‘Social-Class and the Link with Employability’

MM33920 Man be onment Research Methods Assignment 1 Select a enquiry topic of your interest and explain relevancy of the selected topic. Clearly define how it will benefit the manufacturing and/or society. Also provide literary works review. Robert Sumnall Aberystwyth University Tel +447581448829 Aber E-Mail ros27 Research Area Employability Research Topic Social-Class and the associate with Employability General Research Question Is a Graduates Socio-economic punctuate a determinant on their employability? Throughout this assignment I will be writing nearly my proposed inquiry model in triad sections. The first section will be the relevance of my selected topic of research this will be written to carry the lector a cle arr understanding of what the research will consist of, as well as the reasoning behind doing it. The second section of my assignment I will clearly define how it will benefit the industry/society, by doing so it will help explain what my research privy pl ayact to the table, in toll of coming to a resolution or developing upon already existing resolutions.The final section of my assignment will be a literature review. The ideology behind a literature review is a means of reviewing the main ideas and points already cognize closely the research relating to my area of interest, it also shows that I break a deepened understanding of the current literature and I am competent in the subject area. (Alan Bryman, 2011) 1) Explain relevance of Selected Topic So wherefore choose employability and social class? What relevance does this topic dumbfound?To start with, existence a under- grade myself who has a genuine interest in this topic merely due to growing up in what I would consider a middle class family, in that location were also those around me who had life harder financially, or could be considered a lower class family. I always remember they struggled with definite areas of schooling and my thought process has now led me to be curious about whether those backgrounds can affect employability as a ammonium alum.Before I go in to commenting on why this research will be beneficial for my chosen area, let us first dissect the topic. As stated in the prior paragraph, my topic is focusing on Employability and Social class. The topic itself has a variance of sub-topics and questions that can stem from it, as social-class stretches across a lot of issues, and employability stretching even further.Some examples of sub-topics could be employability for international grad students and their financial backgrounds, what top level CEOs socio-economic background was like, and then stretching into more in-depth thought processes much(prenominal) as do school children who had plain school meals show a correlation between employability and their peers who were without free meals, later on in their life.That last sub-topic has been considered from TeachFirsts application handbook which had statistical data to show that J ust 16% of pupils eligible for free school meals make it to university, compared to 96% from independent schools (TeachFirst, 2013). Exclusive of the relevance to me personally, the relevance also stretches to my academician subject of subject field product line & Management, the main reason being that because a keen eye for efficient Employability in a person is angiotensin converting enzyme of the most crucial skills a business manager can have sometimes (Employing the correct employees for the job). Andrews. J, Higson. H, 2008) (McQuaid, R. W. , & Lindsay, C. 2005) those two articles develop their research and text on the fundamentals of employability and its relevance to success, and what contributes to that success. Bringing that back to the relevance of my own topical research, by being relevant and effective in my course it holds a heightened level of relevance to me both personally and academically. So what relevance does the topic bring to the reader?More importantly th an just writing about the relevance of the topic generally, what relevance does this topic have on the reader? This is non to eviscerate disquieted with the benefits which will be addressed in the next paragraph. After the research has been completed, the reader will be able to take away a lots clearer understanding of the results, this can both inspire and motivate the reader to create or carry out their own research into the topic, or at very least bring them to start looking into the topic themselves.A topic like Social-Class and the implications on Employability is a relevant topic because every person comes from a authoritative financial/socio-economic backgrounds themselves, and typically everyone wants to be employed at some point. The research will open the readers look into the advantages or disadvantages of coming from certain backgrounds, and sometimes the truth can be harsh. The potentially harsh truth of the research will hold validity to the reader, and give them something to work with themselves to counteract such harsh truths from affecting their own lives.To summarise my last paragraph, the reader will hold a personal similarity with the research somewhere down the demarcation because everyone has their own background they can relate to. The research can be confusing and frustrating to the reader, but there are benefits to this topic being explored, and I will c everywhere those now. 2) What benefits will the research have on the industry/society? Before going into the benefits of the research, I feel it is appropriate to say that the research can only benefit the industry/society if it is noticed.By this I mean that all the research in the world can be done on a topic, but if nobody reads it or sees it, or inspires someone to put the research into an outcome, it will not benefit anybody. With that said let us specify to the benefits, the research is based upon employability and social-class, the topic is broad and covers a lot of grou nds. The first and foremost obvious form of benefit would be an outgrowth in fellowship on the topic for the society, with increased knowledge people are more comfortable with understanding the topic and how to get more from it.For example, should the government be communicate of the research on employability and social-class, it may spur them on to solving the problems of unemployment with creating schemes or models, as both topics are amongst the governments list of problems to resolve in the UK. Where the government could step up would be in cultivation centres like primary and secondary schools and certain colleges, ensuring those students who come from financially struggling backgrounds have an partake chance of success in their future as their peers, who are better absent.A statistic from Labour Force Survey (2011), shows that a staggering 20% of 16-24 year olds are classified as NEET (Not in education, training or Employment). (BBC, 2011) Thats approximately 1/5th of a ll