Study title

Finnish University Graduates of Year 2009: Career and Employment Survey 2014

Dataset ID Number

FSD3054

Persistent identifiers

https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3054
https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd3054

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Aarresaari network of the Academic Career Services in Finland

Other Identification/Acknowledgements

• Ollikainen, Jyrki (University of Tampere. School of Information Sciences)

Abstract

The survey charted the career and employment situation of people who had graduated from Finnish universities with a lower (BA/BSc or equivalent) or higher (MA/MSc or equivalent) degree in 2009. The survey was conducted five years after graduation.

The first part investigated the respondents' education and work history. They were asked whether they had, after graduation, participated in job-related training, career guidance or had studied for or completed any additional professional qualification or higher education degree. Further questions covered the number of employers, number of separate employment contracts and offices, whether the respondents had been entrepreneurs, self-employed or freelancers and for how long, or whether they had been outside the labour market because of a family leave.

Periods of unemployment, obstacles to getting a job (e.g. lack of experience, challenging labour market situation in the field, gender), and employment situation at the time of graduation were investigated. Those who had not been employed at the time of graduation were asked how long it had taken to get their first job. Characteristics of the first job after graduation were surveyed, including contract type, employer type, and type of work. The respondents were also asked whether the first job had required an academic degree, whether it had been commensurate with their qualification, and to what extend they had been able to utilise knowledge and skills gained during their university studies.

The next section focused on the respondents' current employment situation. Questions covered the type of main employer, type of work, monthly gross wage income, whether they could utilise the knowledge and skills gained during their university studies, whether the job was commensurate with their level of education, and if not, why they had accepted the job. The respondents were presented with a number of statements relating to their job and e.g. whether their work was in line with their career goals and whether they found their work mentally stressful. The respondents with fixed-term contracts were asked why their contract was fixed-term.

The survey also explored the respondents' satisfaction with their degree and studies. Questions covered satisfaction with the degree from the point of view of career, how important certain skills and know-how were in the respondents' current job and how well their studies had developed these skills. The skills mentioned included, for instance, theoretical or practical knowledge of their field, problem solving, managerial skills, negotiation skills, project management, and communication in English. It was also surveyed which of these skills the respondents deemed the most important in the future.

Background variables included the respondent's gender, age at the time of graduation (categorised), the university they attended and information on the degree (field of study, number of credits required for the degree, degree level).

Keywords

appointment to job; career development; educational certificates; employment; employment opportunities; graduates; job satisfaction; temporary employment; tertiary education (first stage)

Topic Classification

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

2009 – 2014

Collection Dates

2014

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

Persons who had graduated with a lower (BA/BSc) or higher (MA/MSc/Licentiate of Medicine) degree from Aalto University, Hanken School of Economics, Tampere University of Technology, Lappeenranta University of Technology, and Åbo Akademi University as well as the Universities of Helsinki, Eastern Finland, Jyväskylä, Oulu, Tampere, Turku and Vaasa in 2009

Time Method

Longitudinal: Trend/Repeated cross-section

Data Sources

The background variables in the data were obtained from the student registers of the universities.

Sampling Procedure

Total universe/Complete enumeration

Each university participating in the survey sent questionnaires to their graduates of 2009.

Collection Mode

Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based (CAWI)

Self-administered questionnaire: Paper

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Response Rate

41

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

1.0

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

To prevent identification, background variables with in-depth information about studies were removed (e.g. major subject, degree programme, faculty, year of being accepted into the degree programme) as well as nationality, mother tongue, job title and other information specifying the respondent's workplace. Municipality of residence was also replaced with NUTS3 region, the age variable was categorised and the largest values in the income variable were top-coded (9000 euros and above). Identifiers were removed from open-ended responses (e.g. fields of study with few students, years of completing other degrees, work tasks, employers, names of towns and other universities). Anonymisations were marked with [square brackets]. Open-ended responses of the type "other, please specify" were removed with the exception of variable q36_b. All English-language responses to open-ended questions were also removed.

Background variables regarding grades received for the final thesis were removed from the data due to ambiguity.

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 2009: Career and Employment Survey 2014 [dataset]. Data version 1.0 (2018-06-13). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd3054; URN: https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3054

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 Materials

Kooste vuoden 2014 syksyllä kerätystä aineistosta, jossa tarkastellaan vuonna 2009 ylemmän korkeakoulututkinnon suorittaneiden työuran alkua [verkkodokumentti]. https://www.aarresaari.net/download/53/uraseuranta_maisterit_2014_kooste/pdf [viitattu 13.6.2018].

FSD has not been informed of any publications related to the data.