Study title

Finnish University Graduates of Year 2002: Career and Employment Survey 2007

Dataset ID Number

FSD2353

Persistent identifier

urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD2353

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Aarresaari network of the Academic Career Services in Finland

Other Identification/Acknowledgements

• Ollikainen, Jyrki (University of Tampere. Department of Mathematics and Statistics)

Abstract

The survey charted the career and employment situation of Bachelors and Masters who graduated from Finnish universities in 2002. The survey was conducted five years after the respondents' graduation, and it charted the stability of the first years of their careers, and whether their job was commensurate with their qualifications.

The respondents' work history was charted by asking them whether they had earned other degrees or participated in labour force training or pursued post-graduate studies after the degree earned in 2002. The time spent in paid employment after graduation was queried, including both work in general and work commensurate with their qualifications. The number of employers and separate employments and offices was charted, as well as whether the respondents had been entrepreneurs, self-employed or freelancers and how long, and whether they had been outside the labour market because of family leave. Possible periods of unemployment were also canvassed. The respondents were presented with potential obstacles to getting a job (e.g. lack of experience, weak labour market situation in the field, gender) and asked to assess how much each of them had hindered their employment. Their employment situation at the time of graduation was also charted, and those who had not been employed at that time were asked how long it had taken for them to receive their first job. In relation to the respondents' first place of work after graduation, they were also asked to indicate the nature of contract, type of employer, and type of work. They were also asked whether a higher academic degree had been a prerequisite for the first job, and how much they could utilise the knowledge gained at the university.

The respondents' current employment situation, type of main employer, and type of work were charted. They were also asked where they had received information about their current job. The respondents' monthly gross income in September 2007 was queried (including bonuses, taxable values of fringe benefits, and overtime compensations). They were also presented with a set of attitudinal statements on whether they liked their job. The respondents who were in temporary employment were asked to tell the most important reason for the temporary nature of the contract, the duration of the contract, and whether the contract was preceded by another temporary contract with the same employer. Correspondence between work and education was studied by asking the respondents whether a higher academic degree had been a prerequisite for their current job, whether their current job responsibilities corresponded with their academic education and field of study, and whether they could utilise the knowledge gained at the university in their current job. If they did not fully correspond, the respondents were asked to name the most important reason for accepting the job. The importance of university education was probed by charting the respondents' satisfaction with their academic degree from the point of view of career. Finally, the importance of various skills (e.g. information retrieval skills, managing skills, Finnish communication skills) in the respondents' current job was surveyed, as well as how well their university studies had developed these skills.

Background variables included the respondent's university, gender, field of study, age group at the time of graduation, and information on the degree (degree title, level of degree, length in credits).

Keywords

appointment to job; career; educational certificates; employment opportunities; graduates; higher education institutions; labour force; temporary employment; tertiary education

Topic Classification

• Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Employment (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Higher and further education (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

Career and Employment Survey of Finnish University Graduates

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

The dataset is (C) available only for research including master's theses.

Data Collector

• Aarresaari network of the Academic Career Services in Finland

Time Period Covered

2002 – 2007

Collection Dates

2007-09 – 2007-10

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

Persons graduated with a lower (B.A.) or higher (M.A.) degree from Finnish universities in 2002 (excluding Persons graduated from Helsinki University of Technology)

Time Method

Longitudinal: Trend/Repeated cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Total universe/Complete enumeration

The survey was sent to all graduates with a lower (B.A.) or higher (M.A.) degree from Lappeenranta and Tampere University of Technology; Helsinki, Turku, and Hanken School of Economics; and the universities of Helsinki, Joensuu, Jyväskylä, Kuopio, Lappi, Oulu, Tampere, Turku, Vaasa, and Åbo Akademi in 2002. The survey was part of a joint career follow-up study of universities started in 2005. The purpose of the study was to chart the career and employment situation of graduates five years after their graduation. In 2007, the number of universities involved in the project was increased to 15. There were altogether 11,431 earned degrees matching the target group of the career follow-up, but all of the graduates did not receive the survey questionnaire because of foreign address, non-disclosure of address, or other similar reason. The alternative to complete the survey over the Internet was mentioned in the cover letter accompanying the survey. In that case, the identification of the respondent would be carried out by means of a code number included in the letter. Altogether 6,099 respondents received the survey, which is 53.4% of all graduates in the target group. Women were overrepresented in the data; they constituted 63.7% of all graduates, but 68.0% of the survey respondents.

Collection Mode

Self-administered questionnaire: Paper

Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based (CAWI)

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Data File Language

Downloaded data package may contain different language versions of the same files.

The data files of this dataset are available in the following languages: Finnish.

FSD translates quantitative data into English on request, free of charge. More information on ordering data translation.

Data Version

3.0

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

All universities did not provide information on the number of graduates who received the survey. Therefore, the total response rate could not be calculated.

Three persons who attained two degrees in 2002 are included in the data. Their information is presented in two separate rows in the data.

The lower academic degrees in the data were attained in the fields of pharmacy and education.

During archiving, the section on Aalto University was removed as well as variables containing information on municipality and employer name. Additional university-specific questions in the questionnaires of several universities are not included in the data. Each respondent was given a personal ID number, which was used in collecting background information. These ID numbers were originally part of the data, but were removed during archiving. The data were anonymised; in-depth information about studies (e.g. major subject and faculty) were removed, as well as all variables with open-ended text responses, such as comments given by the respondents at the end of the survey. In addition, the age variable was categorised and the largest incomes in the income variable were categorised into a single category.

Weighting

There are no weight variables in the data.

Citation Requirement

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Bibliographical Citation

Aarresaari network of the Academic Career Services in Finland: Finnish University Graduates of Year 2002: Career and Employment Survey 2007 [dataset]. Version 3.0 (2018-04-17). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD2353

Deposit Requirement

Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi.

Disclaimer

The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data.

Related Publications

Sainio, Juha (2008). Viisi vuotta kentällä. Katsaus vuonna 2002 valmistuneiden yhteiskuntatieteilijöiden työuran alkuun. Aarresaari-verkosto ja SVAL ry.