Skills or Credentials? Comparing the Perspectives of Degree-and Non-degree-holding Ghanaian Graduates on the Value of Higher Education

Abstract

The massification of higher education, fuelled in part by demand from young people and their families, has coincided with more competition in the graduate labour market. This article seeks insight into the interpretative framework through which graduates view the relationship between higher education and the labour market. Specifically, given evidence of diminishing employment opportunities for graduates, the study examines the relative strengths of human capital theory and credentialism in explaining the value that young people continue to place on higher education. Using survey data from a sample of 2,036 Ghanaian higher education graduates, the article investigates the relative value students accord to skills and credentials through analysis of two self-report measures: satisfaction with their higher education experience, and, second, labour market expectations in respect of employment and income. Overall, non-degree holders self-assessed as having more skills training. Nonetheless, degree-holders generally were more satisfied with their educational achievements and had higher labour market expectations than those without degrees. These findings imply that young people value higher education less in terms of the skills they acquire and more in regards to the face-value of the qualifications they obtain, indicating a credentialist perspective that is in marked contrast to the human capital approach which undergirds policymaking on higher education in Ghana and much of the African continent.

Full text

JHEA/RESA Vol. 18, No. 1, 2020, pp. 67-91
© Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, 2021
(ISSN 0851–7762)
Skills or Credentials? Comparing the
Perspectives of Degree- and Non-degree-holding
Ghanaian Graduates on the Value of
Higher Education
Nana Akua Anyidoho*
Abstract
The massification of higher education, fuelled in part by demand from
young people and their families, has coincided with more competition in
the graduate labour market. This article seeks insight into the interpretative
framework through which graduates view the relationship between higher
education and the labour market. Specifically, given evidence of diminishing
employment opportunities for graduates, the study examines the relative
strengths of human capital theory and credentialism in explaining the value
that young people continue to place on higher education. Using survey
data from a sample of 2,036 Ghanaian higher education graduates, the
article investigates the relative value students accord to skills and credentials
through analysis of two self-report measures: satisfaction with their higher
education experience, and, second, labour market expectations in respect
of employment and income. Overall, non-degree holders self-assessed as
having more skills training. Nonetheless, degree-holders generally were more
satisfied with their educational achievements and had higher labour market
expectations than those without degrees. These findings imply that young
people value higher education less in terms of the skills they acquire and
more in regards to the face-value of the qualifications they obtain, indicating
a credentialist perspective that is in marked contrast to the human capital
approach which undergirds policymaking on higher education in Ghana
and much of the African continent.
* Associate Professor and Director, Centre for Social Policy Studies, University of Ghana.
Email: anyidoho@ug.edu.gh

68 JHEA/RESA Vol. 18, No. 1, 2020
Résumé
La massification de l’enseignement supérieur, alimentée en partie par
l’exigence des jeunes et de leurs familles, a coïncidé avec une concurrence
accrue sur le marché de l’emploi des diplômés. Cet article cherche à
éclairer le cadre interprétatif à travers lequel les diplômés perçoivent la
relation entre l’enseignement supérieur et le marché de l’emploi. Plus
précisément, selon les preuves sur la baisse des opportunités d’emploi
pour les diplômés, l’étude examine les forces relatives à la théorie du
capital humain et à l’accréditation pour expliquer la valeur que les jeunes
continuent à accorder à l’enseignement supérieur. À l’aide de données
de recherche provenant d’un échantillon de 2 036 diplômés ghanéens
de l’enseignement supérieur, l’article étudie la valeur relative que les
étudiants accordent aux compétences et aux diplômes par l’analyse de
deux mesures d’auto-évaluation : d’une part, la satisfaction à l’égard
de leur expérience dans l’enseignement supérieur et, d’autre part, les
attentes du marché du travail en matière d’emploi et de revenu. Dans
l’ensemble, les non-diplômés s’auto-évaluent et considèrent qu’ils ont plus
de compétence professionnelle. Cependant, les titulaires d’un diplôme
étaient généralement plus satisfaits de leurs résultats scolaires et avaient
des attentes plus élevées sur le marché de l’emploi que ceux qui n’ont pas
de diplôme. Ces résultats démontrent que les jeunes accordent moins
d’importance à l’enseignement supérieur en termes de compétences
acquises et plus à la valeur nominale des qualifications obtenues, ce
qui indique une perspective en matière d’accréditation qui contraste
fortement avec l’approche du capital humain qui sous-tend l’élaboration
des politiques de l’enseignement supérieur au Ghana et sur la plupart du
continent africain.
Introduction
Formal education changes aspirations and life prospects. e experience
of formal education transforms young people’s knowledge, capacities
and values, shaping how they see themselves in the present and where
they see themselves in the future (see Kingston et al. 2003). Normatively,
education also improves life chances, notably through employment, which
in turn facilitates other life transitions necessary for independent adulthood
(Honwana 2012; Cieslik & Simpson 2013).
On the African continent, the valorisation of education as a vehicle
for social mobility has a long history. In the late pre-colonial and colonial
periods, Western education offered new pathways to wealth and social
status, primarily through expanded opportunities for employment in
nascent formal economic and political systems (Lord 2011; Ahlman 2012;

