This paper analyses the factors of combining study and work and the factors explaining intensity of work during study in Russia, based on cross-sectional survey data. The issue of how Russian students combine work and study is analysed through the set of financial, academic, social and demographic predictors, quality of university and quality of…

Human capital investment is a necessary condition for improving labour market outcomes in most countries. Empirical studies to investigate human capital and its linkages on the labour demand side are, however, relatively scarce due to limitations of firm-level data-sets. Using firm-level data from the Thai manufacturing sector, this paper aims to…

Participation in job-related training as part and parcel of lifelong learning is widely advocated. While many empirical research about job-related training of employees are about advanced western economies, little is known about advanced Asian economies. To fill this void in the literature, this study applies the human capital, institutional and…

Data show that educated workers earn higher wages and are unemployed less often. Some researchers believe that education improves a worker's productivity (or "human capital"), making them more desirable on the job market, while others believe that it improves a worker's network (or "social capital"), giving them more…

In this article, we ask what role both digital and artistic human capital play in the creative economy by examining employment patterns of digital technology (DT) and creative arts and design (CAD) graduates. Using student micro-data collected by the Higher Education Statistical Agency (HESA) in the United Kingdom, we investigate the…

There are many aims that have been articulated with respect to national qualifications frameworks (NQFs). Among them are those concerned with transparency, which is to say, that it is assumed that once employers understand the competencies of employees, as defined by their education credentials, then the mismatch between what employers are looking…

The concept of learning outcomes is at the heart of many research programmes and policy responses. International surveys (from the International Adult Literacy Survey, back in the mid-nineties, to the forthcoming Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes two OECD surveys), National Qualifications Frameworks or the European Qualifications…

We study returns to academic specialisation for Indian corporate sector workers by analysing cross-sectional data on male employees randomly selected from six large firms. Our analysis shows that going to college pays off, as it brings significant incremental returns over and above school education. However, the increase in returns is more…

This paper reports on a study of the transition from university to work by students/employees in the complex and rapidly changing socio-economic context of contemporary Shanghai. It aims at understanding how highly educated young people perceive the nature and mode of operation of the newly emerging labour market for knowledge-based jobs, and how…

We concentrate on the following research questions: (1) Do the structure of the educational system and its interaction with the labour market affect the training gap between low-skilled blue collar workers and high-skilled white collar workers? and (2) Do the ways that institutional systems shape opportunities for lifelong learning differ between…

Formal education not only educates individuals, it reconstitutes the very foundations of society through a pervasive culture of education with a legitimate capacity to reconstruct work and its central components such as ideas about human productive abilities, new organisations and management, widespread professionalism and expertise, and the…

Addressing connections between higher education and "industry" framed by UK government creative industries strategies, this article draws on research with games design students to explore their transition from being a student to being "industry-ready". The article introduces broader currents within higher education around…

This article is concerned with the production and employment of technically skilled labour at the intermediate level in South Africa. Three differing labour market pathways to intermediate skilling are identified. These are: the traditional apprenticeship route, the new "Learnerships" pathway (similar to the "modern…

Current UK skills policy is centred on the need to drive up qualification obtainment and make the system more employer-led with Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) being given the role of articulating the "voice" of employers. Through a study of recruitment and selection processes in the fitness industry, this paper explores employers'…

This article examines the way students, making the transition from higher education into the labour market, construct, understand and begin to manage their employability. It draws upon a qualitative study of 53 final-year undergraduates in a pre-1992 university in the UK. It firstly explores students' perceptions of the current labour market for…