teenagers and young adults essentially doing nothing with their lives in terms of employment, for one reason or an otherwise. Let us compare that figure with the statistic that nearly 50% of children who claim free school meals achieve no GCSE passes preceding(prenominal) a D-grade, (Cassen and Kingdon, 2007).This existent research has helped to create charitable (non-government funded) services such as FirstTeach to prevent these statistics increasing. By the government being notified of the research it may increase the likelihood of the government bettering the educational system to ensure that there are no students left without, simply due to their financial backgrounds. I understand that there are other variables that will affect a students chances of success, but the current statistics are appalling and the knowledge increase can bring about a resolution.Without getting too philosophical in terms of whether there are benefits of increased knowledge to mankind, let us consid er this research to be done in an altruistic sense to help those who arent going to succeed or their chance of success is hindered. Another benefit to the industry from conducting the research is to help those existing educational improvement foundations which use the statistics and research to fuel their business goals, or even use them to motivate people to join.As already mentioned, one service that set out to provide every chance of success to students whose socio-economics background is limited is TeachFirst, they employ graduate students to teach. Founded in 2002 they have strengthened their way up the ladder to being 4th in the Times graduate employers, whilst the teachers they employ have helped hundreds of thousands of students achieve success (FirstTeach, 2013). In terms of reservation an impact on employment and social-class issues, they are killing two birds with one stone.They help under-privileged younger students whilst employing graduates. Services like this will b enefit from the research with relaying back to graduates to motivate them to join, ultimately growing and helping more and more younger students. A potential outcome of this research is that it ends up in the eyes of an inspired individual who wants to give back to the community they set up their own version of TeachFirst and go about helping younger students, even though an extreme instance it would not be able to come about without the topical research.Ultimately the aim of this research is to bring to realisation the problems that lower-class/socio-economically disadvantaged students may face, and to then improve the employability and prospects of those students. 3) Literature Review The idea behind writing a literature review when writing research is to understand what is already known about the subject you are going to be researching, it helps to show where the existing knowledge is strong or weak and what other authors mistakes in the field were.On top of these it can also he lp to inspire the researcher and develop their research direction more if their precise question of research is not yet set in stone. (A. Bryman, E. Bell. 2011). Whilst reviewing the literature on graduates employability based on social-class, it became evident that a set of particular trends were continuously showing up passim the research, interestingly my melodic lineal considerations of what would be a factor affecting employability was matched slightly (employers wish to hire the best people from the best socio-economic background), but with other interesting factors.The major trends involved with the literature are broken down as follows Students from a disadvantaged socio-economic background/lower social-class lacked the same level of government agency as their advantaged peers, students from a lower social-class struggled to build there CV/employability with voluntary work experience due to funding and availability and students who arent a habit to having the middle/uppe r-class role models found it difficult to associate themselves with those higher level jobs, e. g. ad no contacts in a professional field and had no one they could relate to/look up to back home. As there are similarities throughout the literature, there are also common limitations to the research, which are relate throughout the reading also. I go into further details of this literature below. Since employability and social-class/socio-economic background take on such a wide range of factors and variables, to lighten word space this literature review is going to look mostly at graduates employability status and their socio-economic backgrounds and social class factors whilst at university.Considering the statistics that were written earlier, it is argued that there is a correlation between social class and employability, particularly from a younger age (taking into account the school meals and pass rates). Greenbank and Hepworths research that took place highlighted three key are as for a graduates employability those were financial issues, networks and values.They stated that usually financial issues that lower-class students were faced with is the availability to do un-paid voluntary work to climb their CV, however not being able to do so, due to working paid part-time jobs to have some income that just get them by. Ultimately this is not increasing their employability. However their study showed that in this floors circumstance it was not the financial issues that prevented them from working voluntarily, but more that the lower-class students did not examine that employers valued that type of experience.In terms of networks the rationale of their study was that working class students were disadvantaged in the graduate market because they lacked the presence of social capital, unlike their bourgeois peers who were more frequently around professionals and the lack of a role-model meant the students desire and optimism to reach such a level was lower. ( P. Greenbank, S. Hepworth, 2008).However, there are limitations to this research, the first major one being that the research was interpreted place at one individual university institution, to make their research more viable on a wider-spread case they would have to involve other universities, maybe other local universities to get an area specific set of data. There is already controversy on certain universities attribute higher or lower amount of distinct social-classes.A Similar result was found by Cheri, their analysis which was constructed from a survey and HESA statistics, on the factors determining graduate employability and how these effect employment prospects of students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, from ethnic minorities and mature students. Their findings establish graduates from socially-disadvantaged groups do less well in employability due to the institutions they attend, the subject choice of study, the class of the ground level they obtain and the entry qu alifications the