69
Anyidoho: Ghanaian Graduates on the Value of Higher Education
Tsikata & Darkwah 2013). For African countries that gained independence
from colonial rule in the late 1950s and 1960s, these aspirations were
reinforced by a policy rhetoric of education as ‘the master determinant of
all aspects of change’ for nation-states in transition to a ‘modern’ society
(Coleman 1965:3, quoted in Abu-Laban & Abu-Laban 1976). This change
would happen at both individual and national levels; education was to be
the making of the nation through changes to the skills and, the mindsets, of
the population. Institutions of higher education,1 in particular, held pride
of place as a symbol of a modernising nation expected to produce graduates
with the skills to support socio-economic development (Ajayi, Goma &
Johnson 1996; Morley, Leach & Lugg 2009).
However, the assumption that higher education credentials denote the
possession of skills is challenged by studies in which employers point to a
scarcity of employable skills among graduates of higher education (Brown &
Hesketh 2004; Moreau & Leathwood 2006; Bawakyillenuo et al. 2013). The
evidence from Ghana (e.g. Adu-Amoah 2008; Bawakyillenuo et al. 2013)
and elsewhere (e.g. Purcell, Morley & Rowley 2002; Brown & Hesketh
2004; Moreau & Leathwood 2006) suggests that employers increasingly
attach less importance to formal academic credentials and more to skills.2 In
other words, employers discriminate between skills and credentials.
Do young people likewise place differential value on the skills and
credentials obtained through higher education? We know much more
about policy-makers’ and employers’ perspectives than those of young
people because there are few studies in African contexts that explore their
understanding of the relationship between education and the labour market
and of themselves as (prospective) workers (Moreau & Leathwood 2006;
Leavy & Smith 2010; Ismail 2016). This is a significant area of neglect since
trends in education and the labour market are not only the result of actions
by governments and by employers but also of the aggregate decisions of
young people and their families.
This article investigates the differential weight that higher education
graduates accord to skills and credentials in assessing the ways in which
their higher education experience translates to labour market success. It is
based on survey data from 2,036 graduates of Ghanaian higher education
institutions interviewed during the one-year mandatory national service
period which, for many, precedes their first or full entry into the labour
market. The study compares holders of degrees (the majority university
graduates) and holders of non-degree qualifications (the majority graduate
of polytechnics) on two dimensions: their evaluation of their higher
education experience, including a self-assessment of skills acquired; and their

70 JHEA/RESA Vol. 18, No. 1, 2020
employment expectations. While non-degree holders assessed themselves
more highly on skills training, degree-holders expressed more satisfaction
with their educational achievements and more optimism about their labour
market prospects. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of graduates,
across all higher education institutions and qualifications, regardless of self-
report of skills obtained, expressed a desire to obtain higher credentials.
These analyses suggest that graduates place a higher premium on obtaining
credentials to get work than on acquiring skills to do work.
Literature Review
e article is grounded in two perspectives on the relationship between
higher education and the labour market: the human capital theory and the
credentialist perspective. ese do not operate in a mutually exclusive manner
nor are they exhaustive. However, they represent two dominant frameworks
in the literature on the higher education-labour market nexus (Tomlinson
2008). To use Tomlinson’s 2008 heuristic, the human capital framework is
about ‘the skills and knowledge… needed to do jobs’ while the credentialist
perspective is about ‘what is needed to get jobs’ (p. 50, italics in original).
As is true for many post-colonial African countries, Ghana’s educational
policy-making has been underpinned by human capital theory (Assie-
Lumumba 2006). The theory proposes that the more years of education
an individual has, the more knowledge and skills they acquire and,
consequently, the greater the returns they obtain in terms of employment
opportunities, earnings and career progression. During the era of economic
reforms in African countries in the 1980s commonly referred to as the
structural adjustment period, the World Bank’s policy prescription of
drastic reductions in public expenditure on higher education was based on
human capital theory, and specifically on studies that suggested that higher
education yielded higher returns for the individual than the society (Samoff
& Carrol 2003; Teferra & Altbach 2004). Other studies have indicated that
private returns from higher education are greater than primary education.
This relationship is especially strong for African countries (see Montenegro
& Patrinos 2014; Psacharopoulos & Patrinos 2018). Despite these
inconsistencies in its empirical support, human capital theory has persisted
as the ideological basis for educational policy-making in many countries on
the continent.
In Ghana, the association of education with the acquisition of employable
skills has consistently been articulated in policy discourse since the first post-
independence government. Moreover, it was explicitly stated as the goal of
educational reforms in the 1980s, one of the most comprehensive in the

