1. Kate Purcell and Peter Elias
Warwick Institute for Employment Research/Institute for Advanced Studies Seminar
9th November 2016, University of Warwick
WHAT IS A GRADUATE JOB?
Kate Purcell and Peter Elias

2. People Management, November 2016, p.6.

3. SOC(HE)_EP – how and why we developed it.
Graduate labour markets, graduate jobs, ‘the Knowledge Economy’ - how far do these concepts make sense?
Why we need an occupational classification that facilitates exploration of the changing relationship between higher education and employment:
to monitor the impact of higher education expansion and labour market change on the profile of the workforce;
to evaluate the returns to investment in HE to individuals, governments and society, including but not confined to financial returns;
to assess where there is growth or decline in demand for different types of knowledge and skills.
SOC(HE)_EP – how and why we developed it.
Its strengths, limitations and potential as an analytic tool – and how I differs from SOC(HE)_GH.

4. The evolution of SOC(HE)_EP
Background – SOC(HE) 2004: strengths and deficiencies.
The Classes of ‘95 and ’99 mixed-methods research and ‘Knowledge Society’ debates.
Analyses of graduate interview data.
Analyses and re-coding of the LFS occupational data into the SOC(HE) categories via detailed consideration of the unit groups of SOC2010.

5. Defining graduate occupations - sources of information
Detailed interviews with graduates about their jobs: what they did, their roles and responsibilities.
Knowledge acquired from development work underlying national occupational classifications (SOC90, SOC2000 and SOC2010), including LFS text descriptions of qualification requirements for jobs.
(Having designed the classification…)Validation by analysis on a range of datasets: the Futuretrack longitudinal survey, the UK Labour Force Survey, the Workplace Employment Relations Survey.

6. Result - SOC(HE)_2010 – now SOC(HE)_EP: a new way of classifying graduate occupations that considers types of knowledge and skills required and used
Experts: knowledge-intensive occupations that require them to draw on and use their specialist HE knowledge and skills in the course of their daily work, appointed to their jobs because of these. Examples include: Chemical Scientists, Civil Engineers, Pharmacists, Solicitors, Physiotherapists, Chartered Surveyors.
Orchestrators are in jobs that require them to draw on and orchestrate their knowledge and/or high level skills to evaluate information, assess options, plan, make decisions and co-ordinate the contributions of others to achieve objectives. Examples: managers and directors, senior planners and strategists in the armed services, police force and other public sector areas.
Communicators require interactive skills that may be based on interpersonal skills, creative skills or high-level technological knowledge, capacity to access and manipulate information and/or an understanding of how to communicate information effectively to achieve objectives. Examples include: Journalists, Actors, Conference and Exhibition Organisers, Web-design and Development Professionals and Marketing Associate Professionals.

7. NB: our research interest since the outset, in 2004, was in the relationship between HE and occupational outcomes: in identifying whether new graduates were entering occupations that required undergraduate study leading to award of a degree. We had also been concerned to explore how far they were using the knowledge and skills they had gained in HE.
The most significant advance of SOC(HE)_EP over the original SOC(HE) was in developing a classification that also facilitated monitoring of demand for and reward of different clusters of knowledge and skills – and the emphasis on knowledge is at the core of the definition.

9. Source: Futuretrack Wave 4 (UK-domiciled graduates in employment)

10. Employment profile of all graduates, by SOC(HE)
Futuretrack graduates - routes into employment
Employment profile of all graduates, by SOC(HE)
Source: Fig. 3.3 Futuretrack Stage 4 Report (Purcell et al. 2013)

11. What are the desirable properties of a classification?
It should have a theoretical foundation relevant to the uses to which it will be put.
The theoretical foundation should be capable of being translated into operational categories of the classification.
The categories of the classification should be distinct, exhaustive and parsimonious.
Each category should have face validity.
The classification should be easy to construct, maintain and operationalise.
In use, the classification should demonstrate variance across its categories in accordance with its face validity.
It should help in extracting useful information from data

12. Comparing the properties of SOC(HE)2010_GH and SOC(HE)2010_EP
Desired property
SOC(HE)2010_GH
SOC(HE)2010_EP
Relevant theoretical foundation?
Yes
Theory translates into operational categories?
Categories are distinctive, exhaustive and parsimonious?
Each category has face validity?
Easy to construct, maintain and operationalise? No
In applications, demonstrates variance across categories ?
Helpful in extracting useful information from data ?

