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Bulgaria's educational and economic landscapes are marked by substantial regional disparities that are interlaced with ethnic inequalities in school-to-work transitions. Young adults from Roma and Turkish origins particularly suffer from disadvantages with respect to education and labour market participation. We ask how ethnicity affects labour market entry in Bulgaria once educational resources of different ethnic groups are accounted for, and how regional contexts impact ethnic disparities in employment insecurities. Building on comparative school-to-work transition (STWT) concepts and on the labour queueing approach, we assume that ethnic disparities in the STWTs of youths in Bulgaria depend on the degree of urbanisation and the strength and structure of the regional economy. The study draws on data from the Bulgarian School Leaver Survey 2014 of 2103 young adults who had left education in the five years preceding the survey. Descriptive analysis and multilevel logistic regression models were applied to analyse STWT patterns with a special focus on education, regional contexts, and ethnicity. The results highlight that STWT risks differ considerably across the Bulgarian regions. The strength of the local economy thereby moderates ethnic disparities. Young people from Roma and Turkish origins are much less disadvantaged to transition towards employment compared to ethnic Bulgarians the stronger the local economy gets. Our study has several policy implications. In addition to the development of public and private employment opportunities for disadvantaged young people, special attention should also be paid to the development of quality vocational education at the national and regional level.

This article argues for the need to regard social origin as a complex phenomenon in order to better understand the determinants of individuals' participation in adult learning. It: (1) discusses the conceptualisation of social origin; (2) analyses how two of its components -- parental (both father's and mother's) class and education -- are interrelated with participation in non-formal job-related adult learning; and (3) explores whether this relationship is embedded in different welfare regimes. We argue that social origin includes different interrelated but not interchangeable components that refer to both fathers and mothers. Each one of them has its own influence and that is why all of them should be considered at once in exploring adults' involvement in learning. Empirically, the analyses are based on the latest data from the ninth round of the European Social Survey, carried out in 2018, for 29 countries. The data were analysed with logistic regression modelling. The results show that parental (mother's and father's) class and education have an independent influence on individuals' participation in adult learning and that this influence is embedded in different welfare regimes creating considerable differences between welfare regimes in terms of whether father's or mother's characteristics and which ones are more important.

The article aims to show that taking into account diverse characteristics of the wider social environment is indispensable for a better understanding of participation in adult education (PAE). It explores the association of corruption as a macro factor with PAE, arguing for an integrated approach to PAE. By using two indexes for corruption at country level Corruption Perception Index and the Index of Public Integrity--and micro-data for adults aged 25-64 from 29 European countries in the Adult Education Survey, 2016, as well as by applying random-effects logit models, this study has demonstrated that a country's higher corruption level is associated with the lower probability of PAE. Our article also reveals that the relationships between individual-level variables such as gender, higher education, social background, and PAE are embedded in a wider social milieu, and corruption is an essential characteristic of that milieu which deepens some of the inequalities in PAE.

The paper discusses the main issues which emerge for the university as an institution in the European context from the development of the lifelong learning paradigm. It focuses on both the opportunity-creating and tension-provoking presence of the lifelong learning concept in the university's institutional environment. The analysis is based on a thematic review of articles published in the "International Journal of Lifelong Education (IJLE)" during the four decades of its existence. The paper argues that: (1) the implementation of lifelong learning requires a profound change in the systemic characteristics of the university institution and cannot be limited to the establishment of departments of adult and continuing education; (2) without being uncritically perceived, lifelong learning is a strategy that can help universities successfully address some of their main problems and continue to develop as a key institution of societies in the 21st century and (3) in the European context, the institutional model that can embody the paradigm for lifelong learning and at the same time contains the possibility of preserving the specificity of university as an institution, is best symbolised by a cathedral.

The article's aim is twofold: to outline the specificity of the embeddedness approach and to explore the embeddedness of graduates' education-job mismatch and the formation of lifelong learning policies. The study is based on both quantitative and qualitative data, obtained from the Bulgarian Universities Ranking System, and from interviews with experts and young adults engaged in a lifelong learning programme. The analysis uses multilevel modelling. It also relies on mapping lifelong learning policies in Bulgaria through a thematic content analysis. The article argues that the misbalances for highly educated people on the labour market mirror structural problems in the economy and the educational system. The argument is reflected in the historical and structural embeddedness of graduates' education-job mismatches and the lifelong learning policies applied to overcome this. The results show that the extent of vertical education-job mismatch depends on the different profiles of higher education institutions and professional fields; they also demonstrate different ways in which the embeddedness approach could help shed new light on, and critically assess, lifelong learning policies. The findings reveal a differentiation between national and local levels of lifelong learning policy towards graduates and that regional policies are actively embedded in local contexts.

