“I Feel Quite Hopeful that My Future Is Still Going to be Okay”: Educational Aspirations During COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has radically altered how we learn, work, and live. This qualitative research aimed to study the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the educational and occupational aspirations of young Canadian adults. All close to 29 years of age, sixteen participants took part in one-on-one semi-structured interviews conducted through Zoom. Questions probed participants’ hopes, dreams, and perceived obstacles regarding school and work. Coding was completed using the research software Dedoose. Thematic content analysis was performed using both deductive and inductive approaches. Three themes emerged: the benefits and drawbacks of working and learning from home; financial changes and concerns; and hope and optimism despite challenges posed by the pandemic. Working and learning from home were discussed by 88% of participants, making it the most prominent theme. Participants generally agreed that working and learning from home had many benefits, but some expressed concern about the quality of online education. In addition, the pandemic caused financial hardship for a few participants, forcing them to delay educational or occupational plans. However, the majority (75%) expressed positivity and hope for the future. Overall, although the timeline of some participants’ educational or occupational plans changed, their aspirations largely remained the same.

Pipeline Dreams: Occupational Plans and Gender Differences in STEM Major Persistence and Completion

In the United States, women are more likely than men to enter and complete college, but they remain underrepresented among baccalaureates in science-related majors. We show that in a cohort of college entrants who graduated from high school in 2004, men were more than twice as likely as women to complete baccalaureate degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, including premed fields, and more likely to persist in STEM/biomed after entering these majors by sophomore year. Conversely, women were more than twice as likely as men to earn baccalaureates in a health field, although persistence in health was low for both genders. We show that gender gaps in high school academic achievement, self-assessed math ability, and family-work orientation are only weakly associated with gender gaps in STEM completion and persistence. Gender differences in occupational plans, by contrast, are strongly associated with gender gaps in STEM outcomes, even in models that assume plans are endogenous to academic achievement, self-assessed math ability, and family-work orientation. These results can inform efforts to mitigate gender gaps in STEM attainment.

EDUCATIONAL AND PROFESSIONAL PLANS AND ASPIRATIONS OF THOSE IN CHARGE OF CARE AND EDUCATIONAL CENTRES AND FAMILY-RUN CHILDREN’S HOME (ON THE EXAMPLE OF BIAŁA PODLASKA POVIAT)

Research for the purposes of this publication was carried out in Biała Podlaska poviat, which is part of Lublin province. Its implementation was planned within the framework of the project "Education, levelling developmental and educational deficits of children under the care of family-run children's homes, also the care and educational institutions (on the example of Biała Podlaska poviat)". The diagnostic survey method and the study of individual cases were applied. The survey was based on the author's questionnaire designed for the charges of care and educational institutions and family-run children’s homes as well as the interview questionnaire with the educators of family and institutional institutions. In turn, the study of individual cases involved the use of an observation sheet and interviews with coordinators of the examined care and educational centres, directors of family-run children’s houses. The subject of the article are educational and professional plans of the beneficiaries of institutional and family facilities. Attention was paid to the currently implemented level of education and future educational and occupational plans of these children. The aim of the research was to determine how the educational and professional plans of the charges of various forms of foster care are shaped and what are they conditioned by?Among the indicators determining the implementation of educational and occupational aspirations of the examined subjects were environmental factors, i.e. location of the facility or the family-run children's home; personal: willingness and motivation to learn, time spent on homework and learning, age and sex of children under their care, their siblings; in addition, the type of facility in which the examined person is staying, received support and help from educators.

The silent pension pillar implosion

This article discusses recent trends in occupational pension policy and identifies the rise of a second policy wave directed towards greater individualisation in occupational pension plans. It is clear that, at a global level, governments and regulatory offices are promoting the so-called third pillar as a valuable pension option and that freedom of choice of the individual is a key element in this process. This individualisation reflects the decreasing involvement of employers in occupational plans and the increasing attentiveness of governments towards individual retirement schemes. We ask whether the so-called first and third pillar are pushing the second pillar away and whether there is a silent pension pillar implosion. In the article, we describe and analyse recent legislative and regulatory initiatives in six European countries to locate the individualisation process. We also propose a new paradigm for pension policy makers in which the so-called pension pillars are abandoned and replaced by an integrated pension vision leading to a balanced target income in retirement. In this integrated vision, there is a legal link between all forms of pension in a given country. This link is reflected in social and fiscal law.

The Retirement Puzzle

This chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. This book analyzes the three paths followed by the development of old-age income security over the half century since the New Deal: occupational plans were adopted as a supplement to Social Security; their assets were invested by employers into the stock market; and, most recently, they were turned into 401(k) plans. In particular, it addresses three historical questions: Why was the collectively-bargained occupational pension system established after World War II in the place of real increases in Social Security benefits? Once these private systems were established, what explains the subsequent employer consolidation of pension fund control and the shift of their investment into the stock market, mimicking the investment trends in corporate finance? Why, within the system of employer-provided pensions, was there a subsequent shift toward much riskier defined-contribution plans, such as 401(k)s, away from the traditional defined-benefit plan in the late 1970s and 1980s. The book offer answers to each of these questions and provides a more general explanation of pension marketization through the use of comparative historical analysis.