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A major focus of sociological research is on the role of the credential as a 'currency of opportunity', mediating the relationship between education and occupational destinations. However, the labour market has largely remained a 'black box' in sociological and education policy studies. This article draws on 'big data' from over 21,000,000 job adverts to explore how employers in the UK describe job requirements, with particular reference to the role of credentials. It challenges existing theories premised upon the notion that higher levels of formal education determine individual (dis)advantage in the competition for jobs. Although they have different views of the relationship between credentials, opportunity and efficiency, these theories assume that credentials largely determine occupational hiring. Our analysis suggests that formal academic credentials play a relatively minor differentiating role in the UK labour market, as the majority of employer's place greater emphasis on 'job readiness'. This raises a number of issues for sociological and policy analysis, including the future role of credentials in the (re)production of educational and labour market inequalities. Methodologically, the article highlights how the use of big data can contribute to the analysis of education, skills and the labour market.

A fundamental shift is taking place in the way we think about the future of work and its relationship to education, training and the labour market. Until recently, expanding higher education was widely believed to result in higher earnings, reflecting an insatiable demand for knowledge workers. In the United Kingdom, this race to higher education included a major transfer of resources from further and adult provision to higher education. This paper raises a number of issues in rethinking tertiary education in a context of digital disruption.

This paper examines the sociology of education from the perspective of its recent history and attempts to assess the current state of the field. The authors argue that cognate disciplines such as economics and social policy have taken over some of the key questions that were once the preserve of sociology of education. This raises the question of what is lost if the sociology of education is no longer making a significant contribution, in key areas, to the major educational, social and economic issues of the day. (Contains 3 notes.)

A major focus of sociological research is on the role of the credential as a 'currency of opportunity', mediating the relationship between education and occupational destinations. However, the labour market has largely remained a 'black box' in sociological and education policy studies. This article draws on 'big data' from over 21,000,000 job adverts to explore how employers in the UK describe job requirements, with particular reference to the role of credentials. It challenges existing theories premised upon the notion that higher levels of formal education determine individual (dis)advantage in the competition for jobs. Although they have different views of the relationship between credentials, opportunity and efficiency, these theories assume that credentials largely determine occupational hiring. Our analysis suggests that formal academic credentials play a relatively minor differentiating role in the UK labour market, as the majority of employer's place greater emphasis on 'job readiness'. This raises a number of issues for sociological and policy analysis, including the future role of credentials in the (re)production of educational and labour market inequalities. Methodologically, the article highlights how the use of big data can contribute to the analysis of education, skills and the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite extensive research on the role of 'personal' capital on labour market transitions, little is known about how those with elite credentials use networks and connection to improve their labour market chances. This becomes especially relevant within debates on the meritocratic nature of the post-industrial labour market. This article investigates how networks and connections aid educational elites to gain entrance into the upper echelons of the graduate labour market in two countries: France and England. Using interview data from final year students from two elite higher education institutions. Science Po and the University of Oxford, it is assessed whether their elite educational experiences are translated into networks and connections that aid their future labour market positions. The findings reveal that in both countries students have extensive opportunities to familiarise themselves with elite employers and create useful networks. In addition, students frequently arrange exclusive internships to seek future opportunities. We argue that these networks and connections are inherent to the elite educational experience and they could therefore help contribute to a credenti al i sati on of the graduate labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the transformation of the labour market worldwide. The increase in the global supply of highly-qualified skilled workers leads to the competition of prices and knowledge in the labour market. It is stated that the global working trend is towards high-end work in low-cost locations. The problems for the "business as usual" model are discussed including the death of the human capital, the stifling of the entrepreneurial spirit and disregard of education in capitalism.

This article examines the concept of employability. The recent policy emphasis on employability rests on the assumption that the economic welfare of individuals and the competitive advantage of nations have come to depend on the knowledge, skills and enterprise of the workforce. Those with degree-level qualifications are seen to play a particularly important role in managing the 'knowledge-driven' economy of the future. But the rhetoric that shrouds the idea of employability has been subjected to little conceptual examination. The purpose of this article is to show that the way employability is typically defined in official statements is seriously flawed because it ignores what will be called the 'duality of employability'. It also introduces 'positional conflict theory' as a way of conceptualising the changing relationship between education, employment and the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores the social inequalities in the competition for a livelihood and an intensification of positional conflict in education, opportunity and the global labor market. Efforts of middle-class families to win a positional advantage; Contradiction in the relationship between capitalism and democracy; Impact on the understanding of education, efficiency and social justice.

Positional competition for credentials and jobs has been a major focus of sociological inquiry. However, there has been little attempt to examine the impact of economic globalisation on competition for a livelihood. This is an important question for sociological analysis as centre-left Modernisers, including New Labour in Britain and the Democrats in the United States, assume that globalisation has transformed the nature of positional class conflict. They argue that it is now the absolute standards of educational achievement, rather than the relative standing of credential holders within local or national labour markets, which are of primary importance. Drawing on neo-Weberian theories of social closure, this article will argue that the Modernisers' description of the global labour market and its impact on positional class conflict is seriously flawed. It will also be argued that existing theories of social closure are inadequate and need to be developed in terms of what we call Positional Conflict Theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dominant forms of cultural capital associated with middle class access to `bureaucratic' careers are being devalued due to credential inflation and changing patterns of symbolic control within employing organisations. At the same time, the demand for cultural capital in the reproduction of class location has increased in a context of volatile global markets, technological innovation, corporate restructuring, the marketisation of public services, and high unemployment. It will be argued that, in the competition for a livelihood in the 1990s, increasing class conflict is leading to significant changes within the `individualist' rules of exclusion (Parkin 1979) which are heightening the inherent tension within capitalist democracies between an ideological commitment to the creation of an `open' (if not equal) society and the desire to extend social privileges to family members. Although these observations must await detailed empirical investigation, it is suggested that they are likely to have important consequences for processes of class formation and enduring patterns of social inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]