The educational and labour market expectations of adolescents and young adults

Abstract

Understanding why some suitably qualified young adults go on to enter higher education and others do not has been the subject of extensive research by a number of social scientists from a range of disciplines. Economists suggest that young adults’ willingness to invest in a tertiary qualification depends upon what they believe the costs and benefits of this investment will be. On the other hand, sociologists stress that an early expectation of completing university is a key driver of later participation in higher education. Children's subjective beliefs of the future (their “expectations”) are a consistent theme within these distinctively different approaches. Researchers from both disciplines might argue that children's low or mistaken expectations (of future income, financial returns, their ability to complete university) might lead them into making inappropriate educational choices. For instance, young adults who do not have a proper understanding of the graduate labour market may mistakenly invest (or not invest) in tertiary education. Alternatively some academically talented children may not enter university if they do not see it as realistic possibility, or that it is 'not for the likes of them'. I take an interdisciplinary approach within this thesis to tackle both of these issues. Specifically, I investigate whether young adults have realistic expectations about their future in the labour market and if disadvantaged children scoring high marks on a maths assessment at age 15 believe they can complete university.

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