Study title

Finnish University Graduates of Year 2015: Career and Employment Survey 2020

Dataset ID Number

FSD3553

Persistent identifiers

https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3553
https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd3553

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Aarresaari network of the Academic Career Services in Finland

Abstract

The survey charted the career and employment situation of individuals who had graduated from Finnish universities with a lower (BA/BSc or equivalent) or higher (MA/MSc or equivalent) degree in 2015. The survey was conducted five years after graduation. Main themes of the survey included the respondents' satisfaction with their degree, career path stages, current employment situation, the quality of employment, and the importance of university education for employment.

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 any additional professional qualification or higher education studies. The respondents were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with a set of attitudinal statements regarding their degree and its usefulness for employment. Further questions covered how many employers the respondents had had, whether the respondents had been entrepreneurs, self-employed or freelancers, and whether they had been outside the labour market because of family leave or unemployment.

The respondents' satisfaction with their career thus far was charted, along with current occupational status, type of employer, and type of current work tasks. The respondents were also asked whether their current job required an academic degree, whether the job was commensurate with their academic qualifications, and if not, why they had accepted the job. The extent to which the respondents had been able to utilize the knowledge and skills gained during their university studies was also examined, and monthly gross income at the time of the survey was charted.

Next, the respondents were asked which factors had had an impact on their employment after graduation (e.g. major/minor subjects, internship, work experience, personal networks). Questions also covered how important certain skills and know-how were in the respondents' current job and how well their studies had developed these skills (e.g. theoretical or practical knowledge of their field, problem solving, managerial skills, negotiation skills, project management, and communication in English). The 2020 survey also included questions about the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had had on the respondents' employment situation.

Background variables included the respondent's gender, age at the time of graduation, NUTS3 region of residence, the university 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; higher education institutions; job satisfaction; 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
• Research Stats Service TUPA

Time Period Covered

2015 – 2020

Collection Dates

2020-10 – 2020-12

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

Bachelor, Master and Licentiate of Medicine graduates of 2015 from Aalto University, Hanken School of Economics, Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT, Åbo Akademi University, University of the Arts Helsinki, University of Helsinki, University of Eastern Finland, University of Jyväskylä, University of Lapland, University of Oulu, University of Tampere, University of Turku, and University of Vaasa

Time Method

Longitudinal: Trend/Repeated cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Total universe/Complete enumeration

The survey was sent out to all graduates for whom a current email address, phone number or address could be found.

Collection Mode

Self-administered questionnaire: Paper

Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based (CAWI)

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Response Rate

42.4

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 and English.

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

Number of Cases and Variables

123 variables and 6830 cases.

Data Version

1.0

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

To prevent identification of respondents, open-ended variables and the variable concerning the municipality where the respondent's workplace was located (q17) were removed from the data at FSD. Respondents' age (bv3) was categorised into five-year age groups, income (q21) was top-coded, and municipality of residence (bv10) was coarsened to NUTS3 region of residence. Additionally, responses to the field of study variable (bv_11) that contained identifying information were removed.

To anonymise the data, the following variables were removed before depositing the data at FSD: q15 respondent's job title, q16 name of respondent's employer, and open-ended variables. Additionally, variables concerning the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic were removed before the data was deposited at FSD.

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 2015: Career and Employment Survey 2020 [dataset]. Data version 1.0 (2021-11-10). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd3553; URN: https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3553

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

Tynjälä, Päivi & Rautopuro, Juhani & Aittola, Helena & Jääskelä, Päivikki & Markkanen, Ilona & Virolainen, Maarit & Virtanen, Anne (2021). Tutkinto takana : yliopistojen kandipalautekyselyn sekä maisterien ja tohtorien uraseurantakyselyjen 2018, 2019 ja 2020 tulokset. Jyväskylän yliopisto, Koulutuksen tutkimuslaitos. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-39-8865-4