In this report, we follow two cohorts who completed their education as nurses or primary school teachers in 2005 and 2015. We look at where they start working after their education and where they continue to work. The reference dates used are two, four and six years after graduation.
There was a high proportion of nurses who started and continued to work within healthcare. For the nurses from the 2015 cohort, we find that over 90 per cent were working in the healthcare industry two years after graduating. After six years, the proportion had been reduced to 87,5 per cent. The 2005 cohort had a similar development, but among this cohort a somewhat lower proportion worked in the healthcare industries in the years after graduation. The higher proportions for the 2015 cohort are mainly due to more of the nurses working in the healthcare industry two years after graduating. Changes in their status on the labour market after four and six years was of less importance. This may indicate that the very first years of working are particularly important for whether nurses continue to work within health. However, it must be emphasized that the results cannot be easily generalized to apply to all newly educated.
The nurses who did not work within health worked in several different industries. There were many in both cohorts who worked within the labour service industry, which includes employment agencies, two years after completing their education. The share decreased after four and six years in favour of, among other industries, public administration.
Among the primary school teachers there was also a high proportion who worked in the profession for which they were trained. For the 2015 cohort, 89.5 per cent were working in the teaching industry after two years. Six years after graduation, this proportion had dropped to 87.8 per cent. For the 2005 cohort, the proportion who worked within teaching was somewhat lower, but roughly the same two and six years after graduation. We also found here that the higher proportions among the 2015 cohort were mainly due to more people working in the teaching industry two years after completing their education, and not due to changes that occurred after four and six years.
Six years after completing the education, public administration was the most common industry for primary school teachers who did not work within teaching. This applied to both cohorts. There was more variation in industries between the cohorts two years after completing the education, but retail was one of the most common industries to work in for both.
There are high proportions of the nurses and primary school teachers who worked within health and teaching. Even so, there were a significant number in the two cohorts who did not work in these industries. Six years after completing their education, we find that approximately 1 100 of the nurses from the two cohorts worked in other industries or were not employed. For primary school teachers, the corresponding number was lower, with over 550 not working within teaching. The numbers differ due to differences in the number of graduates in the two educational groups. There were more people who trained to become nurses than primary school teachers. If these people had instead worked in health or teaching, it could have helped to reduce the shortage of these educational groups.