New ONS data shows a third of graduates with more education that is required for the work they were doing 2017. This shouldn’t surprise anybody. Many other studies have reached similar conclusions. What is significant is that rather than focusing on those that have left university in the last few months (many of whom will take temporary /low-paid employment immediately after finishing), the ONS cohort stretches back to 2007, showing 29% of those who graduated five years ago. as ‘overeducated’ for their current employment – compared with 22% of those who graduated in 1992.
Overall the ONS report shows about I in 6 of all 16-64s have more education that they need for the work they do, casting further doubts on arguments about skill shortages, but if only UK born workers are included the figure is 1 in 10 – reflecting the fact that migrant workers are more likely to be highly educated and dispelling other myths about immigration.
ONS compares individuals in the cohort with the average level of qualifications for the job they do. The problem with this (something acknowledged in the report), is that as the qualifications of applicants rise, so does the norm for what’s expected. In other words applicants need higher qualification because employers now expect this, not because the job itself has become technically more sophisticated.
This report will fuel arguments of those who want to reduce the number of young people going to university, those who call for better ‘vocational alternatives’ and those who claim that the large increase in the number of ‘firsts’ (and top grades for A-level) must mean standards are falling. But on the contrary, you can understand why young people might well be studying harder, even if as employment opportunities remain limited, this is through economic necessity ( having a degree still earns you more than if you don’t) rather than as a result of a ‘love of learning’ . We shouldn’t ignore the thousands of students who still say they enjoy their courses however, despite the fees. After all, being over-qualified for the labour market, doesn’t mean you have leant too much. In many respects the opposite may be true! Can you ever be overeducated?
It isn’t just that gaining qualifications is now an instrumental activity for more and more young people. During the post-war period, education was considered a ‘welfare’ or a ‘merit’ good providing significant benefits for society. The growing number of ‘middle’ occupations demanded higher levels of skills – one reason why grammar schools were replaced by comprehensives to allow for greater mobilisation of talent. Rather than too many people attending university, we should instead be concerned that large numbers are still not able to? The real problem today is that in a polarised labour market where social mobility has gone into reverse, education has now become a ‘positional’ good where one person’s gain is equivalent to another’s loss, so the net change in wealth or benefit is zero. As a result, reinforced by league tables and high stakes testing, education becomes a zero-sum good.