Higher Education in Professional Trajectories of Young Workers

Abstract

Elena Voznesenskaya, Ph.D. in History, senior researcher at the Education Sociology Department, Institute of Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences. Email: maslovka3@mail.ru  Address: Bld. 5, 24/35 Krzhizhanovskogo St., Moscow, 117218, Russian Federation.

Galina Cherednichenko, Ph.D. in Philosophy, leading researcher at the Education Sociology Department, Institute of Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences. Email: galcher50@mail.ru  Address: Bld. 5, 24/35 Krzhizhanovskogo St., Moscow, 117218, Russian Federation.

A sociological study has been performed to consider characteristics of professional trajectories among degreed young people employed as workers at Russian factories or of those getting on-the-job higher education. The authors analyze what motivates young workers to receive higher education, what ideas they put into it and how they use it.

As higher education is quite accessible, unlike high-paying jobs, the fact of getting higher education alone, with no other resources (cultural capital of the family, social and professional status of parents) doesn’t change the educational and professional trajectory determined by the habitus of a workers’ family. However, higher education and the relevant diploma become young workers’ personal and social resources that serve the basis for opportunities and prospects of further promotion. At the same time, many young workers distrust higher education. The authors find out why higher education may be rejected by the working force.

Educational and professional trajectories of these people are built around the labor market demands and the needs of a specific factory, which promotes enhancing cumulative cultural capital of the enterprise and creates a favorable environment for its re-equipment and modernization. There is a need to introduce new forms of educational programs that would be more adjusted to opportunities and real living and working conditions of young industrial workers.