Higher education and employment: a case study of higher education finalists

Abstract

The increasing difficulty of young graduates in accessing to a job reflects the evolution and expansion of higher education and the changings of the labour market characteristics. Unemployment represents, itself, an economic and social problem, and one of the most pressing concerns of young people and families. Bearing in mind that work plays a central role in social integration, in construction of identity and in the social relationship’s structuration of the youngest, its sociological relevance is evident. Consequently, it involves, not only the access to employment, but also the transition to adulthood, in view of the prolongation of youth and educational trajectories. Our object of study is constituted by a sample of 655 surveys of 2019 and 2020 finalists from Guarda, Leiria and Viseu Portuguese Polytechnics. We intend, here, to contribute to the reflection on the importance, for young people, of employment in their motivations accessing higher education and their perceptions and expectations about the professional future. We approach, in parallel, the professional situation in the last year of academic training.