11.5: Contexts - Higher Education and Work Achievement in Early Adulthood
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Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
- Describe the challenges and opportunities facing young adults in preparing for work and career
- Describe formal and informal educational opportunities in early adulthood
- Explain the considerations surrounding workforce entry for the developing young adult
Moira has been attending a community college part-time for the past few years while working as a server in her uncle’s restaurant. She enjoys her work (especially as it keeps her connected to her family), but she doesn’t want to work there forever. When she thinks about transferring to a four-year school, however, she feels overwhelmed by the cost—especially when she isn’t sure what she “wants to be when she grows up.” She likes the ocean and loves marine mammals (especially dolphins and whales), but she doesn’t enjoy science courses. She also enjoys photography. She took photos of her next-door neighbor’s family, and they turned out so well that she has been asked to photograph other families. However, she doesn’t know if she’ll be able to support herself long-term by turning this hobby into a job. She wonders if she could intern with the local newspaper to get some journalistic photography experience.
One of the most profound tasks facing young adults is preparing for life after high school. Education in childhood and adolescence is focused on learning basic skills and gaining knowledge helpful to becoming an independently functioning adult. Now people must decide what they may want to do next and how to achieve those goals. High school guidance counselors sometimes use the idea of “the 4 E’s ” to describe actions students can take after graduating high school. They are enlisting in the military, enrolling in a college or vocational program, becoming employed , and/or taking a gap year to explore possibilities (Figure 11.22). In this section, we’ll examine two of the most common actions in that list: Employment and enrollment in higher education.
Work and Career Preparation
There’s no one single way to decide what you want to do for work or a career. We all take different paths to find our way to that destination, sometimes through a series of different pathways. Some of us know our interests from an early age, while others aren’t sure even after starting college or embarking on a first job. And many people decide to change their careers as they move through adulthood, as well. We should also note that additional groups of people may not pursue paid employment because they take on responsibilities such as raising children or caring for elderly relatives. Adulthood allows us to make these choices, many times changing pathways throughout the course of a person’s lifespan.
The choice of work or career as a person enters early adulthood oftentimes depends to a great extent on an individual’s identity and life circumstances, especially their skills, values, beliefs, and goals. Someone who aspires to a specific lifestyle might choose their career based on expected salary. For some people, the chance to travel, help others, or apply a specific skill like language proficiency or musical talent might be their main goal. Thus, career choices often depend on the person’s having done some self-exploration and developing a sense of identity and purpose. The process of self-exploration may also include actively investigating jobs of interest by discussing the jobs with those in the field, volunteering, interning, doing internet searches, and taking college courses or completing a vocational program or certification course.
Life circumstances may also affect work choices. As we learned at the beginning of this chapter, having a low SES may prevent a person from exploring personally fulfilling career options and instead focus on meeting immediate needs like paying for food and shelter. Larger societal factors such as the nation’s economy and the availability of jobs in one’s community may also affect a person’s options. Having children may necessitate getting a job to provide for them or prevent a person from getting a job if the cost of childcare is too prohibitive. Overall childcare costs are hard to quantify because these figures depend on area population, the age of the child, and whether the care is provided in home or in a center. However, recent U.S. Census data indicate that families in the United States can spend from 8 percent to 19 percent of their income on childcare, an annual cost of between $5,357 and $17,171 in 2022 dollars (Grundy, 2024). For some people, it may make more financial sense to not pursue a career if paying for childcare would significantly cut into their earnings.
Having the opportunity to receive education beyond high school may also affect career and job decisions. While certain careers require more than a high school diploma or GED, an individual’s career path may not need to include a 2- or 4-year college degree, or and may not need to include higher education at all. In the section that follows, we’ll cover not only a “traditional” college education (i.e., one that leads to a bachelor’s degree) but also possible alternatives, such as vocational training and apprenticeships.
College as Context in Early Adulthood
Many jobs now require some form of degree or certification beyond high school, a change that has had a profound influence in making emerging adulthood a distinct developmental stage in many countries. According to U.S. Census data (Figure 11.23), while only 24 percent of people completed high school in 1940, that number rose to 41 percent in 1960, then 55 percent by 1970 (U.S. Census Bureau, 1970). According to the latest Census data, 91 percent of people in 2021 reported that they had completed their high school degree or high school equivalent degree (GED) (U.S. Census Bureau, 2022). People completing advanced degrees such as a masters or doctorate increased from 10.9 percent to 14.4 percent in the years from 2011 to 2021 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2022).
