What are the challenges for the current generation of graduate millennials? The role of universities and the changing nature of the graduate labour market are constantly in the news, but less is known about the experiences of those going through it. This new book traces the transition to the graduate labour market of a cohort of middle-class and working-class young people who were tracked through seven years of their undergraduate and post-graduation lives. Using personal stories and voices, the book provides fascinating insights into the group's experience of graduate employment and how their life-course transitions are shaped by their social backgrounds and education. Critically evaluating current government and university policies, it shows the attitudes and values of this generation towards their hopes and aspirations on employment, political attitudes and cultural practices.

Selling Our Youth explores how the class origins of recent graduates continue to shape their labour market careers and thus reproduce class privilege and class disadvantage. It shows how class and gender combine to influence these young adults' opportunities and choices, in an era when this generation has been characterized as the first likely to end up worse off economically than their parents. The authors draw upon the landmark Paired Peers research project - an empirical longitudinal study of recent graduates in England - to explore their experiences of the contemporary globalized labour market. It demonstrates how many of these young, well qualified adults struggle to achieve stable and rewarding employment in the context of the overstocked graduate supply, precarious work and exploitative working conditions. Government policies of austerity, which were in place when these young people graduated in 2013, meant this generation faced the challenges of a lower wage economy and a housing crisis. The subsequent arrival of Covid-19 and its disastrous impacts on the local and global economy are making these challenges even tougher. The authors further explore the way differences of class and gender impact upon graduate trajectories.

This book explores higher education, social class and social mobility from the point of view of those most intimately involved: the undergraduate students. It is based on a project which followed a cohort of young undergraduate students at Bristol's two universities in the UK through from their first year of study for the following three years, when most of them were about to enter the labour market or further study. The students were paired by university, by subject of study and by class background, so that the fortunes of middle-class and working-class students could be compared. Narrative data gathered over three years are located in the context of a hierarchical and stratified higher education system, in order to consider the potential of higher education as a vehicle of social mobility.

This text explores the social space occupied by both gender and ethnicity. as recognition of the sociological importance of gender and ethnicity has grown, so has the opportunity for exploring the intersections between them. The volume brings together both theoretical reflections and research in this area. For sociologists this presents a conceptual challenge, while for the individual it may present a series of dilemmas. These are traced out in studies which range from Punjabi families in the UK, to Surinamese migrants in Amsterdam, to Hindu and Muslim women and Black nurses in Britain, the African and Asian diasporas, and gender identity in post-Soviet Latvia.

This book explores higher education, social class and social mobility from the point of view of those most intimately involved: the undergraduate students. It is based on a project which followed a cohort of young undergraduate students at Bristol's two universities in the UK through from their first year of study for the following three years, when most of them were about to enter the labour market or further study. The students were paired by university, by subject of study and by class background, so that the fortunes of middle-class and working-class students could be compared. Narrative data gathered over three years are located in the context of a hierarchical and stratified higher education system, in order to consider the potential of higher education as a vehicle of social mobility.

In a period of rapid social and economic change, labour markets are undergoing major transformations. This book explores the changing fortunes of young people in Europe's flexible and precarious labour markets and the range of policies that are being developed to help them deal with the problems they face. number of key dilemmas for youth policy: what help is needed for young people and their parents in coping with lengthened transitions from school to work? What types of training and education are most effective? Is a switch from general to vocational education needed? Is workfare the right solution? The contributors, who are all leading authorities in the field, challenge the conventional wisdom in many of these areas. people across Europe; coverage of countries in North, South and Eastern Europe, allowing the comparison of different welfare regimes; exploration of the impact of globalisation in terms of polarisation between young people and of complexity and difference; an up-to-date survey of youth welfare provision across Europe. and youth policy, and to policy-makers and practitioners in these fields.