13. Dichotomous classification: ‘graduate and ‘non-graduate’ job
Face validity
SOC(HE)2010_GH
Dichotomous classification: ‘graduate and ‘non-graduate’ job
Difference between ‘a job performed by a graduate’ and ‘a job that requires the skill , knowledge and expertise of a graduate’ is not clear from this nomenclature
SOC(HE)2010_EP
Dichotomous classification with three nested categories within ‘graduate job’ category:
Expert
Orchestrator
Communicator
Difference between ‘a job performed by a graduate’ and ‘a job that requires the skill , knowledge and expertise of a graduate’ is not clear from this nomenclature

14. Theoretical foundations
SOC(HE)2010_GH
The theoretical foundation of the classification is the socially constructed notion of a ‘job’ – a bundle of tasks designed as the work activities of one person. Jobs are usually constructed by employers, who have to balance what they regard as the skills and knowledge required for competent performance of these tasks with the available supply of skills and knowledge
SOC(HE)2010_EP
The theoretical foundation of the classification is the socially constructed notion of a ‘job’ – a bundle of tasks designed as the work activities of one person. Jobs are usually constructed by employers, who have to balance what they regard as the skills and knowledge required for competent performance of these tasks with the available supply of skills and knowledge

15. Ease of construction, operationalisation and maintenance
SOC(HE)2010_GH
This classification uses information on the skill content of jobs from jobholders, not employers.
In many occupational areas such information is not available in sufficient numbers from each skills survey for analysis of skill content at the 4-digit level of detail, so surveys have to be pooled (averaged over a time period), used only at the three digit level and, in some instances, inferred from even higher levels of aggregation.
SOC(HE)2010_EP
This classification uses information on the perceived high-level skills and knowledge of jobs, not jobholders. With knowledge of the most commonly occurring jobs within 4-digit unit groups of the classification, an assessment is made of the extent to which these jobs require high-level expertise, management and communication skills.
This technique has been applied to the constituent unit groups of SOC90, SOC2000 and SOC2010

16. Summary of differences
SOC(HE)2010_GH
Managers and directors in transport and logistics – non-graduate
Managers and directors in retail and wholesale – non-graduate
Other areas where differences lie are:
Health Associate Professionals
Information Technology Technicians
SOC(HE)2010_EP
Managers and directors in transport and logistics – graduate
Managers and directors in retail and wholesale – graduate
The following 3-digit categories have a mix of graduate and non-graduate jobs at the 4-digit level:
Health Associate Professionals
Information Technology Technicians
In summary, the differences are small and are in areas where both classifications show the allocation to one category or another is marginal

17. Reveals insight via use of the classification?
SOC(HE)2010_GH
‘While there was slightly greater growth in the supply of graduates, from 30 to 42 % of the employed labour force, the overall prevalence of overeducated graduates was stable at around 30 %. In particular, the massive influx of graduates into the labour force in the age bracket 25– 39 years was absorbed with no increase in overeducation.’
‘The growth of graduate jobs kept up with the growth of graduates,…
Green and Henseke (2016) pages 20, 21
SOC(HE)2010_EP

18. All in employees by SOC(HE)EP, UK 1992 - 2015
Source: UK Labour Force Surveys, March – May each year

19. All employed graduates by SOC(HE)EP, UK 1992 - 2015
Source: UK Labour Force Surveys, March – May each year