their employability in the future. Careers possibilities of these groups differ substantially. Graduates of sciences seem to be more successful on the labour market.