Graduate employment at a WIL-like university: Does student employment matter?

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between student employment and graduate employment in a Nordic educational context. The study finds that extracurricular work experience provides an additional employability advantage even in educational environments that already resemble Work Integrated Learning, highlighting the importance of learning beyond the formal curriculum. Due to lack of data from Nordic WIL-institutions the PBL-institution Aalborg University is used as a proxy – drawing on register data covering the cohort of 2,080 master’s graduates from 2018, tracing employment trajectories from 24 months before to 24 months after graduation. While all graduates are exposed to problem based learning (PBL) and, for most, practice-based learning through placements, the analysis reveals that student employment confers further employability advantages. There is a strong linear association between the duration of student employment and graduates’ immediate transition into the labour market. This pattern persists, though weaker, two years after graduation. The largest differences are observed among social science graduates, whose fields are characterised by comparatively higher unemployment rates. Timing also matters: Students who remained employed during the final month prior to graduation transitioned most rapidly into postgraduate employment. Grade performance is positively associated with graduate employment outcomes but appears less influential than student employment. Key limitations include the absence of individual-level background variables and detailed information on the nature of student employment. Future research should address these limitations, ideally through comparative analyses of WIL graduates and graduates from more conventional study programmes.