Yrkesdestination okänd : En studie av sociologistudenters förhållningssätt gentemot sin utbildning och framtida arbetsmarknad.

Sammanfattning: The main purpose of this study is to examine the attitude of sociology students to an education with an undefined professional destination. The empirical data consists of interviews with seven sociology students and four teachers at the sociology program at Linnaeus University. A survey has also been conducted to investigate the social backgrounds of the sociology students. The data was analyzed in the light of Gunnar Olofsson´s theoretical concept of ”educational contract”, combined with the theoretical concepts acquired and inherited study resources. The results of this study showed that most of the students in the sociology program came from homes where higher education was not well represented, something contrary to what previous research have said about educational choices. According to previous research, these students do not normally choose an education without a clear connection to a certain occupation. A key result was that it was for all students, of course, to proceed to higher education, which I have interpreted as a consequence of the expansion and normalization of higher education. Another key result was what I choose to call for “full-time abstract”. This phenomenon means that the teachers expect the students to (need) put down 40 hours a week on their studies. However, it turned out that the students studied significantly fewer hours, but they still thought they were doing full-time studies. The explanation for this was that they also worked in addition to the studies. The fact that the majority of the students choose to work in parallel with their studies can also be interpreted as a weak labour-market contract, meaning that the students do not fully trust that their education will generate a relevant work. The students generally had a positive picture of the labor market for sociologists. In addition, they could all see the professional relevance of the education in different ways. This has been explained by the education contract. In essence, the education contract in general and the labour-market contract specifically lacks a specified occupational destination, which serves as a lubricant in that the students lack a clear job of comparing the content of the education. This is an important explanation why the educational contract is maintained for the students during their education.