In the Fall 2021 semester, approximately 18,580,000 people were enrolled in college in the United States (U.S. Department of Education, 2023a). Similar data from Canada indicate that approximately 1,440,000 people were enrolled in college there in the Fall 2023 semester (Universities Canada, 2023). These figures represent only people currently enrolled, not people who’ve completed a college education. It should be noted that data for both countries include international students who aren’t considered official residents of country where they attend school. This makes it somewhat challenging to determine the proportion of the population these figures represent, but ballpark estimates suggest that these figures represent roughly 5.6 percent of the United States population and 3.7 percent of the Canadian population.
Of the roughly two million bachelor’s degrees earned in in the United States during the 2021–2022 academic year, the top six most common majors were business (18.6 percent), health professions (13.1 percent), social sciences and history (7.5 percent), biology/biomedical sciences (6.5 percent), psychology (6.4 percent), and engineering (6.1 percent; U.S. Department of Education, 2023b). Perhaps not surprisingly, many of these popular majors have obvious ties to potentially rewarding career fields. Careers in fields such as health care and psychology may be intrinsically rewarding and lead to greater job satisfaction and personal fulfillment. College education is also frequently touted as a pathway to higher salaries, greater career flexibility, and more opportunities for advancement (Blagg, 2022; Chau et al., 2023; Klor de Alva, 2022; OECD, 2023; Rosenbaum et al., 2017; Warick & Melnick, 2022). In fact, one study of finance majors found that 85 percent of the sample expected a salary at the 70 th percentile or higher within 10 years of graduation, despite the statistical unlikelihood of this actually happening (Schnusenberg, 2020).).
Looking at specific demographic variables and their relationship to educational attainment, we see some interesting patterns. In terms of gender, similar numbers of men and women have a high school diploma as their highest degree earned (29.4 percent versus 26.5 percent respectively; U.S. Census Bureau, 2022). However, the gap is a bit larger when it comes to higher education. By age 25, 46.9 percent of men had completed at least a bachelor’s degree, compared to 53.1 percent of women (U.S. Census Bureau, 2022).
The picture is somewhat different when we look at race and ethnicity. Recent data indicate that Asian youth had the highest number of baccalaureate degree holders at 61 percent, followed by young adults who were White at 41.9 percent, Black (28.1 percent), and Hispanic (20.6 percent; U.S. Census Bureau, 2022). These discrepancies are likely due to factors such as economic disadvantage, language barriers, and lack of appropriate guidance regarding college education. Some of these factors may intersect with other characteristics. For example, Black and Hispanic youth are proportionately more likely than White and Asian youth to be first-generation college students, a group also more likely to have a lower median income as well as higher risk of dropping out of college (RTI International, 2019). However, the number of Black and Hispanic adults earning higher education degrees is rising. Between 2011 and 2021, the number of Black people with a college degree by the age of 25, increased from 19.9 percent to 28.1 percent, and the percentage of Hispanic youths with a degree increased from 14.1 percent to 20.6 percent (U.S. Census Bureau, 2022)(Figure 11.24).
Intersections and Contexts: Disparities in Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in STEM Fields
Research suggests there are differences in types of jobs (professional, service-oriented, STEM) and in the wages earned by people of different racial or ethnic groups. For example, people who are Hispanic, especially Hispanic women, have a higher chance of having jobs that offer lower than average wages, and White people are more likely than Black people to have better job security (Earle et al., 2014).
STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math) are one area with large discrepancies in ethnic, racial, and gender representation. According to Fry et al. (2021), many minorities are underrepresented within STEM fields, especially Hispanic (17 percent of STEM jobs) and Black (9 percent of STEM jobs). Employment within STEM fields often requires a college degree and as of 2018, Black and Hispanic individuals represented 7 percent and 12 percent respectively of bachelor’s degrees within STEM fields, with White and Asian students earning the majority of STEM degrees (Fry et al., 2021).
