Occupational trajectories of higher education graduates
Higher Education. Horizontal Stratification. Occupational Trajectories.
The aim of this dissertation is to evaluate how the occupational trajectories of higher education graduates are affected by their personal traits, social origin, and factors related to the characteristics of the undergraduate course and related to the characteristics of the higher education institution (HEI). Therefore, the hypothesis evaluated is that the effect of the conclusion of higher education is not the same for everyone, since the possibilities of occupational trajectory and the returns earned in the labor market are affected by characteristics not chosen by the alumni (gender, color or race, social origin) and by differences in the undergraduate course and the HEI attended. In methodological terms, the approach employed is quantitative: using the databases of the National Student Performance Exam (Enade), the Higher Education Census (Censup) and the Annual Social Information Report (Rais), we estimate the effect that personal traits, social origin and institutional characteristics of the HEIs and courses have on the occupational trajectories of graduates in Brazil. We assessed the occupational trajectories of graduates during the first five years after completing higher education. Throughout this period, we observe that higher education graduates follow distinct occupational paths. Often they are paths not associated with their area of training or are trajectories in occupations that do not require higher education and also obtain different monetary returns. Therefore, the dissertation shows that personal traits, social origin, and characteristics of the undergraduate course and HEI are associated with the structuring of unequal results obtained in the labor market, with regard to occupational trajectories and income earned by HE graduates.