Students with higher levels of education attend school/college in hopes of succeeding in the job market. An important aspect of success in the job market is putting into practice the skills and knowledge acquired at school (Robst, 2006 – use voor meer referenties – rest ref in dit paper). Robst (2006) briefly discusses the relationship between years of schooling required for a job and educational completion in the United States of America. With respect to this, it can be said that workers who have received education higher than that required by the job are overeducated, while workers who have received education lower than that required by the job are undereducated. Both types indicate a mismatch between education level and job requirements. But the amount of schooling (years of schooling) is not the only way to account for the match between education and work. Another way to do this is to look at educational attainment rather than years of education (Sloane, 2003). Furthermore, employees may be misaligned when the level of education (in years or level of education) matches the job requirements but the type of education does not (Sloane, 2003). An example of this would be someone with a degree in architecture (higher education) ends up having a job in the social sciences. Although the education level may be equal, there is still a discrepancy between education level and job requirements. Robst (2006) focuses on the mismatch between education type and job requirements in the United States. He states that there is not yet a specific theory that explains the relationship between educational attainment and job requirement mismatch. A common theory that explains the mismatch… middle of paper… higher education. Some researchers claim that education has fulfilled this function, but critics argue that education perhaps has fulfilled this function to a large extent (Freeman, 1976 – in rumberger). This means that there are too many highly educated workers for the few jobs that require such a high level. On top of that, there have been numerous periods of economic setbacks (e.g. the 1973 oil crisis) that even increased the need for highly educated people because fewer jobs were available. Thus, Rumberger (1981 – veranderen naar later jaartal en nummertje 14) conducted an investigation into the discrepancy between educational level and job requirements. He found that more people are overeducated today because there are more people with a high level of education while available jobs have not increased in parallel with the increase in highly educated people.