Though women represented just over half the STEM degrees earned in 2018, they’re still underrepresented in some areas. Most degrees women earned within STEM fields were in fields related to health care (85 percent), as opposed to degrees in engineering (22 percent) and even computer science(19 percent). Though women do represent a little over half of all STEM-related degrees, Hispanic and Black women are underrepresented, together comprising only 17 percent of the STEM workforce (Fry et al., 2021).
These discrepancies persist after these graduates get to the workplace. Not only are Black and Hispanic workers underrepresented in STEM fields, but they also often get paid less than White and Asian counterparts. Race and ethnicity also intersect with sex; Black and Hispanic women receive the lowest wages within STEM fields (Fry et al., 2021). There are groups attempting to erase these discrepancies within STEM fields by providing resources such as peer mentoring, financial support for student research activities, and summer bridge programs for rising college freshmen (Estrada et al., 2016); however, increasing inclusion in these fields and college majors is complex, as many minorities do not have access to resources, especially educational resources, helpful to increasing representation in STEM fields. STEM is not always incorporated into early education programs, which may also decrease exposure to these fields for young children.
Here are links to the National Science Foundation Initiative to increase participation in STEM fields and a list of organizations that are working to increase diversity within STEM fields from National University.
Link to Learning
The United States Department of Education “College Scorecard” website contains a search tool that allows prospective students to find information about different schools, programs of study, and degree options. It also contains a section titled “Alternative Pathways to a Career” that provides links to information about apprenticeships and training programs.
Earning a bachelor’s degree has other benefits besides potentially increased income and career satisfaction. A fundamental purpose of college is to help people gain and refine cognitive abilities including verbal skills, quantitative skills, and critical thinking skills. While these skills can also develop outside of a college education, college provides a setting in which all three of them are regularly used, with desirable consequences for successful performance. These skills are transferrable to nearly every area of life, as are the “soft” skills that emerging adults can also hone in college, including planning, organizing, taking initiative, managing time, leading, and persuading. While interacting with classmates and working cooperatively on group projects, college students also develop social skills such as interpersonal communication, perspective-taking, and conflict resolution. Having a college degree is associated with improved decision-making about issues such as online safety and with prosocial civic engagement activities such as voting and volunteer work (OECD, 2023). College can also provide an excellent opportunity for finding purpose during emerging adulthood. Self-exploration at college can help people settle on their adult values and belief systems, further shape their identity, and develop complex, long-lasting relationships both platonic and romantic.
Along those lines, it’s not unusual for students to try out different majors before following through on the education or training required to attain a job within their field of choice. According to the U.S. Department of Education, around 30 percent of students enrolled in a two- or four-year degree program change their major before graduating, and at least 10 percent change their major multiple times (Leu, 2017). This is developmentally appropriate in the context of emerging adulthood and identity formation, discussed at the beginning of the chapter. Also, as we’ll see, college is not the only route to a career.
COVID and the College Experience
In Section 11.2, we examined how the COVID-19 pandemic affected mental health in emerging adulthood. Here, we will further consider how it affected the college experience. Around the world, in-person instruction shifted to online instruction on short notice, with students, faculty, staff, and families often having only a week or two to prepare. Not surprisingly, this change – combined with the circumstances that caused it – was associated with academic challenges. For many of them, they now had to share computer time and equipment with other family members, potentially limiting their ability to complete assignments or participate in synchronous online class meetings. These students were also cut off from academic resources such as tutoring as well as the social support and companionship of their friends and student organizations, which are also important components of the college experience.
Not all students entered this transition with equal challenges. For example, Birmingham and colleagues found that while college students were generally comfortable with technology, a third of them had never taken an online class prior to the pandemic (2023). Demographic factors also appeared to affect the adjustment to online learning. Students of color tend to perform lower in online classes than in face-to-face classes (Shankar et al., 2023). While financial concerns were common across demographic groups, people of color and families with low SES were more likely to experience financial challenges (Ibarra-Mejia et al., 2023; Molock & Parchem, 2022).
