This chapter considers the working of gender in male-dominated fields and the ways in which this plays out for men and women on the graduate labour market, focusing on the field of engineering. The chapter draws on Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic violence to expose embodied gendered experiences of the workplace that delegitimize women’s position and value. Contrasting narratives of two successful graduates from the University of Bristol, one male and one female, are used to show how stocks of relevant and valued capitals are not sufficient to make a career in engineering, where the working of gender means that men are able to readily fit in and progress, while women are out-of-place invaders in a male-dominated space. The chapter shows the ways in which forms of (white, middle-class, masculine) embodied cultural capital can be more readily converted in a field that has been constructed to recognize its value.

This chapter uses the lens of ‘luck’ to consider how young adults in our study understand their opportunities, obstacles, successes and failures. We analyse perceptions of luck and bad luck as explanations for apparent non-decision making or lack of strategic planning. Each of the graduates discussed in this chapter left university without a plan for what they wanted to do in terms of a career. The chapter traces the ways in which their lives subsequently unfold and uses the notion of social magic to show how the embodied advantages of the privileged are misrecognized as competence and ‘fit’, and facilitate smoother employment transitions, even without a strategic plan.

This chapter considers the intersection of class and gender in the making of ‘top boys’, focusing on the finance sector. The chapter highlights key class-based differences in the way in which aspirations for success play out, based on the narratives of three young men from different social class locations. Comparing these narratives highlights the making of contemporary masculinities through a ‘top boys’ discourse that promotes competition, risk taking and the valorization of financial reward. The chapter highlights the ways in which forms of masculinity are promoted within the industry, as well as how the cultures and practices of a particular sector work to facilitate middle-class privilege. We make the case for ‘top boys’ as a new 21st-century form of hegemonic masculinity, where the discourse directs young men towards engaging in a symbolic struggle for masculine domination through aspiration to excel across multiple levels of success and to compete with the ‘top girls’ who have been gaining a foothold on the labour market through similar but feminized processes of ‘having it all’.

Concerns about racism and race equality have been widely reported in the first decades of the 21st century, following the Black Lives Matter protests and campaigns such as ‘Rhodes Must Fall’. Yet ‘race’ remains largely absent from policy debate and research concerning further education colleges in the four countries of the UK, particularly in relationship to leadership and governance. The focus of this paper is on who governs and why it matters. Governors and trustees play an increasingly visible and significant role in public, private and charity sector organisations, but diversity on governing bodies of further education across the UK remains patchy and is seen as a major challenge. The paper reports on what is known about the composition of governing bodies and what this tells us about the involvement of governors from black and minority ethnic backgrounds at the present time, drawing on a three-year project which examined the processes and practices of governing in the four countries of the UK. The findings highlight the continuing absence of governors from black and minority ethnic backgrounds on college governing boards and suggest that normative, invisible assumptions of how governing gets done persist, with black and minority ethnic governors often little more than a token gesture of adding diversity to the faces on the board.

This book traces the transition to the graduate labour market of a cohort of middle-class and working-class young people. Using personal stories and voices, it provides fascinating insights into their experience of graduate employment and how their life-course transitions are shaped by their social backgrounds and education.

This book explores the changing landscape of vocational and technical education routes for young people in England, focusing in particular on reforms and change in the context of English further education. The authors explain that ‘the fundamental question addressed in this book is how far emerging policies offer improvements to the experi-ences and outcomes of students on technical or vocational tracks, or whether their new guise facilitates a deepening of inequalities’ (p.2). A key intention of the book, as indicated in its title, is to consider the evolving world of education and skills in relation to social justice. While the book is an analysis of these concerns in the English context, chapter 1 emphasises that the account has resonance beyond the UK, and the conclu-sion suggests that other European as well as Anglophone countries show signs of moving in a similar direction of travel to that occurring in England in the first decades of the 21 st century.

This chapter takes as its focus London and its role in the reproduction of inequality through the perpetuation of discourses that problematically conflate social and geographical mobility. While London is widely recognized as a hub for elite graduate recruiters, particularly in respect to jobs in finance, law and information technology, and a place that has seen a disproportionate growth in professional and managerial positions in comparison to the rest of Great Britain, it requires the mobilization of elite forms of social, cultural and economic capital. Moreover, moving to, or living in, London is seen as an obvious next step for graduates with high aspirations, without any recognition of the privilege required to facilitate such aspirations and opportunities for mobility. This chapter explores these issues by considering how proximity and access to London itself operates as a form of capital but that this is not enough to ensure success. We highlight the importance of embodied forms of cultural capital that are recognized as cosmopolitanism and argue that through processes of social magic these bodily displays read as competence in what Cunningham and Savage have termed the ‘elite metropolitan vortex’.

