Becoming employable students and 'ideal' creative workers: exclusion and inequality in higher education work placements

• Published in: British journal of sociology of education Vol. 34; no. 3; pp. 431 - 452
• Main Authors: Allen, K., Quinn, J., Hollingworth, S., Rose, A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 01.05.2013; Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group; Taylor & Francis; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Class; College Students; Creative industries; Creativity; Discourses; Educational sociology; employability; Employment Potential; Employment Qualifications; England; extra-curricular activities; Foreign Countries; Gender Differences; Higher Education; Inequality; Job Placement; Labor Market; Labour market; Neoliberalism; Placement; Qualitative Research; Racial Differences; Semi Structured Interviews; Skilled workers; Social Bias; Social Class; Social Differences; Social exclusion; Social inequality; Social Mobility; Sociology; Sociology of education. Educational systems. Lifelong education; Students; Wales; Work; work placements; Workers; United Kingdom (Wales); United Kingdom (England); work placements; Higher Education; Social Mobility; Qualitative study; Employability; After-school activity; creative industries; Entertainment Industry; extra-curricular activities; Social Class; Creativity; Inequality
• ISSN: 0142-5692; 1465-3346
• DOI: 10.1080/01425692.2012.714249

In this paper we explore how the 'employable' student and 'ideal' future creative worker is prefigured, constructed and experienced through higher education work placements in the creative sector, based on a recent small-scale qualitative study. Drawing on interview data with students, staff and employers, we identify the discourses and practices through which students are produced and produce themselves as neoliberal subjects. We are particularly concerned with which students are excluded in this process. We show how normative evaluations of what makes a 'successful' and 'employable' student and 'ideal' creative worker are implicitly classed, raced and gendered. We argue that work placements operate as a key domain in which inequalities within both higher education and the graduate labour market are (re)produced and sustained. The paper offers some thoughts about how these inequalities might be addressed.