However, some valuable lessons may have been learned in the process. The pandemic provided the opportunity for a “natural experiment” in that students couldn’t self-select into online versus in-person classes, therefore allowing us to study performance in online classes while minimizing the effects of self-selection bias. Online classes with synchronous meetings tend to have better student outcomes than ones that are entirely asynchronous. (Reference needed). Large introductory-level classes conducted face-to-face may not typically enable high-impact practices such as small group discussions and flipped classrooms, but these things can be accomplished online. Finally, to address concerns about potential cheating on online exams, instructors could move away from multiple-choice, memorization-based questions to application-based questions that require short answer or essay responses. These questions may encourage more student engagement and represent a better assessment of learning (Shankar et al., 2023).
Alternatives to a College Degree
While an associate or a bachelor’s degree is a common educational pathway in emerging adulthood, it’s not the only option out there. People can also choose to earn an associate’s degree by attending a community college or a vocational school such as a trade school or technical institute (Figure 11.25). Less costly than a four-year college, these institutions offer one- to two-year training or licensing programs for jobs like HVAC technician, veterinary assistant, dental assistant, electrician, plumber, and pharmacy technician. Some of these schools offer two-year courses of study—similar to the general education curriculum portion of a bachelor’s degree—leading to associate’s degrees that may be transferrable to four-year institutions. Associate’s degrees are a good alternative to a bachelor’s degree for people whose career goals don’t require one or who aren’t completely certain about going to college. They may also be a way for someone who’s earned some credits but isn’t able to complete a bachelor’s degree to avoid leaving higher education empty-handed (Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2017).
At vocational school s, courses are hands-on and intensive, with small classes focused on specific skills and preparation for any testing required for the job. In some countries, vocational training includes more than just blue-collar occupations. For example, an apprenticeship is a paid position involving a combination of on-the-job training, mentoring, and classroom learning, often leading to employment in a specific field. Apprenticeship programs often focus on skilled trades such as information technology, manufacturing, food service, or cosmetology, but not always. Germany has an apprenticeship system, offered as an alternative to college, that involves all sectors of the workforce, including civil service job s (government jobs that don’t involve political appointments or legal work, such as urban planners, budget analysts, sanitation workers, and firefighters; Deissinger & Gonon, 2021). In Japan, high school students can enroll in specialized training schools called senmon gakko , designed to prepare students to meet workforce needs in such diverse areas as agriculture, health care, apparel and homemaking, and the arts (Kogirima, 2014; Taylor, 2020). Other countries regard vocational training as a possible alternative to, but not necessarily a replacement for, college. In Québec, students enroll in either a pre-university program or a vocational training program after finishing high school, and completion of either program makes them eligible to get a university education if they want one (Taylor, 2020).
In some cases, a 2-year or 4-year degree may not be necessary. For some positions, a short certificate training course opens the path to becoming a certified personal trainer, medical transcriptionist, court reporter, or security guard. Many service-sector jobs such as bartending and construction work may also require only supervised training and a test to become certified; for these positions, a high school degree or GED may not even be needed. There’s a wide range of employment opportunities out there, with a corresponding wide range of education and training necessary (or not) for each. No one educational path or career field is objectively better than any other; each person has to find what’s best for them.
Also, not all learning occurs in the context of formal education. Informal education is education that occurs without a set curriculum. Learning is hands-on and can include talking with and listening to others, helping organize events, and sharing experiences. Participation can help people learn about others, including those whose lives are unlike their own, and can expand their perspective-taking skills along with learning more about themselves. Thus, informal learning can be a form of experiential learning , a form of learning that involves not only gaining understanding by doing, but also reflecting on the experiences. It can occur in a college setting through internships and service learning courses as well as outside college through activities like volunteering and even activism (Gross & Rutland, 2017).
Costs and Rewards of College
College isn’t the path for everyone, but it’s still a popular choice for many young adults to explore options in life, specifically options for work. However, it comes with a literal cost that can vary greatly. According to the United States Department of Education, in the 2021–2022 academic year, the yearly cost of tuition and fees ranged from $,4000 at two-year public colleges, to $9,700 at four-year public colleges, to an average of $38,800 at private colleges (National Center for Education Statistics, 2023). We should note that these figures for public colleges represent in-state tuition rates only; out-of-state students typically pay more, oftentimes double the costs annually. Also, these figures only represent tuition and fees; they don’t include the additional costs of necessities such as textbooks and housing. These costs can vary widely depending on the program of study, geographic location, whether a college is public or private, and whether a student lives on or off campus. However, recent data indicate that college students can expect to spend between $1,000 and $1,400 per year on textbooks and materials, and between $7,000 and $13,000 per year on housing and food (Hanson, 2023).