This chapter provides an introduction to the book. It considers dominant framings of graduate ‘success’, how this is viewed and measured by multiple higher education actors, and what is missing from broader conceptualizations and measurements of graduate progression. We lay out the context within which young people progressed from university to graduate lives in the 2010s through a broad overview of graduate outcomes within the context of the higher education policy landscape in the UK. We unpack ideas around social mobility and the role of higher education in supporting government mobility goals, drawing links to graduates’ own dreams and aspirations, as well as the reality of the labour market. The chapter then gives an overview of the theoretical approach to the analysis in this book, outlining the Bourdieusian concept of social magic, Berlant’s concept of ‘cruel optimism’ and Tholen’s concept of symbolic closure, all of which are utilized and developed in the chapters that follow. The chapter ends with a summary of the chapters in the book.

This chapter focuses on ‘following dreams’ and considers success in the graduate labour market from graduates’ perspectives of meaningful work. It does this through the lens of aspirations for jobs that are deemed to have a social worth and traces the classed and gendered experiences of two graduates. The chapter engages with Berlant’s notion of ‘cruel optimism’ to explore the structural conditions of possibility that shape experiences of success. It offers two narratives as examples of contrasting classed processes of struggle and ease in labour market transitions, and as a means of demonstrating the important role of capital conversion in securing a graduate life. In doing so, we show how aspiration and capital accumulation are not enough to ensure successful labour market transitions. We argue that symbolic closure can be generated through ‘cruel optimism’ when aspirations are delegitimated by ideas of valued graduate activity.

This chapter provides an overview of the project design and an explanation of the methods that were employed. It provides demographic details about the participants, including social class, university attended and gender. The chapter discusses measures of social class, the limitations of definitions of gender and the operationalization of the concepts of ‘race’ and ethnicity. This includes a discussion of whiteness and an acknowledgement of the racially skewed nature of the sample. The chapter ends with an outline of the methodological approach.

This chapter explores the significance of ‘home’ for graduate mobility. It considers the ways in which home contributes to capacities to navigate graduate futures and explores the legitimation of certain forms of geographical navigation over others. For young people who participate in higher education in England, the dominant narrative is one of leaving behind the family home and becoming geographically mobile in terms of both the ‘student experience’ and graduate life. The chapter problematizes the way in which geographical mobility – leaving the home place – is recognized as success by exploring both the cost of mobility and the value of choosing to stay, with a focus on working-class and middle-class capitals and orientations to home. The chapter questions the legitimization of ‘being geographically mobile’ as a valued form of capital and, in doing so, shows the significance of home and locality as a potential form of valuable but misrecognized social and cultural capital for working-class graduates.

The final chapter of the book draws together the overall contribution of the research in a discussion focused on rethinking constructions of graduate success. In particular, the chapter draws out the significance of the material and the symbolic in graduate employment, and highlights the importance to graduates in our study of not only making a living, but also making a life. The chapter brings together the theoretical tools we have used to open up a conversation about re-imagining constructions of graduate success. We end with a reflection on doing longitudinal qualitative inquiry.

The appointment of student governors to the governing board is mandatory in further education (FE) colleges across the UK. There is, however, confusion and lack of clarity over the role of the student governor, and little empirical research, especially involving direct observation, has been undertaken which sheds light on this. This paper examines how the role of the student governor is understood by governing boards and how it is enacted in practice. Over one calendar year, we observed and video/audio-recorded governing board meetings in eight FE colleges across the UK, two in each UK country (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales). In addition, we interviewed key actors and spoke to student governors. Our findings reveal a lack of understanding about the role of the student governor which creates a tension between student governors acting in an advisory capacity as part of the governing body, and student governors representing learner voice. We conclude with recommendations for boards aimed at facilitating meaningful engagement of the student governor in governing processes.

Higher vocational education (HVE) has a long history in England, with Higher National Diplomas (HNDs) and Higher National Certificates (HNCs) introduced nearly 100 years ago. Since then, HVE qualifications and further education (FE) colleges that are key providers of HVE have moved in and out of the gaze of policymakers. While universities are also providers of vocationally oriented higher education, particularly at bachelor level, over the past three decades higher education (HE) offered in FE colleges has comprised around 10 per cent of all HE provision. This is despite many changes in government and policy that have significantly affected what HVE involves. In this chapter we consider HVE in England during the 2010s, focusing on provision in FE colleges, especially sub-bachelor level qualifications. We provide a picture of HVE’s functions and the distinctive form that HVE has taken in England, based on available statistical data. We examine the different purposes ascribed to HVE by policymakers, the colleges that provide HVE, as well as students taking HVE courses, and we explore how and whether HVE may contribute to opening up access to higher level education. We argue that during the last decade, an ideology of market competition has been more important in determining HVE’s form and function than other drivers, including meeting the apparent needs of employers for skilled workers. Despite the stated intentions of government policy to diversify HE, and considerable work on the development of new higher level technical routes, the functioning of the market promoted during this period has tended to marginalize anything but bachelor-level HE offered in HE institutions. In this context, we discuss the positioning of HVE in relation to the fields of ‘higher’ and ‘further’ education in England and ask what the implications are of positioning HVE as a form of higher vocational education, located within the FE and skills field, compared with viewing HVE as vocational higher education, which is associated with the HE field. Finally, we question whether and how under current conditions HVE can be a resource to enhance social justice in and through education.

