New Characteristics of Educational and Professional Trajectories of Youth

Abstract

Recent significant changes in the social behavior of young people in the education and in the labor market are analysed in the paper on the state statistics data and the results of our own sociological research. The paper is a continuation of publications on a project aimed at exploring the new characteristics of the educational and professional trajectories of young people. Expanded analyses of the dynamics confirmed previously obtained results and broaden the framework of interpretation of the ongoing changes. The analysis of the choice of vocational or higher education is continued. Extension of the time range of the analysis made it possible to establish the periodization of the involvement of young people in higher and vocational education and to identify the boundaries of the twenty-year period (1995–2015) when higher education prevailed. An increase in the training of middle-level specialists (ISCED 5) in vocational education was demonstrated, with an almost mirror-like drop in the involvement in training programs for skilled workers (ISCED 4). It is shown that the choice between vocational and higher education is connected—through the choice of the future profession and, accordingly, the fi eld of training — with the possibilities and limitations of the available set of options for the future professional trajectory. Analysis of students’ tracks revealed that there are traditional trajectories as well as complex trajectories that include different levels of education and working experience on the labor market as an important stage in an individual’s biography. The new characteristics of educational and professional trajectories provide young people with more opportunities in a changing socio-economic environment. At the same time the choice of vocational education is often compelled. Graduates of universities and vocational education are in a different position in the labor market. An analysis of statistical data in the dynamics has shown both common with global trends and specific characteristics of the social behavior of Russian youth. The given data in dynamics allow us to identify the origins of what is currently observed and make attempts to predict new features of the process of reproduction and accumulation of human capital.