Abstract
Education programmes are designed to equip young populations with the qualifications
required to assume responsible roles in specific professions and in society generally.
In this paper, the focus of the analysis is on the significance of a number of higher
education programme characteristics in allocating young higher education graduates
across the labour market and how these graduates perform in their jobs. Graduate
performance is analysed in terms of both monetary and non-monetary pay-offs. The
findings show that education programmes in which learning is linked to acquisition of
work experience result in better paid employment, although an appropriate balance
between theoretical and practical-oriented curricula is important.