Link to Learning
Visit this website from the U.S. government on tools for assessing the cost of college to learn more.
It also takes time to earn a degree, and many young adults have to work in order to partially or fully support themselves while pursuing their degree. Thus, finding time to attend classes and study while working can be stressful. This may cause students to reduce their working hours (and thus their earnings) to make time for classes, or to take reduced class loads (and thus take longer to graduate as well as pay more overall in fees) to accommodate their job. Either approach has financial consequences. Compared to many other countries, the United States provides more financial aid in the form of loans and scholarships, but tuition costs are higher than in many other countries (Bouchikra, 2024; Hanson, 2021; also see “Intersections and Contexts” feature box). Many students in the United States take out loans to pay for college , but the loans must be paid back, which can be a heavy financial burden on someone starting out at a job. Starting salaries for many occupations are typically much lower than the average salaries posted online, and someone expecting their first post-college job to give them enough money to immediately pay off their student loans will likely be in for a nasty surprise.
Intersections and Contexts: The Cost of College Around the World
The higher education costs we’ve seen so far only apply to colleges in the United States. There’s a lot of variability in how countries outside the United States manage the financial aspects of higher education. While it’s impossible to cover every single nation’s approach to college, we can identify some overall trends.
In many European countries, such as Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, college tuition is free. Often this benefit is just for residents of that country (or, in the case of Denmark and Sweden, the European Union; Bouchikra, 2024; Hanson, 2021); students from other countries will have to pay to go to school there, but this is reasonable considering that the primary purpose of public education is to educate the citizens of that country. Having free tuition means, obviously, that higher education is more accessible and that college graduates can enjoy higher earning potential without the burden of student loans.
In the United Kingdom, tuition costs are similar to those in the United States. However, most baccalaureate degrees are 3-year programs instead of the 4-year programs typically offered in the United States, reducing potential costs. Also, loans don’t have to be repaid until after a recipient crosses a certain income threshold depending on which payment plan they’re enrolled in (Hanson, 2021; Repaying Your Student Loan , n.d.). By contrast, in the United States, loan repayment is expected to start as soon as the recipient is no longer in school.
South and East Asian countries vary widely in their tuition costs. For example, students at public universities in India pay only $50 per year in tuition, compared to $2200 per year in China and approximately $8000 in Japan and the Republic of Korea (Bouchikra, 2024). However, the cost of living is very high in some of these countries; many Chinese students live in residence halls or even with host families because they can’t afford to rent an apartment (Hanson, 2021). In contrast, cost of living and college tuition costs in many Latin American countries are lower than in many other countries (Bouchkira, 2024; Hanson, 2021), partly because of poor economic conditions in many of those countries. Recently, Chile has instituted a taxpayer-funded gratuidad program to provide free college tuition for citizens in its lowest income bracket. In addition to increasing access to higher education, this program also attempts to compensate for poor quality college preparation in primary and secondary schools in impoverished areas (Bouchikra, 2024; Nadworny et al., 2019).
What’s the payoff of attaining a degree? There are many ways to answer that question. Financially speaking, college graduates generally earn higher salaries and have higher earning potential. In the United States, the median yearly salary of a 4-year college graduate in 2022 was around $74,464, versus $52,260 for people with an associate’s degree or a certificate from a vocational program. Those with only a high-school diploma earn around $44,356, and people without a high school diploma or GED earn around $35,464 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023). However, the difference in earnings between levels of educational attainment isn’t universal. The wage gap between people with different levels of education tends to be relatively small early in employment, but widens in middle adulthood, with amount of education and earnings being positively correlated (OECD, 2023). Earnings for any job also depend on factors other than education, such as age, gender, geographic location, and demand/availability (OECD, 2023). For example, a person with a bachelor’s degree in art history may have a lot of difficulty finding work in that field if they live in a rural, low-income area. Their earnings and job prospects may not perfectly reflect the value of their degree if it doesn’t happen to fit a need in the place where they live.
