Alternative pathways into the labour market

With nearly three-in-five graduates in the UK working in non-graduate jobs, the UK has one of the highest levels of self-reported over-qualification amongst its graduates in Europe. So what skills ‘premium’, if any, do individuals gain from going to university? And with the UK not producing enough of the highly skilled jobs for our graduates – and government figures suggesting 45% of student loans won’t be paid back – is the UK economy actually making a loss by having so many graduates in the labour market?

The CIPD commissioned research to explore various pathways into employment. The report looks at the extent of filtering down for a wide array of occupations and explores the debate surrounding five particular occupations – nurses, accountants, police officers, nursery nurses and teaching assistants. It documents the entry routes into these occupations that university education has replaced and show that entry routes in other European countries are sometimes very different; showing that alternative routes are possible.

Read the original report: Over-qualification and skills mismatch in the graduate labour market

Download the report below:

Alternative pathways into the labour market - policy report

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