The second‐rate second chance? A comparison of the fates of mature graduates in the labour market in Britain and Norway

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Abstract
This comparative study was inspired by work done by Paul Gooderham on the socio‐economic outcomes of adult education in Norway. Studies of this aspect of the efficiency of adult education have not been a priority among researchers and the most attention has been paid to inputs, i.e. profiling students at the point of entry into further and higher education, rather than outputs. In both Britain and Norway from the mid‐1970s there has been official encouragement to increase access for adult students. Whilst governments and educational institutions have worried about the declining number of school leavers, adult educators arguably see the value of their work as self‐evident. We seek to question the prevailing rhetoric of access by applying the status‐attainment approach to primary Norwegian data and secondary British data. It is argued that a policy of redressing skill shortages by increasing mature graduate output is more likely to work in Norway, with a weaker dominant class, than in Britain where labour market entry is more readily controlled by a dominant class. This control is manifested in age, gender, social class and ethnic‐related norms. We concentrate on age‐related issues, but some reference is made to other dominant class norms.

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