Make it Strong: New analysis of education, employment and family data

A new Infra4NextGen report that analyses panel survey data collected on the Make it Strong theme over the past two years is now available.

The report investigates whether young people experience the same or better opportunities than previous generations when it comes to education and employment.

Written by Rumiana Stoilova (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences) and Yuliya Kazakova (Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute), the report also assesses attitudes towards family.

The report—Topline Results: The Social Blueprint: Education, Work, and Family as Determinants of Life Chances—examines survey data collected in 11 countries.

The analysis focuses on the fairness of educational opportunities, familiarity with the Erasmus Programme, attitudes towards education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and vocational education and training.

The report's authors considered educational and employment opportunities, whether education is relevant to employment and entrepreneurship.

The report also analyses survey data measuring the importance of family, whether marriage is an outdated institution, and what aspects are important to maintain a healthy relationship.

The report concludes: "Overall, the evidence points to a clear policy imperative: strengthening human capital, reducing structural barriers, and ensuring smooth transitions from education to work are essential to achieving NextGenerationEU's vision of a clean, innovative, inclusive, and digitally sovereign Europe."

Data was collected via the self-completion web first panel (CRONOS-3), fielded over five waves in 2024-25 as part of the Infra4NextGen project.

Panellists in Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Finland, France, Hungary, Iceland, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom were asked to complete each wave online or, if that was not possible, using paper self-completion questionnaires.

All panelists had previously answered a questionnaire fielded by the European Social Survey (ESS). More information is copied below.

Educational and employment opportunities

The report shows relatively positive attitudes towards the fairness of educational opportunities in all 11 counties, but there are clear differences between younger and older respondents.

Those aged under 35 tend to rate their chances of attaining the education they need to be lower than those aged 35 and over in almost all countries.

Only in Slovenia do younger respondents report higher perceptions of fairness in education compared to the older age group (35+).

The report states: "Overall, the general trend across countries indicates that opportunities for access to education are evaluated more favourably than opportunities for starting a career."

Vocational training and entrepreneurship

The analysis found that both younger and older respondents were relatively similar when it came to reasons for undertaking vocational education and training.

The reasons for both the under 35 and 35 and over age groups were, from most important to least important, to improve job opportunities, acquire practical skills and training, obtain higher salary, qualify for higher levels of education and improve opportunities to set up their own business.

However, when it came to interest in learning entrepreneurship and financial competences in compulsory education, young people were much more likely to express support.

Support amongst young people was strongest in Czechia (78.3% compared with 53.4%) and Portugal (72.8% to 44.1%). In all 11 countries, support was higher amongst those aged under 35.

STEM careers

Respondents were asked about careers in education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), specifically what motivates them to embracing this type of education by gender and age.

Results were similar across both the younger and older age groups, but there are clear gender discrepancies.

The authors state: "Women account for the majority of those expressing no interest in pursuing STEM studies—65% compared to 35% of men—across both younger and older generations."

However, there are signs that the gender gap might be decreasing in some of the motivations for undertaking STEM education when comparing younger and older Europeans.

Motivations include earning more money, working in jobs of the future, and jobs with strong prospects.

The report states: "These smaller gender gaps point to early signs of changing attitudes, where young women increasingly recognise STEM as a pathway to well-paid and future-oriented employment."

Job-education mismatch

Data from CRONOS-3 highlights clear generational differences when it comes to a mismatch between an employee's field of study and their job requirements.

Younger respondents are less likely to report that their current employment corresponds to their education and a larger share of young workers state that their job has nothing to do with their field of study.

Family values

Younger and older respondents agreed that the family life is important, with 88.3% of respondents under 35 and 91.2% of those aged 35 and over rating it as essential or very important.

There was a similar level of agreement by both age groups in response to a separate question on whether marriage is considered to be an outdated concept.

Only a small proportion in each age group consider marriage to be outdated—15.8% among those under 35 compared with 11.0% among those aged 35 and over.

Panellists were asked to rate the importance of various aspects that are valuable for a marriage or partnership.

Both age groups consider faithfulness to be the most important (89.7% of under 35s and 88.8% of those aged 35 and over) but then priorities diverge.

"Older adults place slightly greater emphasis on practical and traditional elements, such as an adequate income (59.8% vs. 54.5%), good accommodation (63.7% vs. 59.7%), and especially having children (54.7% vs. 33.9%).

"In contrast, younger adults prioritise values reflecting equality and individuality: sharing household chores (74.4% vs. 61.2%) and maintaining personal time for friends or hobbies (77.7% vs. 60.6%)."

Read the report: Topline Results: The Social Blueprint: Education, Work, and Family as Determinants of Life Chances

Provided by European Social Survey ERIC