higher education (GCSE, A-Level).The analyses also showed that regardless of those factors being controlled for, socio-economic background will have an effect upon employment. Similar to Greenbanks findings, Cheri found graduates that participated in substantial work experience whilst in higher education had employability benefits to all students, however the type of work that differed between the lower-class and socio-economically disadvantaged and he middle-class resulted in work experience being obtained but not really useful in terms of boosting employability. To conclude their findings, socio economics background, ethnic background and age all had indirect effects upon employability through the institution such as type, subject of study, entry qualifications and degree classification. Even when the above factors were controlled for, those with a disadvantaged socio-economic background were still not doing as well as their middle-class and above peers. comprehen sive is a table (table 1) which represents factors which are associated with successful employment outcomes, it clarifies that the socio-economically advantaged student has an employability advantage over their disadvantaged peers, as they are able to access the employment outcomes easier. I have also included a chart (chart 1) which represents the effects of social origin on the graduates labour market situation it highlights factors which are likely to have a direct relationship between biographical background and employability.The chart includes call forths social status and education, ethnicity and age of entry as determinants to success in the labour market. (Cheri, 2002). As with Greenbanks research, this study was taken out on a single university this time it was the Open University. Although the research is extensive, it is very singular, and the research would be made more wide-spread viable if it was conducted in various institutions, it was also taken in a questionnaire form which has potential limitations of students not telling the complete truth in their answers due to embarrassment or fear e. . not wanting(p) to admit they come from a disadvantaged background. There is further clarification of lower social classes being disadvantaged in Forsyth & Furlongs research on socio-economic disadvantage in further and higher education. Their theorem and research was that lower social class members of the UK typically lacked confidence to go after more prestigious courses of study or qualification and almost tolerated going for a less advanced course.They argued that certain lower-class students didnt pursue the longer period courses (Architecture or treat which are 5+ years in some institutes) simply because the student didnt want the extra years of debt, and the way the student finance turn out was set up Forsyth claimed the research showed the current student finance policy tends to push the most talented disadvantaged school-leavers towards course s well below their full academic otential This research backs up the already existent evidence (Cheri, Greenbank) that lower social-classes are disadvantaged for various reasons, each researcher has mentioned some slightly different reasoning. Inclusive of the research which showed that a high percentage of upper-class students were studying a degree by the time they had left school (70% studying a university degree, 15% Not studying at all and 15% studying a HND), these figures showed that the lower-class students had a lot of competition, paired with their employability disadvantages meant for a hard time post-university to get ahead in the labour market.The Bar graph was created from a study with 198 full-time students. (Forsyth, 2003) This research was more widespread unlike Greenbank and Cheris, as this was a duration of research already conducted from 1999, this brings about a limitation that the previous research could have changed from that time making it out of date, and t his research was then based off that out of date work. The research was taken out on around 400 pupils who had left secondary school in 1999, this meaning that they were basing results on what that graduate year had done with their lives after school.Limitations present here would mean that it could be coincidental that certain social-class backgrounds of that graduate year went onto university and those with lower social-class arent in education or at a degree level of education. Below are some charts and tables to further clarify what has been written in the literature review. Tables and Document relate Charts Chart 1 (Cheri, the effects of social origin on the graduates labour market situation, 2002) Table 1 (Cheri, factors which are associated with successful employment outcomes, 2002)Bar represent 1 (Forsyth, Social class and final destination. 2003) Bibliography Alan Bryman, E. B. , 2011. Business research Methods. New York Oxford. Alan Bryman, E. B. , 2011. Business researc h Methods. New York Oxford, Chapter 4, Page 103. Andrews, J. & Higson. H. (2008). Graduate Employability, Soft Skills Versus Hard Business Knowledge A European Study. Higher Education in Europe, 33(4), 411-422. Doi 10. 1080/03797720802522627 BBC, 2011. NEET youths figure at second-quarter high. Online Available at http//www. bbc. co. k/news/education-14644613 Accessed 13 treat 2013. Cassen, R. & Kingdon, G. (2007). Tackling low educational achievement. Joseph Rowntree Foundation (pp. 1-94). London. Cheri, I. (2002). Access to what analysis of factors determining graduate employability, a report to the HEFCE by the centre for Higher, (November), 1-8. Cheri, I. (2002). Access to what analysis of factors determining graduate employability a report to the HEFCE by the centre for Higher, (November), 1-8. Page 8, Table 1 Factors which are associated with successful employment outcomes Cheri, I. (2002).Access to what analysis of factors determining graduate employability, a report to the HEFCE by the centre for Higher, (November), 1-8. Page 13, Chart 1 The effects of social origin on the graduates labour market situation City And Law Leaflets, (2013), TeachFirst The take exception starts here, London. (Published 2013) Online Available at http//www. teachfirst. org. uk/TFhome Accessed 13 March 2013 Forsyth, A. , & Furlong, A. (2003). Losing out? get in further and higher education. Joseph Rowntree Foundation, The Policy Press (pp. 1-68). Bristol Forsyth, A. & Furlong, A. (2003). Losing out? Experience in further and higher education. Joseph Rowntree Foundation, The Policy Press (pp. 1-68). Bristol, Page 13, Figure 3 Social class and Final Destination. Greenbank, P. & Hepworth, S. (2008). Working class students and the biography decision-making process. (January) McQuaid, R. W. & Lindsay, C. (2005). The concept of employability. Urban studies, 42(2), 197-219. DOI 10. 1080/0042098042000316100 TeachFirst, 2013. Our history Online Available at http//www. teachfirst. o rg. uk/ourhistory/ Accessed 13 march 2013