Geoff Mason

Employability skills initiatives in higher education: what effects do they have on graduate labour market outcomes?

The present paper makes use of detailed information gathered at university department level, combined with graduate survey data, to assess the impact of different kinds of employability skills initiative on graduate labour market performance. We find that structured work experience and employer involvement in degree course design and delivery have clear positive effects on the ability of graduates to secure employment in ‘graduate‐level’ jobs. However, a measure of departmental involvement in explicit teaching and assessment of employability skills is not significantly related to labour market performance.

High Skills Utilisation Under Mass Higher Education: Graduate employment in service industries in Britain

This article explores the impact of mass higher education on high skills utilisation in the retailing, computer services and transport and communications industries. In all three industries graduates have been taken on in increasing numbers in recent years, partly in order to meet growing demands for analytical ability, generic skills and technical knowledge, and partly as a result of larger numbers of graduates applying for relatively low-paid, undemanding jobs. There is evidence of graduate substitution for non-graduates having contributed to a job upgrading process in two different ways during the last decade: (1) through a one-off permanent upgrading of clerical and administrative jobs in departments such as customer services and marketing; and (2) through temporary job upgrading as individual graduates in lower level jobs take on additional tasks and responsibilities in the hope of securing internal promotion or moving to better jobs with other employers. However, the scope for further job upgrading of a permanent kind appears to be limited. In general, the burden of adjustment to the increased supply of graduates falls to a greater extent on individual graduates than it does on employers. This contributes to a widening divergence of salaries and career prospects across the graduate labour market.

National skill-creation systems and career paths for service workers: hotels in the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom

Creating sufficient opportunities for individuals to develop their capabilities and earn a living wage is one of the central challenges facing all countries. However, some types of vocational education and training (VET) institutions may be more effective than others in promoting the development of career-enhancing ‘transferable’ skills. In order to investigate the links between national skill-creation systems and individual career paths, this study focuses on three countries with very different VET systems: the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. The comparison is based on closely matched samples of three- and four-star hotels. The results suggest that individual career development and outcomes, such as wages and turnover rates, are strongly influenced by the interplay of three key elements – the breadth, relevance to employment and degree of standardization – of national initial VET systems. Our analysis identifies strengths and weaknesses of the different systems and key lessons for improvement.

Knowledge Transfer and Innovation in Germany and Britain: ‘Intermediate Institution’ Models of Knowledge Transfer under Strain?

This article investigates the links between knowledge transfer activities and innovation performance in Germany and Britain through a detailed comparison of matched samples of electronics production and research establishments in the two countries. In contrast to mature industries such as mechanical engineering, German performance in electronics is not found to be greatly enhanced by the role played by intermediate research institutes in “bridging the gap” between the academic science base and business enterprises.

Vocational Education and Productivity in the Netherlands and Britain

The contribution of differences in the Dutch and British education and training systems to the significant Dutch advantage in manufacturing productivity levels is examined in this article. The Dutch schooling system is characterised by high standards in mathematics, the provision of vocational education at ages 14-16 for a third of all pupils, and widespread vocational education at 16+. The proportion of the Dutch work force attaining vocational qualification approaches that of Germany and is well ahead of Britain. Comparisons of productivity, machinery and skills in matched samples of British and Dutch manufacturing plants were carried out in selected branches of two industries—engineering and food-processing. Higher average levels of work force skills and knowledge in the Dutch samples were found to contribute to higher productivity through better maintenance of machinery, greater consistency of product-quality and lower manning-levels (greater work force flexibility, less learning-time on new jobs). The Dutch productivity advantage was greatest in product areas where small- or medium-sized batches are demanded by the market.

Market Segmentation Strategies and Service Sector Productivity

Conventional explanations for lagging U.S. service sector productivity focus on the difficulties of measuring service output, a lack of sufficient competition in service industries, and poor management skills. Drawing on data collected in 95 service establishments in the banking and hotel industries in the U.S., UK, and Germany, this article suggests an alternative explanation. U.S. service companies may effectively be achieving low levels of labor productivity by design. The U.S. service establishments in this study are productivity leaders in low value-added market segments but productivity laggards in higher value-added market segments. They have consciously chosen to adjust the labor intensity of service delivery to the business potential of different customer segments. Varying the design of service processes by customer segment has lowered measured productivity levels but may be supporting higher levels of business performance.

Does Student Loan Debt Deter Higher Education Participation? New Evidence from England

Research among prospective UK undergraduates in 2002 found that some students, especially from low social classes, were deterred from applying to university because of fear of debt. This article investigates whether this is still the case today in England despite the changing higher education landscape since 2002. The article describes findings from a 2015 survey of prospective undergraduates and compares them with those from the 2002 study. We find that students’ attitudes to taking on student loan debt are more favorable in 2015 than in 2002. Debt-averse attitudes remain much stronger among lower-class students than among upper-class students, and more so than in 2002. However, lower-class students in 2015 do not have stronger debt-averse attitudes than do middle-class students. Finally, debt-averse attitudes seem more likely to deter planning for higher education among lower-class students in 2015 than in 2002.

How well-rewarded is inter-firm mobility in the labour market for scientists and engineers? New evidence from the UK and France

As firms have come under increasing competitive pressure to acquire and make effective use of knowledge that has been generated beyond their own boundaries, they are making increasing use of external recruitment of experienced scientists and engineers (SEs) who bring with them skills and knowledge gained in the process of working for other firms. This paper explores the impact of these developments on the returns to inter-firm mobility for individual SEs in the UK and France and finds that average returns to prior experience now match the returns to tenure over a large portion of scientists’ and engineers’ careers in both countries. The paper discusses some possible reasons for the similarity of labour market outcomes in the two countries, which is rather surprising given the much greater mobility of SEs in the UK compared with France.

Innovation Systems and Industrial Performance Germany in International Perspective

How do national-institutional structures affect the ability of enterprises to respond to increased competitive pressures in product markets and a speeding-up of product life-cycles? The papers in this special issue explore the workings of national, regional and sectoral innovation systems of which German enterprises, universities and other organizations form part. They suggest that while some high-tech market niches are well suited to German strengths in incremental innovation, the German institutional setting tends not to favour high-risk innovation strategies in newly emerging technologies