Expansion of Czech higher education and employability of graduates in the labour market : The first results of REFLEX 2013 survey
Abstract
The study uses data from the survey of project REFLEX 2013 which follows major international and national (Czech) projects that had been implemented in the research field of employability higher education in previous years (mainly projects CHEERS 1998 and REFLEX projects in 2006 and 2010). After explaining the overall context, methodology and main instrument of survey, the first part of the study while comparing surveys of higher education graduates from 2006, 2010 and 2013 deals with analysis and interpretation of development of the four core: - What do graduates do? - How does the transition from education to work looks like? - What competencies graduates possess? - How do they evaluate their higher education studies? The study especially shows how has characteristics of employment, utilization of level and field of acquired education, compensation and satisfaction with work and the retrospective evaluation of higher education studies gradually changed with the expansion of higher education in the Czech Republic and the follow-up rapid growth in the number of graduates (especially after 2007).
There are listed also expected changes in connection with additional increase in the number of graduates in the upcoming years. The next part of the study contains information about the course of the survey, its methodology and collected data sets (two data sets were collected: one of HE graduates and one of their employers).
It is followed by an analysis of the course of data collection at the participating HE institutions. Sending reminders again proved to be a very effective tool for obtaining data of good quality.
Further the response rates are calculated as well as analysis of size of the collected sample of each participating HE institution in comparison with the reference group of graduates. In the appendix, there are both questionnaires used for the survey: a questionnaire for graduates and a questionnaire for employers of graduates.