Final year students will be busy burning the midnight oil with that much-coveted degree in sight. But what happens after that? They throw themselves onto the job market in good spirits and full of expectation. What are their career plans? And has the crisis affected their expectations?
Researchers at the Centre for Excellence in Career Management at Vlerick Leuven Ghent Management School investigated job market expectations of Generation Y for the sixth year in a row. Almost 1100 respondents participated in the survey, which included students at Flemish colleges of higher education and universities, particularly in economic sciences (43.41%), as well as the Masters in Management (15.94%), Law (9.74%), Communication (10.33%), Behavioural Science (15.06%) and Science and Technology (5.51%). The majority of the sample were people with a master’s degree, but people with a bachelor’s degree or an advanced master’s degree were also represented.
Reports of cutbacks, bankruptcies and lower recruitment rates have painted a sombre picture of the career prospects facing young adults at the start of their professional career. Yet the young people in the sample remained relatively optimistic about their first steps on the career ladder. At the same time the figures confirm the existing tendency that young people occasionally have (unrealistically) high expectations. They are “children of their time” and the latest boom period has left an impression that doesn’t really appear to want to change despite the current socio-economic context.
Published on 15/02/2010
