Comparison
Over-education vs over-skilling in graduate jobs
Two kinds of graduate mismatch that point to different fixes
A side-by-side of the two main kinds of graduate mismatch. Over-education compares a graduate's qualification with what their job requires, while over-skilling compares the skills they have with the skills the job actually uses. Programme leads can use it to decide which graduate outcome questions to ask, since only over-skilling sits close to the curriculum. Koji for Education can run alumni interviews that ask about skills use and follow up on the reasons.
What's in this comparison
Over-education
- Compares the qualification held with what the job requires
- Also called vertical or qualification mismatch
- Shaped mostly by labour markets and regional demand
- Visible in occupation codes and Eurostat data
Over-skilling
- Compares the skills a graduate has with the skills the job uses
- Also called skills under-use
- Closer to what a programme teaches
- Measurable only by asking graduates
Use this image
Free to use in your docs, decks and posts under CC BY 4.0, as long as you credit Koji with a link to this page. To embed it, paste this into your page:
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<a href="https://www.koji.so/visuals/over-education-vs-over-skilling-graduate-mismatch"><img src="https://www.koji.so/visuals/over-education-vs-over-skilling-graduate-mismatch/over-education-vs-over-skilling-graduate-mismatch.png" alt="Comparison of over-education, a qualification above what the job needs, and over-skilling, skills the job does not use." width="1200" height="668" /></a>
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.koji.so/visuals/over-education-vs-over-skilling-graduate-mismatch">Over-education vs over-skilling in graduate jobs</a>, Koji</p>
