Navigating threads of a young adult life-course: tangled complexity in the education and work pathways of African university graduates

Abstract

While educational attainment is increasing in sub-Saharan Africa, formal employment remains elusive. With this context in mind, this study delves into the young adult pathways undertaken by African graduate scholarship recipients post-university. Data from a longitudinal tracer survey was combined with qualitative interviews with graduates from six countries. Survey findings showed complexity with activities like employment, studying and entrepreneurship overlapping over time, with many combining working and/or studying and/or entrepreneurial activity. Qualitative analysis underlined this complexity, with education and work comprehensively entangled. The meaning of ‘employment’ covered various working world practices, often in education, which we call ‘finding a haven in education’ and profiting from various income streams while studying, which we call ‘multiple income streams and educational endeavors’. The interaction between education and work therefore problematizes the concept of ‘transitions’, which assumes life-courses move from education into the world of work. We deploy the concepts ‘threads’ and ‘social navigation’ to illustrate this interaction, arguing that African graduates navigate their paths towards adulthood by weaving various thread-like opportunities into a temporarily stable livelihood knot or unravelling threads to create clear segments for income generation. They improvised an unconventional, middle-class African hustle, rather than following linear routes from education to work.