Degree Power: Educational Credentialism within Three Skilled Occupations.

TLDR: The authors argue that occupations are strong determinants of which skills, skills, or certifications, should be acquired to obtain a job, and that credentials are a good indicator of skills, knowledge, and ability.

Abstract: An ongoing debate is centred around the question of how we can understand the value of university credentials in accessing jobs. We know that occupations are strong determinants of which skills, kn...

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Table 1: Sample characteristics

Table 2: role of credentials within the three occupations

Full text

City, University of London Institutional Repository
Citation: Tholen, G. ORCID: 0000-0001-6439-5046 (2019). Degree power: educational
credentialism within three skilled occupations. British Journal of Sociology of Education, doi:
10.1080/01425692.2019.1690427
This is the accepted version of the paper.
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version.
Permanent repository link: https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/23233/
Link to published version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2019.1690427
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Degree power: Educational credentialism within three skilled occupations
Corresponding author
Dr. Gerbrand Tholen
Department of Sociology
City, University of London
Northampton Square
London EC1V 0HB
United Kingdom

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Abstract
An ongoing debate is centred around the question of how we can understand the value of
university credentials in accessing jobs. We know that occupations are strong determinants
of which skills, knowledge and abilities are utilised in work but we do not know enough of
how occupational contexts shape what university degrees represent to employers and labour
market entrants. Drawing on semi-structured interview data, this article compares and
contrasts how Higher Education degrees serve as credentials in accessing three different
graduate occupations: laboratory scientists, software engineers and press officers. Rather
than functioning as direct signs of work skills and knowledge, signals of trainability or as
instruments of social closure, the article shows that higher education credentials serve
multiple roles within the three occupations. These occupational-specific forms of
credentialism shape the competition for jobs for university graduates. The article argues for
a renewed theoretical approach to educational credentialism.
Keywords: Credentialism, Higher Education, graduate labour market, occupations
Introduction
Graduate labour markets all over the world keep transforming due to continuous growth of
participation in Higher Education (HE) and extensive occupational change. As new university

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graduates move into a wider range of occupations after graduation and labour market
rewards are becoming more unequal (Green and Zhu, 2010; Mishel et al., 2012), questions of
how university graduates are allocated into the labour market positions are of growing
importance to social science researchers. An expanding literature within the sociologies of
education and work is seeking to come to grips with how we can understand the transitions
between HE and the labour market (Waller et al., 2017). Given the enormous expansion of
educational credentials in the last decades, an ongoing debate for policymakers and
academics alike is centred around the questions of if, and to what extent, the value of
university credentials has fallen, and to what extent a degree guarantees access to ‘graduate
level’ jobs.
By taking a distinct occupational approach, this article compares and contrasts how
HE degrees serve as credentials in accessing three different graduate occupations: laboratory
scientists, software engineers and press officers within the British context.
i
Previous research
that has examined the role of educational credentials in labour market outcomes has
eschewed a narrower occupational lens in favour of examining large occupational groupings.
ii
For instance, existing field experiments into the value of credentials in recruitment tend to
use relatively wide occupational categories, for justified methodological reasons (e.g. Darolia
et al., 2015; Deterding and Pedulla, 2016). But as a result, they therefore lack the ability to
associate occupational characteristics with how credentialism takes place. Yet occupations
matter in the job-credential nexus. Occupations unite labour market positions in skill, status
and educational requirements (Grusky and Weeden, 2001), albeit roughly. And although
organisational, sectoral and national dimensions also shape the graduate labour market, an
occupational focus into credentialism can open a deeper understanding of the changing
influence of HE in the labour market. As Di Stasio (2017:124) suggests, based on her