71
Anyidoho: Ghanaian Graduates on the Value of Higher Education
country’s history (Anyidoho, Kpessa-Whyte & Asante 2013). Three decades
later, in 2012, the Ministry of Education described its mandate thus:
to provide relevant and quality education for all Ghanaians especially the
disadvantaged to enable them acquire skills which will make them functionally
literate and productive to facilitate poverty alleviation and promote the rapid
socio-economic growth of the country (emphasis added).3
In 2021, the website of the same ministry has a statement of purpose
that focuses more on the individual’s work prospects rather than national
development and retains a focus on skills acquisition.
The MoE is committed to ensuring that all Ghanaians are prepared to
succeed in the world of work. It achieves this through the development of an
educational system that focuses on promoting problem solving and creativity
and building critical skills through academic, technical and vocational
programs (emphasis added).4
ese policy statements are especially pertinent for higher education;
if education is meant to impart employable skills, then individuals who
complete higher education would be among the most highly skilled in
society and, according to human capital theory, the most rewarded in
the labour market. Indeed, in contemporary development discourse and
practice, higher education is presented as ‘a central site for facilitating the
skills, knowledge and expertise that are essential to economic and social
development’ (Morley, Leach, & Lugg 2009:56).
In the Ghanaian context, human capital theory is called into question by
evidence that graduates of higher education institutions have higher rates of
unemployment than the general youth population (see Ajayi & Anyidoho
2021), in a country in which economic growth has consistently outpaced
employment rates and job creation (Aryeetey & Baah-Boateng 2016). In
particular, the formal sector – the traditional and preferred destination of
higher education graduates – has become more constrained; formal sector
jobs have been growing by an average of 1.3 per cent while the increase in
the populations of graduates has been much higher (Baah-Boateng 2015).
Young people in Ghana and, indeed, on the rest of the continent, are
aware of the diminishing value of a graduate degree in terms of employment
prospects. Even while they expect higher education qualifications to open
doors for them through secure employment, they recognise that such
credentials do not have as much value as they did in terms of work and
general life prospects (Honwana 2012). From a human capital perspective,
one explanation is that higher education may not be providing young
people the skills needed to obtain and to do work. There is some support

72 JHEA/RESA Vol. 18, No. 1, 2020
for this in the fact that both Ghanaian employers and graduates complain
that higher education graduates lack the right set of skills for available jobs
(Tagoe 2009; Bawakyillenuo et al. 2013; Acquah 2016).
To the extent that young people perceive skills acquisition as a
determinant of labour market outcomes, one would expect that they
would show a preference for programmes and institutions that are seen
to convey employable skills. Polytechnics in Ghana are public institutions
that are set up to train young people with industrial and technical skills
that are presumably in demand by the labour market. With the framing in
Ghanaian public discourse that degree programmes are theory-bound and
that diploma programmes in polytechnics and professional institutes offer
more ‘practical’ and work-relevant skills (Acquah 2016), one might expect
that young people would place more value on polytechnic education. On
the contrary, polytechnics have acquired a reputation as a backup option
for students who are unable to gain admission to degree programmes in
universities (Amaniampong 2014). Universities, on the other hand, have
experienced an increase in admissions that cannot be explained solely by
the increase in population size (SAPRI 2001; Anyidoho, Kpessa-Whyte &
Asante 2013; Anyidoho 2014; Anyidoho 2019).
There are evidently limits to the extent to which the human capital
approach can explain the demand for forms of higher education that
both graduates and employers claim do not provide employable skills.
The credentialist perspective offers an alternative set of explanations.
Credentialism is a concept with a long history used here to describe the
demand for higher education as the pursuit for a ticket into the labour
market (and attendant social status) rather than the attempt to acquire the
skills with which to do a job. From a credentialism perspective, credentials
are less indicators of work skills than markers of socio-cultural position and
advantage (Mincer 1974; Bourdieu 1986; Brown 2001; Jonasson 2006).
Credentialism is not a new phenomenon in higher education. Credentials
have always been prized for their symbolic value and as ‘a legitimation of
advantages that empower degree holders in occupational and organisational
recruitment’ (Brown 2001:20). However, there are indications that the
phenomenon is more prevalent in contemporary times and is a major
driver of the expanded demand for and participation in higher education
worldwide (Jonasson 2006). The diminished value of a higher degree in
the graduate labour market is partly the result of increased participation
in higher education; as more people gain a higher education qualification,
it becomes less of a marker of distinction than a basic requirement for a
professional job (Harvey 2000; Brown & Hesketh 2004; Tomlinson 2008;

