Recent papers by Mann and Percy (2013) and Kashefpakdel and Percy (2016) have used statistical analysis to identify wage premiums accruing to young British adults linked to experience of school-mediated employer engagement in education activities. Both studies have sought to explain premiums by drawing on conceptualisations rooted in theories of social capital. Specifically, both papers have drawn out Granovetter’s insights that economic advantages can be related to the nature of social networks possessed by an individual, that benefits can be related to possession of networks which are broad and varied in character: the power of weak ties. Studies of the impact of employer engagement in education, consequently, raises important questions on the interrelationships between ‘proxy’ social capital accessed and enabled through schools and ‘real’ social capital accessed through family and friends. Specifically, this paper asks: To what extent can state schools and colleges replicate the functions of family-based networks? Can schools compensate for comparative weaknesses in such ‘real’ networks? Or alternatively, do they serve to extenuate inequalities? The paper explores directly the extent to which the education system possesses the capacity to channel and enhance teenage accumulations of social capital in order to challenge systemic social inequality.
In pursuit of answers to these questions, we explore the relationship between access to school-mediated forms of social capital and outcomes related to its possession in the social context of the recipient. Drawing on the data from the British Cohort Study, we build on earlier work by Kashefpakdel and Percy (2016) which demonstrated links between adult wage premiums and teenage participation in school-mediated career talks with people from outside of school.