Postgraduate Education and Career Mobility: A Case from Hospital Administration

The focus of this sample survey among 539 post-baccalaureate M US applicants to a hospital administration program at Tufts U during the period 1950-62 is on the functional relationship between educ & the work-career complex. Educ, viewed as part of the work package, was studied in relation to the process of unblocking mobility as individuals move from one job to another. Educ may be viewed as part of a system which tends to lock a person into his future career. At the same time, it can provide an escape hatch from one occup to another. The postgraduate educ'al process of the hospital administration program was related to such variables as the desirability of a change in job or occup at each occup'al sequence, the functionality of educ, & horizontal as well as vertical job movement. It was implicitly assumed that every job has a ceiling. Careers were not seen as a series of upward spirals or a sequence of orderly progression, but as the groping & searching of individuals for their right niche. Data suggest that educ in & of itself does not always lead to occup'al mobility. In searching for the right job, people may use educ as an avenue to horizontal & vertical moves. Those who seek further educ during their 1st job tend to do so just prior to or in anticipation of a move. The relation between educ & career advancement is less clear for those in their 2nd or 3rd job or occup. Persons in low-level jobs tend to turn to educ earlier than those in middle or upper level jobs, but this does not necessarily 'unblock' them. In fact, those coming from non-functional positions may even be 'locked into' equally non-functional positions following further training. Increasingly, a worker either enters the LF at a high occup'al level or he may never reach a high level at all. 9 Tables. M. Maxfield.