73
Anyidoho: Ghanaian Graduates on the Value of Higher Education
Wilton 2011). This means a higher education qualification does not convey as
much competitive advantage as it used to – a phenomenon that is sometimes
referred to as ‘credential inflation’, where jobs that did not previously, and may
not strictly, require a higher education qualification are hard to attain without
a higher education qualification.5 People are thus compelled to acquire more
credentials to stay competitive in the job market without necessarily adding
to the capacity that they need to do work competently.
Credentialism could, therefore, potentially offer an explanation for
the preference of Ghanaian students for degrees and for degree-granting
universities over non-degree qualifications offered by polytechnic and other
institutions that offer professional or technical skills. Even the body set up to
oversee education concludes that young people appear to be more attracted
to the social status that goes with being a degree-holding university graduate
(Ministry of Education 2014; also Dasmani 2011). Indeed, there is the
suggestion that the policy announced in 2016 (shortly after data collection for
this study had been completed) converting polytechnics into degree-granting
technical universities in Ghana may have been a populist response to the
privileging of university degrees over non-degree qualifications (‘Conversion
of polytechnics into technical universities’ 2016; Nunyonameh 2016).
The foregoing suggests that it is important to understand young people’s
configuration of the relationship between higher education and the labour
market. In this study, we are specifically interested in which of the two
theories of interest (with their differential emphasis on skills and credentials)
better captures young Ghanaian graduates’ understanding of the value of
higher education for job market success. This study is a response to the gap
in the literature on the interpretive frameworks through which graduates
view the labour market and themselves as workers (see Tomlinson (2007)
and Tymon (2013) as exceptions). Moreover, it adds to the sparse literature
that explores young people’s perspectives on policy discussions of youth
employment and unemployability on the African continent (Ismail 2016).
Research Methods
Sampling and Data Collection Methods
e article is based on a survey of graduates of higher education institutions
within one year of completing school. Respondents were from both
public and private institutions, including universities, university colleges,
polytechnics, and institutes of professional studies. Respondents were
interviewed between October and November 2015, during their one-year
participation in the National Service Scheme (NSS) which is mandatory for
all higher education graduates under 40 years of age.

74 JHEA/RESA Vol. 18, No. 1, 2020
The 2015/2016 cohort, from which this sample is drawn, was made
up of 75,000 graduates working in public and private institutions all over
the country. As we were unable to obtain 2015 data from the NSS, data
from 2014 was used to derive a sampling frame of institutions to which
national service persons were posted. The study randomly selected 1,020
establishments in three of ten administrative regions: Greater Accra, Ashanti
and Northern Regions. Given resource constraints, the three regions were
chosen to represent geographical spread, being respectively in the southern,
middle belt and northern regions of Ghana. The three regions (which also
have the three largest urban centres) also absorb 60 per cent of all national
service personnel.
In each establishment, national service persons (NSPs) were invited
to complete a 45-minute interview with trained research assistants.
Respondents, therefore, self-selected into the study. A maximum number of
10 respondents per establishment was set so that none of the establishments
were over-represented in the sample. (The 2014 dataset on national service
persons indicated that each establishment had between 1 and 10 national
service persons.6) The eventual non-random sample comprised 2,036
graduate NSPs from 454 establishments.7
Respondents were informed about the goals of the study and completed
a consent form prior to taking part in the survey.8 They were informed
about their right to opt out at any point in the interview.
In addition to questions about family and educational background, the
structured questionnaire elicited responses about their secondary and higher
education programmes and performance, including their assessment of the
extent of their skills training. Additionally, they were asked about their
labour market expectations.
Sample Composition
The final sample was non-random and biased towards establishments
that had NSPs in 2014. It was also biased towards individuals
available and willing to participate in the survey during the period of
data collection.
The data set consisted of 2,036 graduates from higher education
institutions in Ghana. The sample was made up of 57 per cent males and
43 per cent females. The 1,180 degree-holders (almost all of whom were
university graduates) made up 58 per cent of the sample, with the other 856
(42 per cent) being recipients of Higher National Diplomas (HND) and
other non-degree credentials (Table 1).

75
Anyidoho: Ghanaian Graduates on the Value of Higher Education
Table 1: Sample composition
Universities and other
non-polytechnic institutions Polytechnic TOTAL
Non-Degree 242
28.3%
614
71.7%
856
100%
Degree 1,178
99.8%
2
0.2%
1,180
100%
1,420 616 2,036
Analysis
e statistical dierences between degree- and non-degree holders were
analysed using t-tests and chi-squared tests. Both probit and multivariate
linear regressions were used to determine the contribution of other variables
that might be related to the decision to pursue degree or non-degree
programmes.
Findings
Assessment of Experience of Higher Education
Overall satisfaction with higher education
e question of young people’s satisfaction with higher education is a measure
of the value they accord to it. e entire survey focused on the transition to
and prospects for work, and so graduates’ self-reported satisfaction can be
assumed to be with primary reference to the opportunity higher education
provided them for employment (see Honwana 2012).
An overwhelming majority (94 per cent) of the sample – irrespective of
programme of study, type of institution, or terminal credentials – expressed
satisfaction with the education they had obtained. As further confirmation,
about 95 per cent of the sample affirmed that, if they had it to do all over
again, they would still choose to get a higher education qualification.
Table 2: Would respondents select the same or dierent institution/course?
Frequency Percentage
Dierent course at dierent institution 314 16.26
Dierent course at same institution 210 10.88
Same course at same institution 943 48.83
Same course at dierent institution 463 24.03
Total 1,931 100.00

