Working-Class Adult Students: Negotiating Inequalities in the Graduate Labour Market

Abstract

AbstractIncreasing attention has been paid to the ways in which higher education is attuned to the labour market. Graduates have typically, in terms of their role and input, been positioned as key players on the economic stage. The discussion over ‘work-readiness’ and the economic contribution they can make has spawned a narrative and language in HE around the question of ‘employability’ which is dominated by a human capital approach. As Tomlinson asserts: ‘It now appears no longer enough just to be a graduate, but instead an employable graduate’ (Graduate employability: A review of conceptual and theoretical themes. Higher Education Policy, 25, 412–431, 2012, p. 25).Taking a critical stance, our focus will be on working-class adult students studying at an elite UK university and their perceptions of how they are positioned in the graduate labour market. Using biographical methods and the voices of adult students, we will look at how they experience inequalities (class, gender, and age) when accessing the labour market. The voices of adult students reveal a different language to those of employers and university staff. The emphasis on employability in HE has resulted in increasing inequalities between traditional and non-traditional students. We will explore these challenges for adult students to explore how it has impacted on them and their attempts to enter into the labour market by drawing upon the work of Bourdieu and, in particular, his concepts of capitals, habitus and field.