School to higher education, work transitions and exclusion: Insight and learning from 4 countries in times of social reform in Chile

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Education is considered to be one of the key drivers to addressing social (in)equality issues, especially in lower-income countries. In Chile and other Latin American countries specifically, existing educational systems need to be enhanced to provide better opportunities for the social mobility and personal development of young people. To contribute to the extant debates within policy, practice and theory, the proposed project aims at comparatively examining young people's access to educational and work opportunities in four different countries (UK, Chile, Germany and Finland), focusing hereby on their transitions firstly between school and university/higher education and secondly between university/higher education and the workplace. Findings of the planned multidisciplinary (education, sociology, psychology, management and organisation studies), cross-cultural research are expected to contribute to an enhanced understanding of the role higher education plays in the social structure in times of educational reforms in Chile, whilst also informing public policy and practice in the other three countries and further countries facing challenges relating to their educational system and equality, alongside the academic debate on life domain/stage transitions. The four specific countries have been identified as interesting cases for the research because they differ greatly on key dimensions (i.e., social equality, income, culture, educational systems) relating and/or relevant to the education, socialisation and work entry of young people. Following an initial systematic review of the extant literature, we will adopt a mixed methods design to examine young people's transitions at key points in their lives, triangulating findings from three sources of data. Specifically, we will carry out a quantitative survey, aiming to collect data from a mixed sample of 150 young people in each of the four countries. The survey will include questions focusing on individuals' experiences of transitions between secondary school and higher education, as well as between secondary school/higher education and work, in order to better understand the interplay of access to opportunities, as well as recruitment, selection and support mechanisms in universities and organisations. It will also investigate individuals' experiences of transitions in terms of psychological outcomes, such as their well-being. To deepen findings from the survey, and enhance understanding of the issues examined, we will further conduct 20 individual interviews per country with both policymakers, representatives of educational authorities and organisations, as well as individuals that have experienced already transitions between education and work or are going through such changes in their lives currently. Amongst others, we seek to explore individuals' life stories, public policy and organisational mechanisms through these interviews, aiming hereby to gain insight into the role played by inclusion/exclusion mechanisms and how individuals, governments and local agencies may grant or block equal access to opportunities. Secondary data, such as existing survey and statistical data, will be gathered from governments, think tank and other relevant bodies to supplement the primary data collected quantitatively and qualitatively. Aside from seeking to contribute to the improvement of individuals' access to higher education and job markets by providing a more evidence-based understanding of how educational organisations relate to social structures and opportunities to policy-makers and representatives of educational authorities, findings of the proposed project are further expected to contribute to existing academic debates: Not only will our study be the first to compare transitions between school, university and work across four very different countries, we will also examine specific transitional aspects that have been somewhat neglected by the research community.