76 JHEA/RESA Vol. 18, No. 1, 2020
Beyond this broad evaluation, graduates were asked specically to evaluate
the programmes or courses they had done and institutions in which they had
studied. Of the 95 per cent of the sample who conrmed their choice to get
a higher education, about half (49 per cent) stated they would choose to do
the same course at the same institution (Table 2). Another 40 per cent would
choose a dierent institution and 27 per cent would choose a dierent course.
What is noteworthy is that nearly a quarter (24 per cent) of these students
would have preferred to do the same course but at a dierent institution. In
other words, they discriminated between the content of the course and the
credential (a degree or alternative qualications given by a specic institution).
Table 3 displays the responses to the same set of questions but with
differences between degree and non-degree holders highlighted. The results
of a series of chi-squared tests indicated no significant difference in the
expression of overall satisfaction between graduates with degrees and those
without. However, degree-holding graduates (99.8 per cent of whom attended
university) were more likely to affirm both their programme of study and
institution. On their part, non-degree holders (the majority of whom were
polytechnic graduates) were more likely to say that they were happy with
their course but would have wanted to be in a different institution. Further,
out of the 221 diploma-holding graduates of polytechnic institutions who
said they would elect to do the same course but in a different institution,
40 per cent gave as their reason that they would want to go to university
to get a degree or to get a ‘better’ or ‘higher’ credential.9 This tally may be
an underestimate as it includes only those responses in which an explicit
desire for a degree or for university admission is stated; it is probable that
similar preferences were implicit in further responses that expressed a
wish to explore other institutions or environments. The desire to do the
same course (implying a general satisfaction with the knowledge and skills
acquired) but in a different institution appears to fit with the credentialist
perspective that says that students may place more emphasis on the face-
value of the qualifications than the content of their programmes of study.
Self-assessment of Skills Training
e survey elicited students’ assessment of skills training they had acquired
in the course of their higher educational careers. Specically, respondents
were asked about the extent of training in a number of skill sets. e list
of skills presented to respondents is not exhaustive and, admittedly, there
is little agreement on the set of skills necessary for the graduate labour
market or about their operational meanings (Tymon 2013). Nonetheless,

77
Anyidoho: Ghanaian Graduates on the Value of Higher Education
the list is indicative of the skills that the literature suggests are important to
employers. Consequently, it skews towards intra- and interpersonal (‘soft’)
skills relative to technical skills, as the literature suggests the former is more
valued by employers (Tagoe 2009; Bawakyillenuo et al. 2013).
Table 3: Satisfaction with higher education
Non-Degree Degree Di.
Very unsatised 0.051 0.058 -0.007
[0.010]
Somewhat satised 0.421 0.425 -0.005
[0.022]
Very satised
0.528 0.516 0.012
[0.022]
Would still choose to pursue higher education
0.960 0.938 0.022
[0.010]**
a15==Dierent course at dierent institution
0.164 0.162 0.002
[0.017]
a15==Dierent course at same institution
0.040 0.160 -0.120
[0.014]***
a15==Same course at same institution
0.462 0.508 -0.046
[0.023]**
a15==Same course at dierent institution
0.334 0.171 0.164
[0.019]***
Between 60 per cent to 70 per cent of respondents in each category believed
they had ‘the right amount’ of training in each skill set, with the notable
exception of technology or IT skills (Table 4).
ere were dierences between degree and non-degree holders in the
assessment of skills gained, but with few consistencies in the extent and
direction of the dierences. Out of the eight skills categories assessed, a
signicant dierence was observed for ve; in four cases degree-holders
reported that they had received less training than they needed for the job
market and in three cases non-degree holders stated that they had received
more training than they needed. Overall, degree holders were likely to rate
themselves as having less skills training.

78 JHEA/RESA Vol. 18, No. 1, 2020
Table 4: Skills training
Skills
Non-Degree
Degree
Di.
Teamwork==Less training than needed 0.116 0.114 0.002
[0.014]
Teamwork==Right amount of training 0.679 0.676 0.002
[0.021]
Teamwork==More training than needed 0.206 0.210 -0.005
[0.018]
Leadership==Less training than needed 0.166 0.202 -0.036
[0.017]**
Leadership==Right amount of training 0.598 0.595 0.003
[0.022]
Leadership==More training than needed 0.236 0.203 0.033
[0.019]*
Motivation==Less training than needed 0.132 0.173 -0.041
[0.016]**
Motivation==Right amount of training 0.606 0.620 -0.014
[0.022]
Motivation==More training than needed 0.262 0.207 0.055
[0.019]***
Ability to learn==Less training than needed 0.078 0.106 -0.028
[0.013]**
Ability to learn==Right amount of training 0.612 0.609 0.003
[0.022]
Ability to learn==More training than needed 0.310 0.285 0.025
[0.020]
Problem solving==Less training than needed 0.159 0.160 -0.001
[0.016]
Problem solving ==Right amount of training 0.625 0.610 0.015
[0.022]
Problem solving ==More training than needed 0.216 0.230 -0.014
[0.019]
Communication==Less training than needed 0.089 0.117 -0.028
[0.014]**
Communication ==Right amount of training 0.623 0.630 -0.007
[0.022]
Communication ==More training than needed 0.289 0.253 0.035
[0.020]*
Analytical skills==Less training than needed 0.155 0.154 0.001
[0.016]
Analytical skills==Right amount of training 0.657 0.642 0.015
[0.021]
Analytical skills ==More training than needed 0.188 0.204 -0.016
[0.018]
Technology or IT ==Less training than needed 0.350 0.318 0.033
[0.021]

