Accelerated School-to-Work Transition in Britain: Still True?

Alina Pelikh , University of Essex
Francisco Rowe-Gonzales, University of Liverpool

This paper investigates whether the British pattern of the transition to adulthood with an early transition from school to work still exists. We apply sequence analysis to combined life histories from the British Household Panel Survey and the Understanding Society study to gain a holistic picture of how education and employment trajectories of young adults born between 1974 and 1990 differ by birth cohort, gender, and socio-economic background and how various trajectories lead to inequalities in labour market outcomes in later life. The distinctive early transition from school to work is still prevalent, although trajectories have become more complex and precarious. The decrease in the direct school-to-work trajectories among the youngest cohort was replaced by the prolonged stay in education and increase in part-time employment. The proportion of university graduates from lower socio-economic backgrounds has increased, although, their chances of being in professional and managerial occupations remain significantly lower

See paper

 Presented in Session 67. The Short- and Long Terms Consequences of K–12 Educational Attainment