The English further education (FE) sector caters for young learners who are regularly defined as at risk due to a range of economic and social challenges, as transitions from youth to adulthood become more protracted, and inequalities amongst young people and between generations persist and deepen. At a time when policy places increasing responsibilities on governors and leaders to balance college performance and cost-effectiveness against FE's long-standing social justice mission, this article analyses how this tension plays out through the discursive construction of young learners by two English college governing boards. We use a critical discourse analysis approach to connect how young learners are 'talked into being' through the micro-level processes of governing within the wider context in which college governing operates. We argue that, despite a wider drive for governors to interact with learners, their understanding of learners is dominated by data, through which young learners in particular are constituted as a risk rather than at risk. We explore the discursive constructions of young learners that ensue in this data-dominated context, and the social practices governing boards use to manage the risks posed by young learners. We highlight the different positionings of governors and college senior managers within these constitutive practices, arguing that the ways young learners are discursively constructed is revealing of a central tension in college governing practices-that between the high-performing and the socially just college.

In high participation systems of higher education, the link between undergraduate study and progression to graduate employment is increasingly tenuous. One response is a growing emphasis on the development of employability skills and preparing students to take advantage of future opportunities as part of university study. This paper uses a Bourdieusian-based conceptualisation of graduate capitals, combined with a concern for the psycho-social dimensions of classed experience, to consider transitions through university and into employment for students from working-class backgrounds in England, drawing on data from a study of students who attended the two universities in Bristol UK. It is argued that the assemblage of capitals that make up graduate capital could be seen as constituting a form of symbolic capital with magical powers, that hides the power relations involved in successful progression to graduate futures. While the move from university into work is more prolonged and precarious for students from all backgrounds, access to the resources that enable the development and mobilisation of graduate capitals, along with psycho-social dimensions of class, create additional challenges for the development of viable graduate career identities for working-class students such as those discussed in this paper. The paper concludes by noting implications for policy and practice.

This paper explores ways in which university students articulate understandings of their class positions and perceptions of opportunities for social mobility. The promise that participation in higher education (HE) would lead to social mobility for all has been central to the project of widening participation. However, in the twenty-first century, graduate employment opportunities have not kept up with high rates of HE participation, and class divisions have become more visible rather than being reduced. Based on a longitudinal study of undergraduates attending two universities in the city of Bristol, UK at the beginning of the 2010s, this paper uses Anthias' notion of narratives of location to focus on students' awareness of social class and their experience of the dynamics of social difference in HE. The narratives demonstrate ways in which taken-for-granted privileged middle-class entitlement is performed and seen to dominate the social space of the university, from which working-class and other fractions of the middle-classes distance themselves. [Anthias, F. (2004) Social stratification and social inequality: Models of intersectionality and identity. In F. Devine, M. Savage, J. Scott, & R. Crompton (Eds.), Rethinking class. Culture, identities and lifestyles (pp. 24-45). London: Palgrave Macmillan].

.The issues addressed in the articles in this special issue indicate the many ways in which vocational forms of higher education (HiVE) are understood and interpreted. While most articles focus on Australia, the students and institutional providers differ considerably. What unifies the forms of provision considered here are claims that they provide alternative insights into opportunities and inequalities within higher education (HE) and society. They suggest that HiVE is distinctive from dominant forms of HE in universities, and may therefore contribute to addressing inequity. As this suggests, while HiVE is often positioned in relation to what it is not, a more positive reading highlights HiVE's capacity to address social and economic inequalities, particularly through providing access to skilled work. Claims to distinctiveness, however, which focus primarily on access to skilled work may lead to a reductive understanding both of HiVE and the aspirations of those who choose HiVE courses.

University Technical Colleges (UTCs), introduced in 2010, represent a new form of vocational education for young people in England. They contribute to an increasingly complex landscape of education and training, promoted as a creative means of meeting the diverse educational needs of young people (Fuller and Unwin, Lond Rev Educ 9(2):191–204, 2011). UTCs respond in particular to national and international policy agendas that seek to promote participation in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and maths). They have been championed by the UK’s Edge Foundation as providing a “highly regarded” course of study “with clear progression routes into higher education or further learning in work,” especially careers in technician and degree level engineering. However, there is very limited research evidence to show whether young people and their parents understand the different options available, how decisions to attend a UTC are made, nor whether the education offered in these new institutions enhances or conversely limits the opportunities of students who attend them. This chapter draws on data from a project that carried out detailed case studies in two UTCs in England during 2014. The project addressed the following core question: What impact does vocational diversification in the form of UTCs have on the decision-making and experience of boys and girls from different class backgrounds? The research used a holistic approach focusing on the whole institution in relation to the introduction and development of new educational policies. This encompassed analysis of “the situated, material, professional and external dimensions” (Braun et al., Discourse 32(4):585–596, 2011, p. 585) of the schools, recognizing the schools’ origins (and that of their communities), their ethos and culture, their physical environment and resources, and their staff, students, and families as well as external influences. The chapter offers an analysis of policy enactments (Ball et al., How schools do policy: policy enactments in secondary schools. Routledge, 2012) in the two case study institutions and considers how these enactments may reinforce or challenge historical patterns of gender and class divisions in vocational education in England.