79
Anyidoho: Ghanaian Graduates on the Value of Higher Education
Technology or IT ==Right amount of training 0.460 0.499 -0.039
[0.022]*
Technology or IT ==More training than needed 0.189 0.183 0.006
N: non-degree holders = 856
856, degree holders = 1180 [0.017]
These findings should be interpreted cautiously because of the limited set of
skills surveyed. Nonetheless, they do lead to two interesting conclusions: First,
despite employers’ complaint that young people lack the appropriate ‘soft skills’
for work, on all seven measures, a majority of graduates (60 per cent or more)
assessed themselves as having received the right amount of training. This is
at odds with employers’ evaluation of graduates (Tagoe 2009; Bawakyillenuo
et al. 2013). Second, given the accepted wisdom in Ghana that university
degree programmes are more ‘theoretical’ and technical programmes such as
those offered by polytechnics are more ‘practical’, it is interesting that degree-
holders from universities were slightly more positive about their IT training
than non-degree holders, 78 per cent of whom attended polytechnics.
Internships and other such experiences help students to acquire work-
relevant skills as well as improving their job-search and job-retention skills
(Tymon 2013), the lack of which is a disadvantage to young people in the
job market (Baah & Achamoka 2007; ILO 2010). The survey, therefore,
asked graduates if they perceived that their institutions had provided them
adequate opportunities for work experience (Table 5). While roughly
half of each group of respondents (and slightly more for degree-holders)
reported an optimum amount of such work experience, non-degree holders
reported having received too much of such experience compared to about
20 per cent for degree-holders, while 21 per cent said they had received too
little, compared to 27 per cent of degree holders. Here again, by their own
self-assessment, degree holders would appear to have less work experience
(and, by implication, less opportunity for acquiring work-ready skills) in
the course of their higher education than non-degree holders.
Table 5: Work experience by type of credential
Non-Degree Degree Di.
[0.017]
Attachment/work experience==Less
training than needed
0.206 0.269 -0.063
[0.019]***
Attachment/work experience==Right
amount of training
0.454 0.535 -0.080
[0.022]***
Attachment/work experience==More
training than needed
0.340 0.197 0.143
[0.019]***

80 JHEA/RESA Vol. 18, No. 1, 2020
Desire for additional certications
Respondents were asked about their desire to acquire further qualications.
ese gures must be interpreted cautiously given that aspiration and
intent do not automatically result in action. Nonetheless, it is remarkable
that almost the entire sample (that is, 96 per cent) expressed a desire for
further higher education qualications, with no dierence between degree
and non-degree holders (Table 6). Not surprisingly, non-degree holders
had a signicantly higher desire for a bachelor’s degree compared to degree
holders who already had this qualication. What is more interesting is that
non-degree holders were signicantly more likely to report a desire for a
master’s degree.
Table 6: Desire for additional qualications
Non-
Degree Degree Di.
Would like additional higher education
qualications 0.963 0.965 0.008
[0.008]
Highest qualication desired
Bachelor’s degree 0.158 0.012 0.146
[0.011]***
Master’s degree 0.417 0.339 0.078
[0.022]***
Doctorate degree 0.388 0.614 -0.227
[0.022]***
e survey did not elicit the motivation behind this desire for further
qualication. However, when interpreted against the backdrop of the
dierence between degree and non-degree holders in their self-assessment of
employable skills training, these results indicate that skills acquisition may
not be the primarily incentive for additional credentials. Indeed, the fact
that 61 per cent of degree-holders and 39 per cent of non-degree holders
would want a doctorate degree is reasonable evidence that some other
calculations are behind their responses, given that there are few available
jobs that require the specic skills that doctorate training would oer. e
more likely explanation is ‘credential ination’ where young people believe
that even higher qualications may give them an advantage in a crowded
job market.