However, a college degree in many arts and sciences fields, such as history, biology, and music, doesn’t limit what a person can actually do with that degree. Thanks to the soft skills and general knowledge they confer, college degrees may also increase an individual’s ability to get jobs outside the field of their degree. For instance, a college graduate who majored in English may become a technical writer for a pharmaceutical company despite not having any background in chemistry. Having a post-high school degree conveys that a person has knowledge, communication skills, and the ability to set and complete goals, all characteristics valuable to employers regardless of that person’s major (Figure 11.26).
This value is reflected in different unemployment rates for people with different amounts of education. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data from 2022 indicated that people without a high school degree had an unemployment rate of 5.5 percent, while people with a high school diploma had an unemployment rate of 4 percent. For people with a four-year college degree the rate was 2.2 percent (2023). Interestingly, the unemployment rate for people with some college but no degree is 3.5 percent, compared with just 2.7 percent for people with an associate’s degree (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023). While these people may have completed similar numbers of college credits, and people in the “some college, no degree” group may even have completed more credits than people with associate’s degrees, employers clearly don’t regard these two statuses as equivalent. This provides more support for earlier statements about the utility of two-year degree programs as an alternative to a four-year degree.
Workplace as Context
In previous generations, it wasn't unusual to stay with a company for life, working their way up in responsibility or even building their own business over time. This pattern has changed dramatically due to multiple factors, including the increasing role of technology in every aspect of life. When Generation X (born between 1965 and 1981) joined the workforce, technology and a changing employment landscape no longer guaranteed working for one employer for life, and many people no longer expected to do so. These changes influenced attitudes about work as well. Instead of prioritizing loyalty to a company, many people now place more value on work they enjoy or find meaningful (Črešnar & Nedelko, 2020)—although, as mentioned earlier, life circumstances may not make this possible for everyone to achieve.
Other work-related views are likely influenced by life events and experiences. Research on younger Millennials and Generation Z (those born between 1995 and 2010) finds that many report feeling less “engaged” in their work (Pendell & Vender Helm, 2022). Putting this in context, Generation Z is the first cohort to live in a digital world, meaning they have been interacting with or using technology since birth (Benítez-Márquez et al., 2022). They express increased concern about environmental issues such as climate change and societal issues such as equal rights, and place importance on working for a company that plays a positive role in addressing these issues (Barhate & Dirani, 2022; Črešnar & Nedelko, 2020; Whitney Gibson et al., 2011). They’ve also witnessed global phenomena such as financial crises and a world-wide pandemic; not surprisingly, this cohort of workers also reports feeling increasingly stressed, and working for employers that offer a good work-life balance or who care about the well-being of their employees is important in choosing a job (Črešnar & Nedelko, 2020; Pendell & Vender Helm, 2022). As a result, members of Generation Z actively desire careers, but those that allow flexibility and enhance personal well-being (Črešnar & Nedelko, 2020; Whitney Gibson et al., 2011).
Though our views of work might be changing, Pew Research data on workers of all ages show that most appear happy with their job, if not so satisfied with their pay or ability to be promoted. Workers over 65 tended to feel most positively toward their employer and reported the least amount of stress at work, finding their work fulfilling, while younger people reported feeling more stress and less fulfillment. People with higher incomes also reported more satisfaction with their benefits, pay, and promotion opportunities than people with lower incomes (Horowitz & Parker, 2023).
What can be done for those who are unhappy at work, especially about finding a better work-life balance ? It’s hard to define what work-life balance means to all people. For some, it means having a job that allows them to spend enough time with family, while for others it involves being able to manage health problems while still performing their job effectively (Gragnano et al., 2020; Sirgy & Lee, 2018).
Other valued aspects of the work environment include flexibility (being able to choose whether to work from home or in the office, along with having flexible hours at work), access to childcare, and resources for enhancing physical and mental health. Research has shown that employers that emphasize or have programs that address? these things see increased productivity, morale, and physical and mental health in their workforce, along with lower employee turnover (Kalev & Dobbin, 2022).
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