Ellu Saar

Transition from Educational System to Labour Market in the European Union A Comparison between New and Old Members

Theoretically, the central research question of this article pertains to the way in which national institutional arrangements, namely educational systems, and related modes of labour markets and welfare provisions, affect the aggregate effectiveness of youth labour market integration in the new EU member states in comparison to the old EU countries. The study utilizes the European Union Labour Force Survey 2004. Results of the cluster analysis provide substantial support for distinct patterns of labour market entry in terms of the stratification of labour market exclusion, downgrading risk and labour market mobility of LM entrants in different CEE countries. Furthermore, the article reveals also new aspects of labour market entry in the EU-15 countries while considering not only educational signalling but also the labour market flexibility dimension.

NEW ENTRANTS ON THE ESTONIAN LABOUR MARKET: A COMPARISON WITH THE EU COUNTRIES

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to present a descriptive overview of patterns and labour market outcomes characterising the labour market entry in Estonia compared to the EU countries. The assumption that labour market institutions and educational systems have an impact on the labour market entry process makes up the starting point for the formulation of the hypotheses. The hypotheses have been formulated on the basis of the comparison between the educational systems as well as labour market institutions in Estonia and in the EU countries. The paper draws upon data from the Estonian Labour Force Survey (ELFS) 2002 and from the 1997 ELFS’ macro level data about the EU countries. The paper will present evidence concerning differences in labour market outcomes between new entrants and experienced workers. Based on macro level data, the analysis will attempt to empirically identify distinct country clusters.

Participation in non-formal learning in EU-15 and EU-8 countries: demand and supply side factors

The main purpose of this paper is to provide an in-depth analysis of participation in non-formal learning in different European Union member states. The paper also seeks to extend analysis of the training gap by pursuing the distinction between the supply and the demand for skills. We use aggregate data from the Adult Education Survey (Eurostat) carried out in different European countries between 2005 and 2008. Analysis indicated that inequality in participation reflects the distribution of occupations (or workplaces with different requirements) more than the available qualifications of the workforce. The analysis infers that in market-centred societies, the market’s impact on participation in non-formal learning and inequality in participation is more important than the output of the education system. Our result confirms previous findings that innovation has a stronger impact on the non-formal learning participation of lower skilled workers, because workers with higher education levels have sufficient skills and do not need to be trained or re-trained to be able to manage innovations.

Ethnic inequalities in education: second generation Russians in Estonia

Abstract This paper investigates ethnic educational inequality in Estonia focusing on second-generation Russians. In Estonia, contrary to many other European countries, the overall educational attainment of second-generation immigrants has, compared to their parents, diverged from the educational attainment of the native population. Our results from logistic regression analysis indicate that the odds of Russians continuing in general secondary and higher education are lower compared to native Estonians. Parental economic, cultural, and host country specific resources do not account for ethnic differences in educational transition. Adolescents’ own language proficiency and citizenship have a strong impact on educational decisions. We conclude that the Estonian education system contributes to the emergence of ethnic differences. While basic and secondary schools function in either the Estonian or Russian languages, the curricula in public higher education institutions are taught mainly in Estonian, which might lower expectations of success amongst Russian adolescents.

Participating in non‐formal learning: patterns of inequality in EU‐15 and the new EU‐8 member countries

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 EU‐8 and EU‐15 member countries? We used aggregate and national data on participation in non‐formal learning from European Union countries, based on an ad‐hoc module included in the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU‐LFS) 2003. Analysis indicated that, as suggested by theory, institutional factors are significant for EU‐15 member countries. The predictive power of these factors for EU‐8 member countries is rather low and varies significantly by countries.

Contextual effects on subjective social position: Evidence from European countries

This study investigated subjective social position in 21 European countries using data from the social inequality module of the International Social Survey Programme 2009. Subjective social position shows people’s self-location in a social hierarchy. Most studies on subjective social position have typically involved a few countries and neglected the role of national educational and occupational structures. We hypothesise that these characteristics, together with national-level economic factors, modify the effect of individual-level characteristics on subjective social location. Our expectations are based on extended reference group thesis, the big-fish-little-pond and stigmatisation arguments. The results of multi-level analysis indicated that the extent of educational and income inequalities in society as well as occupational structures influence the importance of individual incomes, education and occupations for estimating social position.

Different Cohorts and Evaluation of Income Differences in Estonia

The article addresses three main research questions. (1) What attitudes do people entertain in post-socialist Estonia with regard to income inequality? (2) Do the unique formative experiences of different birth cohorts become imprinted in values, making them distinctively different in their evaluations of income inequalities, or do people from different cohorts adapt to changes and are they becoming more similar? (3) Are there any differences in the impact of various individual-level characteristics on the attitudes to inequality of different cohorts? In order to answer these questions, this article compares five birth cohorts with different socialization experiences. The analysis is based on data from the International Social Justice Project of 1991 and 1996 and from the Estonian Social Justice Survey carried out in 2004. The analysis indicates a time-dependent and increasing effect of cohort on attitudes towards income inequality. The cohort effect on the perception and appraisal of income inequality in Estonian society is opposite to previous findings for western welfare regimes, where young people look more critically at income inequality. There are clear indications that the older cohorts in Estonia are more critical concerning income inequality and that these cohort-specific differences cannot be attributed only to the heterogeneous self-interests of individuals belonging to different cohorts. Controlling for effects of self-interest does not considerably reduce the influence of cohort on evaluation of income inequality. Our analysis indicates that the most important mediator of the effect of cohort were justice beliefs.

Self-employment in Estonia: Forced move or voluntary engagement?

Abstract This article examines the importance of ‘pull’ and ‘push’ factors in self-employment drawing upon the experience of post-socialist Estonia, where self-employment has risen sharply from a negligible level since 1989. Drawing on quantitative data, and also qualitative data, the article identifies a range of different types of self-employment in Estonia and explores the reasons for their different levels of success.

Estonia on the backdrop of the European Union states: country-specific institutional context and lifelong learning

Estonia on the backdrop of the European Union states: country-specific institutional context and lifelong learning The paper focuses on how the institutional design of education systems shapes opportunities for lifelong learning. Our main aim is to reveal to what extent Estonia, as a new member state, is a specific case for the EU. We expect the Estonian case to diverge from the patterns of links, between education systems and participation in non-formal education, predicted by the theories and characteristics of the old EU member-states. The authors use aggregate data about participation in non-formal learning in a number of European Union countries, based on an ad hoc module included in the EU Labour Force Survey 2003.

What is the role of education in the recruitment process? Employers’ practices and experiences of graduates from tertiary educational institutions in Estonia

Since the 1980s, growing globalisation and economic restructuring coupled with expansion of tertiary education contributed to tremendous change in the labour market entry process in Europe. Most previous studies have been quantitative, concentrated on the supply aspect and analysed the role of education as the explanatory variable of youth labour market outcome equations. By contrast, the demand aspect has gained less attention. In this paper, using Estonia as a case study in both perspectives – employers’ practices and graduates’ experiences – are combined to answer the question: how employers use information provided by tertiary education credentials in the recruitment process. Semi-structured interviews with the 15 biggest employers and focus groups consisting of 63 recent graduates comprise the base data of our study. The results reveal that it is useful to examine the mechanisms why education affects recruitment processes separately among service providers and goods producers as well as in different stages of recruitment (pre-selection, getting a job offer). In all sectors, the educational credentials were used in the pre-selection process as a screening device. However, in a job offer, service providers emphasised the role of credentials as signals of trainability while for goods producers credentials informed employers about their job-specific skills.