Monday, November 12, 2018

How Do Workers Think about the Relationship between Their Job and Their Degree? - Daniel Kuehn Ian Hecker, Urban Institute

College graduates do not always use what they learn during school in their day-to-day work. In many cases, this disconnect between school and work is natural. Most jobs, even jobs closely related to a worker’s field of study, include administrative and employer-specific tasks that are not taught in school. But sometimes workers do not use what they learn in school because they are employed far outside their field of study. Concerns about low levels of job relatedness have been particularly acute for science and engineering graduates. Research on job relatedness drives public debates about science and engineering worker shortages and occupational pathways. If science and engineering graduates are not using their education on the job, it could indicate a serious waste of human capital. https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/99261/how_do_workers_think_about_the_relationship_between_their_job_0.pdf