81
Anyidoho: Ghanaian Graduates on the Value of Higher Education
Labour Market Expectations
e survey provided information on three indicators of labour market
outcomes. e rst variable is based on respondents’ simple self-assessment
of the odds of earning an income within the rst six months after national
service, either through a job or self-employment (on a scale of 1 to 10,
with 0 being ‘no chance at all’ and 10 indicating certainty). For the entire
sample, the mode for this ordinal variable was 5 out of 10 (eectively a 50-
50 chance) and the median was 7 out of 10 (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Chance of earning income within 6 months of national service
Regression analyses were conducted to determine if there were statistically
signicant dierences between degree and non-degree holders in their
labour market outlook, and also to explore alternative explanations for these
dierences. Table 7 shows the results of a probit regression for the self-reported
chance of earning income within six months of completing national service
and a multivariate liner regression for minimum and expected monthly
earnings respectively (reported in Ghanaian cedis). Degree holders reported a
signicantly higher expectation on all three variables (equations 1, 2 and 3).
Degree holders’ higher labour market expectations held up even with the
introduction into the models of variables that might be expected to influence
both labour market expectation and self-selection into degree programmes
and degree-granting institutions, given research that shows that economic

82 JHEA/RESA Vol. 18, No. 1, 2020
and social advantage is associated with admission into degree-granting
universities (Addae-Mensah 2000). The variables included the demographic
characteristics of sex and age; a self-esteem measure using the Rosenberg
self-esteem index (Rosenberg 1965);10 educational background, including
programme of study and self-reported grades on the nationwide Secondary
School Certification Exam (SSCE), a standardised and uniformly graded
national examination that largely determines admission into higher education
institutions; family background variables (including parents’ education,
parents’ work with government and family’s political connections) as proxies
for socio-economic status and social capital; and, finally, paid work experience
since secondary school. Out of these variables, self-esteem was consistently
significant, indicating that, regardless of qualification, graduates with higher
reported self-esteem tended to be more confident about their prospects in the
labour market. Programme of study also proved to be significant across all the
models; compared with students in all other programmes, including business,
students in STEM were more optimistic about their chances of employment
and their income levels. SSCE scores were significant in explaining the
differences between degree and non-degree holders, but only in relation to
income. Sex, age, previous work experience and family background variables
proved to be significant, but not consistently so.
In sum, despite reporting lower work-related skills training and work
experience, degree holders generally had higher labour market expectations,
suggesting again that the type of qualification matters to graduates in
evaluating their chances of labour market success.

83
Anyidoho: Ghanaian Graduates on the Value of Higher Education
Table 7: Type of qualication and labour market expectations
(1) (1A) (2) (2A) (3) (3A)
Chance of Income Chance of Income Minimum Acceptable Income Minimum Acceptable Income Expected Income Expected Income
Degree 0.263*** 0.153** 251.565*** 159.702*** 435.545*** 244.582***
Demographic characteristics
Sex (female) -0.073 -49.438 -135.159**
Age 0.006 10.535** 8.644
Socio-emotional attribute
Self-esteem score 0.407*** 132.719*** 238.209***
Programme of study
SSCE standardised score 0.045 67.506*** 111.100***
Tertiary eld of study = STEM 0.137* 170.617*** 293.774***
Tertiary eld of study = Business 0.044 17.653 8.737
Family background
Father completed primary 0.006 -125.012*** -180.479**
Father completed secondary 0.108 -74.232 -40.552
Father completed tertiary 0.052 -86.755 -90.302
Mother completed primary 0.018 -22.803 -106.221
Mother completed secondary 0.028 37.124 60.300
Mother completed tertiary 0.242* 135.511 229.395
Father ever worked for government 0.107* 31.258 99.931
Mother ever worked for government -0.061 -36.080 -95.914
Family member in political oce 0.228** 55.649 288.529*
Work experience
Work experience since secondary school (work for prot/pay)
0.107* -43.436 -69.757
Constant -0.049 -1.658*** 1,018.115*** 418.579** 1,534.531*** 703.469**
Observations 2,036 2,036 2,036 2,036 2,036 2,036
*** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1

84 JHEA/RESA Vol. 18, No. 1, 2020
Conclusion
Although the expansion of higher education is partly fuelled by the personal
ambitions of individuals and their families, policy discourse and research
on higher education pivots around the perspectives and interventions of
governments and employers. Young people’s experiences are underexplored,
which implies that very little of their voice is ltered into policy (Ismail
2016). is article provides insight into the interpretative framework that
young people apply to the relationship between the higher education and
labour market participation. Specically, it examines the relative strengths of
the human capital theory and of credentialism in explaining young people’s
demand for higher education.
Compared to degree holders (the majority graduates of universities),
graduates with non-degree qualifications (the majority graduates of
polytechnics) self-assessed as having more skills training as well as attachments,
internships and other experiences that would be expected to provide work-
relevant skills. If students held to the human capital theory that posits that
skills acquisition is rewarded with labour market success, then non-degree
holders would be more optimistic about their employment prospects.
On the contrary, the study found that non-degree holders expressed less
satisfaction with their education, with many explicitly stating a preference to
have a degree and/or to attend university, even if they were to maintain the
same programme of study. This desire by non-degree holders for alternative
institutions and programmes, despite higher self-assessment of their skills
training, may indicate that students place more importance on the face-value
of credentials than on skills. Moreover, almost all graduates stated a desire
to seek further higher education qualifications, with little difference in the
two groups of graduates in the extent to which they expressed this desire.
One may see further evidence of credentialism in the fact that degree-holders
generally had higher labour market expectations (in terms of employment
opportunities and earnings) than graduates without degrees, again despite
the former self-reporting lower work-related skills training. Statistical analyses
indicate that the differences in labour market expectations between degree
and non-degree holders proved to be significant, but were associated with
other dimensions of educational and social advantages (see Addae-Mensah
2000). This is consistent with the theory of credentialism that proffers that
educational qualifications both signify and deepen social advantage (Mincer
1974; Bourdieu 1986; Brown 2001; Jonasson 2006).
Our findings also suggest a disconnect between two important
stakeholders in the graduate labour market – graduates and employers.
Ghanaian employers complain about the lack of work-ready skills of