This article aims to explore how the situation of unemployment and -- more generally -- early job insecurity affects young people's scope for exercising agency with regard to decisions about continuing and improving their education. Drawing on the theoretical underpinnings of the capability approach, the article develops the concept of patterns of agency regarding continuing education. This concept refers to the mediating processes (interactions with others) whereby young people may convert available resources into new prospects for strengthening their capability to attain education as well as broadening their real choices with regard to education. Relying on information from a wide range of life-course interviews with young people born between 1990 and 1995 from seven European countries (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Norway, Poland and the United Kingdom), the present study applies the concept of patterns of agency regarding continuing education to the case of young people who have experienced early job insecurity. The analysis reveals the existence of two broad groupings of agency: enabled agency (patterns of realised interactions with institutions and individuals) and stumbled agency (patterns of non-realised interactions with institutions and individuals). The elaborated patterns provide a basis for fruitful future comparative analyses from different perspectives.

The article aims to outline a theoretical framework for conceptualising higher education as a common good, as well as to reveal the empirical manifestations of this phenomenon. It argues that the extent to which higher education as a common good is accomplished in a given society/country reflects the accessibility, availability, and affordability of higher education, in addition to the commitment to this goal made by society and all its influential actors. Building on this conceptualisation and using data from various sources for 13 European countries, the authors develop a composite index which measures the extent to which higher education as a common good is implemented in a given country. The results indicate substantial cross-country differences, with Northern Europe scoring most highly. They also demonstrate that higher education as a common good is a complex phenomenon with differences within the country ranks, as well, depending on the varying dimensions considered. Finally, by applying cluster analysis, the article identifies four distinctive clusters of countries with regard to the accomplishment of higher education as a common good, designated as reality, feasible, ambiguous, and problematic. The index developed here can be used to assess the effectiveness of national policies in the sphere of higher education across Europe.

This article explores how the horizontal differentiation of upper secondary education affects students' transitions after graduation. It builds upon the institutional perspective on education and draws on data from a nationally representative survey. The analysis shows a considerable variation in graduates' patterns of transition according to the type of secondary education and that the type of secondary education program moderates the effect of the academic achievement and of students' socioeconomic background on students' patterns of transition.

The article uses insights from the capability approach as a theoretical framework. It investigates the potential of higher education to provide fertile advantages regarding young adults’ participation in nonformal education and whether this potential is bounded by people’s individual characteristics and the wider social context in which they live. Applying descriptive statistics and multilevel modelling, we conducted a secondary data analysis of the Adult Education Survey for 29 European countries. The findings go beyond previous research by clearly demonstrating that the fertile advantages of higher education regarding participation in adult nonformal education are not absolute and straightforward. They are bounded not only by certain important individual characteristics (such as individuals’ social background and household income) but are also context-dependent. More concretely, they differ among countries and depend on various country-level factors, such as level of innovation and economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article outlines a theoretical framework for conceptualising adult education--and more broadly, lifelong learning--as a common good. It argues that the extent to which adult education as a common good is accomplished in a given society/country reflects its accessibility, availability, affordability and the social commitment to its functioning and that it depends on a country's specific institutional arrangements. Building on this conceptualisation and using data from the Adult Education Survey (AES), the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the Continuing Vocational Training Survey (CVTS) for 24 European countries, the authors develop a composite index, based on these four dimensions, which measures the extent to which adult education as a common good is practiced in a given country. This index can be used to assess the effectiveness of national policies in the sphere of adult education across Europe. The results indicate substantial cross-country differences, with North European states and Luxembourg scoring best and Romania scoring worst. Finally, applying cluster analysis, the article identifies six distinctive clusters of countries with regard to the extent of adult education as a common good; the authors designate these cluster categories as reality, feasible, ambiguous, problematic, possible and invisible.

This article examines the importance of education in creating differences across European countries with regard to how young people experience job insecurity during their transition from school to work. On a theoretical level, two sets of educational system features which influence job insecurity are identified: institutional (stratification, vocational orientation, standardisation) and structural (expansion of education, development of lifelong learning, education spending). On an empirical basis, data from the Labour Force Survey (2009), the European Social Survey Round 5 (2010/2011), the official statistics, and previous research are analysed. The results show that higher vocational prevalence in secondary education is associated with lower levels of early job insecurity. Our findings contrast previous studies which have not yet revealed any effects of standardising input and output on experiencing qualification mismatches. We found that in countries where the standardisation of the output of educational systems is higher, individuals are less likely to be unemployed. However, the standardisation of input is associated with increased job insecurity. Our analysis also revealed that educational expansion has a negative effect on the likelihood of young people to work part-time jobs and that government expenditure on education is negatively associated with early job insecurity.