First generation students transitioning into the labourmarket

First-generation students face barriers not only when entering higher education, but also when transitioning into the labour market. Existing research on this transition focuses mainly on university graduates and pays little attention to the perspective of the staff who support students. Yet research points to the importance of social and cultural capital as well as professional networks in this transition (e. g. through information about job vacancies or knowledge of the implicit rules in specific sectors), capital that first-generation students typically have less access to, often without being fully aware of this themselves, nor their supervisors.

This project focuses on the transition of first-generation students into the labour market, with particular attention to availability and use of a social network. The main objective is to contribute to reducing the inequality between first generation and other students in this transition through targeted interventions during their studies. The research centers on the sectors of Social Agogic Work and Business and Organisation.

Through interviews with first generation graduates and focus groups with lecturers and placement supervisors, we map the barriers students experience and the needs of those who support them. Building on these findings, we co-develop a practice-based publication, a guidance toolkit, and a networking module that helps students map their own social network.

As a result, first generation students gain more insight into their own network and the barriers they face; staff gain concrete tools for inclusive career guidance; and the DBO and Social Work programmes can structurally embed network-building with the potential, through HOGENT's service-provision activities, to also benefit other programmes within and beyond HOGENT.