The transition from school to labor market. Policy Research Centre on Education and School Careers

Equality is a highly valued good in our contemporary society. Our ideal of an egalitarian society is however based on the principle of meritocracy and allows for inequality based on achievement or merit. The cause of inequality is attributed to individual failure or a lack of effort. Since long, however, research on social mobility has shown that attributed characteristics can distort the competition. People are discriminated against based on their race, class or gender, while these charachteristics are outside of their influence.
The TOR research group concentrates its research on Social Inequality in School Careers, the Transition from School to Work and the First Years on the Labour Market, within the larger framework of the Policy Research Centre on Education and School Careers. Based on the SONAR data, collected over the duration of the Policy Research Centre on Careers through Education to Labour Market, it explores the themes of gender, ethnicity and social inequality. The mapping of these inequalities, their interrelationships and the specification of the factors responsible for the (labour)positions occupied by people in our society, allow us to work towards a more 'equal' society (for the full contents of the research of the Policy Research Centre on Education and School Careers, see www.steunpuntloopbanen.be. Above only the VUB-pole is described.)