85
Anyidoho: Ghanaian Graduates on the Value of Higher Education
graduates, particularly in regard to generic skills (Adu-Amoah 2008;
Bawakyillenuo et al. 2013) but the Ghanaian graduate students in our study
generally believed their education had provided them with adequate training
in the skills desired by the job market. They were also generally sanguine
about their employment and earnings prospect, a finding that is consistent
with research in both African and non-African contexts (De Graaf & Van
Zenderen 2013; Mahama et al. 2013; Tymon 2013). Their apparent bent to
credentialism and optimistic employment outlook – both of which appear
to be at odds with the objective situation of a labour market that values
skills over credentialism – suggests that young people may be working on
a different model of the relationship between higher education and the
graduate labour market than policy-makers who, by and large, subscribe
to a human capital approach. This implies a need for greater attention to
young people’s subjectivities in research and policy-making around youth
employment and employability.
Acknowledgements
e National Service and Beyond Survey used in this empirical analysis
was funded by the International Growth Centre under Grant 1-VCH-
VGHA-VXXXX-33109. I thank Kehinde Ajayi for collaboration in the
data collection, and Margaret Appiah and Sedzro Mensah for outstanding
survey and eldwork management.
Notes
1. I use the term ‘higher education’ in its broadest sense as referring to post-sec-
ondary education. In this way, it is used synonymously with ‘tertiary education’
in this article (see https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/tertiaryeducation). In
Ghana higher education institutions include universities, polytechnics, technical
and vocational schools, teacher training colleges, nursing schools and distance
learning centres that award academic degrees, professional qualications and
diplomas (World Bank 2021; Leach et al. 2008).
2. It should be noted that the shift described – from credentials to skills, and from
‘hard’ to ‘soft’ skills – is less observed in specialist and technical programmes
and occupations (Purcell et al., cited in Moreau & Leathwood 2006).
3. Homepage of the Ministry of Education, http://www.ghana.gov.gh/index.php/
governance/ministries/331-ministry-of-education. 30 October 2012.
4. Ministry of Education website. https://moe.gov.gh/about-us/. 30 June 2021.
5. olen identies the related phenomenon of ‘graduatisation’ – ‘an increase in
the share of labour entrants with university degrees into previously non-graduate
occupations’ (p. 1071).

86 JHEA/RESA Vol. 18, No. 1, 2020
6. Based on NSS data, each establishment had received between 1 and 10 national
service personnel in 2014, with an average of 2 per establishment, yielding a
target sample of approximately 2,000 respondents if we had perfect response
rates and if the numbers of national service persons (NSPs) posted to selected
establishments remained constant.
7. We do not have full information from the eld on response rates.
8. e nature of the survey was explained to respondents beforehand. e consent
form said: ‘e project will study tertiary graduates who are beginning their
National Service this year. e goal is to collect information on the education,
training, and work experience of young adults in Ghana in order to understand
the employment issues facing today’s youth. We are asking you to take part in
this study because you are a tertiary graduate and we would greatly appreciate
you completing the survey questions.’
9. is nding is based on a simple coding of open-ended responses (e.g. ‘I want
to enjoy a university education too’ and ‘My former institution did not run a
degree program’).
10. We dene self-esteem as an individual’s ‘overall sense of worthiness as a person’
and we measure it using the Rosenberg self-esteem scale (Morris Rosenberg
1965). e questionnaire prompted respondents to: ‘Please indicate for each of
the following ten statements which response best describes you’. We then read a
list of statements and asked respondents to indicate whether they strongly agree,
agree, disagree, or strongly disagree with each one. Examples included ‘On the
whole, I am satised with myself” and ‘I feel that I’m a person of worth, at
least on equal level with others’. We coded responses from 1 = strongly disagree
to 4 = strongly agree. We constructed an index score by reversing the scoring
on responses 2, 5, 6, 8, and 9 and then calculating the mean score for the ten
responses so that the self-esteem index score ranges from 1 to 4. Schmitt and
Allik (2005) examine the cross-cultural performance of the Rosenberg self-
esteem scale using data from a sample of 16,998 respondents in 53 nations.
eir sample includes six African countries: Botswana, Democratic Republic
of Congo, Ethiopia, Morocco, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. ey nd that the
scale generally has similar psychometric properties across cultures and conclude
that their study “provides evidence of the structural equivalence of global self-
esteem across cultures, supporting the notion that a person’s overall evaluation
of self-worth is a universally quantiable human characteristic’ (p. 637).
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