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investigation into credential inflation, distinct types of credentialism may occur within
occupational domains, and more research is needed to examine this “occupation-specific
credentialism”.
This article aims to uncover to what extent and how occupational fields shape the
credentialism within the matching process. In exploring this, it distinguishes different uses
educational credentials can have within the labour market. Dominant theories regard
credentials as either evidence or signal of relevant skills, knowledge and dispositions
(respectively human capital and positional competition theories), or alternatively as an
educational marker of group identity to include or exclude others (credentialist theories). The
article assesses whether occupational forms of educational credentials are aligned to any of
these roles.
Contrasting the predominantly quantitative approach of most contributions in the
field, this article draws on in-depth qualitative data, underlining the need to understand how
those within an occupation together create an understanding regarding the meaning of
educational credentials.
iii
Claims about particular credentials as well as shared beliefs about
categorical distinctions between graduates and non-graduates produce and legitimize
inequality between groups of workers, and are created through interaction (Ridgeway, 1997).
Through an inductive interpretive approach, the study explores how workers and employers
understand the role of HE in accessing the labour market and to what extent for them degrees
serve as credentials within these occupations.
iv
This article provides three contributions to understanding the relevance of
occupational context for the significance of educational credentials. First, it shows how
examining the occupational context is revealing in understanding how university degrees are
understood in skilled occupations. Although the study is an exploration of why and how

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What are the contributions in this paper?

In this paper, the authors compare and contrast how university degrees serve as credentials in accessing three different graduate occupations: laboratory scientists, software engineers and press officers within the British context. 

Q2. What are the future works in this paper?

Further research can produce more insights into this. Subsequently, highlighting occupational heterogeneity in the role that Higher Education has within work can further clarify the limits of Higher Education as a site of skill development ( Tholen, 2018 ). 

Q3. What is the key to the legitimacy of a credential?

The authors stress that legitimization to others in respect of what the credential constitutes is key in order for the credential to work. 

Q4. What are the two main theories used to explain why employers and workers may value educational credentials?

Human capital theories and signalling theory are general economic theories that are used to explain why employers and workers may value educational credentials. 

Q5. What are the three key groups of theories that dominate the literature?

These are a) human capital theories, b) positional competition theories (which include signalling/screening and queuing theories), and c) credentialist theories. 

Q6. What are the main characteristics of the occupations that affect credentialists?

prestige, power and rewards are also at least partially distributed along occupational lines and thus affect credentialist closure opportunities. 

Q7. What does the modern press officer do?

Yet the modern press officer also deals with online social media inquiries and discussion, along with building relations with various journalist and media representatives as well as the public directly. 

Q8. What is the role of educational credentials in the employment market?

Employers and (groups of) workers can monopolise and close off opportunities to their advantage throughthe use of educational credentials. 

Q9. What does the credentialists argue that education is a legitimized means for social?

Through their credentialist theories they argue that education functions as a legitimized means for social inclusion and exclusion. 

Q10. What can be used to regulate access to scarce jobs?

They can use credentials as a way of regulating access to scarce labour market positions through accreditation, certification or licensing, often raising the minimum standards of entry as increasing numbers of potential candidates attain formerly scarce qualifications. 

Q11. What was the purpose of the interviews?

The interviewsexplored a range of topics such as career development, recruitment and selection and the role of education throughout the occupation. 

Q12. What is the effect of a lack of formal qualification on the labour market?

The lack of reliance on formal qualification for occupational access may increase the prevalence ofancillary and peripheral types of credentialism. 

Q13. Why did this article not outline any of the contextual information regarding the labour process?

Due to space limitations, this article did not outline any of the contextual information regarding the labour process such as skill use and working conditions, recruitment and selection processes or business cycle 

Q14. What percentage of engineers accessed their occupation without a degree?

A considerable share of British software engineers working today accessed their occupation without a relevant degree or no degree at all. 

Q15. What is the reason for the increase in educational requirement for jobs?

The increase in educational requirement for jobs is therefore not the result of an increasing demand for skills, but of employers selecting candidates according to their cultural or professional preferences as participation in HE increases in the general workforce. 

Q16. What is the difference between the three views of educational credentials?

Rather than seeing educational credentials as passive, stable and consensual markers of labour market value, a more contextual, dynamic and anti-essential view would be beneficial. 

Q17. Why did Dominic say he was going to PhDs?

When The authorasked him whether this was because of increasing complexity of the work, he replied:I’m not sure if the roles are any more complex, The authorthink the expectation … it’s almost because … when The authorgraduated perhaps there were 15% of graduates went on to PhDs, now 50% of graduates are going to PhDs. 

Q18. What can sociologists do to reduce the reliance on formal qualifications?

There lies plenty of opportunity for sociologists of education to reduce the reliance oneconomic theories such as human capital theory and mainstream signalling and screening theories, and to explore how credentials are socially constructed by workers, employers and others involved.