Where Do Graduates Go?

"What Do Graduates Do" (see recent post) also contains a breakdown of the likely areas of the UK in which graduates are likely to find their first job, with some interesting analysis according to job sector.

Unsurprisingly, just over a third of all graduates ended up working in South East England and 21% went to jobs in London, although many were concentrated in the City of London and Westminster, a very small geographic area, whereas under 7% took up jobs in North East England and Northern Ireland.

But a look at destinations broken down by career sector showed up some other happy hunting grounds for graduates looking for jobs outside the centre of London:

• Marketing graduates also found work in the London Borough of Camden, Hertfordshire, Surrey, Oxfordshire and Manchester.
• Science graduates were most likely to start work in Oxfordshire or Cambridgeshire but Merseyside, Surrey, Norfolk and Aberdeen (also the main centre for oil and gas engineering) were popular destinations.
• Outside London, Surrey, Cambridgeshire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Belfast and Tyne and Wear took on IT graduates in considerable numbers.
• Similarly, graduates in Art and Design subjects also found opportunities in Merseyside, Hertfordshire, Surrey, Manchester, Kent, Glasgow and Edfinburgh.

Of course, many career areas (e.g. retail management, energy, public sector jobs) offer a wider geographic spread of opportunities but the overall message is that graduates in less affluent parts of the country will struggle to find graduate jobs locally - and of course none of the areas mentioned fall within Cumbria or North Lancashire.

Incidentally, you can find an online version of "What Do Graduates Do?" 2012 on the HECSU website

What Do Graduates Do?

Although graduate employment levels for 2010-11 were slightly down on the previous year, there were considerable variations between different subjects of study, according to "What Do Graduates Do?" (WDGD) 2012, based on the annual survey of Destinations of Higher Education Leavers that takes place each year.

One career area that clearly bucked the downward trend was Computer Science and IT which showed an 8.5% rise in graduate employment and e-skills UK have forecast that growth in IT employment will grow at twice the UK average until 2020.  Of course, not all entrants into the industry will have studied IT as a main subject at University.

Less good news came unexpectedly from the public sector with a big fall in entrants and the trend extended to include occupational therapists, physiotherapists, radiographers, teachers and probation officers.  These areas each offered over 100 posts less than 2010-11 but the biggest drop was in the number of social work entrants, which fell by 420.  This is certainly not great news for the University of Cumbria, which offers courses in all the professions listed except probation.

The report once again showed the importance of self-employment to graduates from performance arts, media production and art and design. 64.6% or artists and 85.3% of musicians were recorded as being self employed or freelancers six months after graduation.

The Business Studies area is one that exemplifies the "mixed message" theme identified in the WDGD report.  Although it shows up with a higher level of unemployment than average (10.1%) and a sharp drop in the numbers going on to further study, each of the key disciplines of Accountancy, Business Management and Marketing showed high levels of graduates going straight into relevant employment.

They were also some of the subjects that produced less graduates working as Retail, Catering, Waiting and Bar staff, a denomination which covers a large number graduates yet to find a suitable career opportunity by the date of the survey - although longitudinal studies show that many succeed in doing so over a longer period of time.

Swings and Roundabouts of Graduate Labour Market

The latest AGCAS* Survey of University Careers Services shows that the overall number of graduate vacancies is holding up well in spite of continuing economic difficulties.

Careers Services reported continuing shortages of well-qualified candidates for IT and engineering positions  and the last quarter showed a noticeable increase in the number of advertising, marketing, sales and purchasing vacancies. Services also mentioned an increase in opportunities for hospitality, retail, leisure and sports managers, graphic designers and many roles in small businesses where flexibility and multiple skills are needed.

Although the continuing decline in public sector vacancies is affecting areas like podiatry, dietetics, education, social work and youth work, and the number of legal traineeships is down, increased activity in other areas has compensated for these losses nationally.

Comment: The University of Cumbria is however heavily dependent on local public sector vacancies for many of its graduates and restricted opportunities in education and social work mean that applicants will often need to widen their initial career aspirations and geographical target area to compete successfully. On the positive side, increased graduate recruitment activity by small businesses can only be good news in a region that has so few large employers.

*Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services

It's Not All Doom and Gloom...

Further to the earlier post "What Do Graduates Do?", the AGCAS Quarterly Survey of Vacancies and Employer Activity suggests a positive trend during the summer of 2011.

Vacancies in IT, retail, marketing, advertising and PR all rose during that period, while the survey also reported increased vacancies from smaller companies, some of whom may have been recruiting graduates for the first time.

At the other end of the scale larger companies, who might have ceased recruitment altogether in earlier recessions, have continued taking on graduates - perhaps to avoid future shortages - although many have reduced numbers and are making more use of internships and temporary posts.

AGCAS reports that the overall picture is mixed as there are still plenty of graduates from previous years competing for posts, but there are some clear signs for optimism.

This will be the last post this year, so here's to wish all reading this a Merry Christmas and an Employable New Year!

Vacancies Across the Border

At a time when neither graduates looking to start their career - nor new students looking for part-time work - are having an easy time, there is at least some encouraging news with a little spate of vacancies being advertised in the Dumfriesshire area.

Here are some links to those that may be of interest:

http://www.talkatlas.co.uk/recruitment.html
Atlas Communications

http://www.dghp.org.uk/admin/current-vacancies
Dumfries and Galloway Housing Partnership

http://www.spectrum-care.com
Home Carers (Dumfries) - contact direct for application details

http://www.aberlour.org.uk/vacancylisting.aspx
Aberlour Trust

http://www.sppa.org.uk/job_vacancies/sppa_vacancies.html
Scottish Pre-School Play Association

www.myjobscotland.gov.uk
Youth Information Worker (Dumfries)

The last is a particularly useful resource as it covers Local Authority jobs across the whole of Scotland.

IT Job Market Continues to Improve

Demand for candidates with ICT skills in the UK now outstrips supply, according to Sector Skills Council e-skills.

The latest Labour Market Bulletin from e-skills shows that the number of advertised vacancies for ICT staff rose for the fifth consecutive quarter to a total of 101,000 positions, while the unemployment rate for ICT staff fell to 3.1% as opposed to 8.3% for the workforce as a whole.

This news tallies with the large number of graduate vacancies being advertised recently at cumbria.prospects.ac.uk

For a closer look at the IT labour market, visit www.e-skills.com/Research/Research-publications/Labour-Market-Bulletin to download the full version of the Bulletin.

Positive Outlook for the IT Industry

Research by Sector Skills Council e-skills shows employment in the IT industry is set to grow at five times the national average over the next ten years.

Their "Technology Insights 2011" suggests opportunities will increase at 2.19% per annum, with over half a million new IT & Telecoms professionals needed over the next five years.

Further details suggest that the age profile of the industry is now rising, with only 19% of professionals aged under 30 and 17% are over 50. The gender profile however remains a big issue as only 18% are women.

For more details see http://www.e-skills.com/technologyinsights2011

What are IT companies looking for?

Some answers came out from a recent careers adviser meeting with four major companies:

Technical Skills

SAP / ERP technologies, methodologies such as Agile, languages such as .NET and C#. If you can demonstrate a good grasp of a language like Java you can probably pick up other languages quite easily.

Communication, influencing and the ability to self-market seem to be as important as numerical and technical skills.

Degree Classification

A bit of a split - about half of the companies recruiting stipulate a 2.1 Not very positive about PhD students but a masters in some sort of IT conversion course can be good if students demonstrate passion for IT.

Time to Apply Yourself?

New Year is a signal to forthcoming graduates to start applying for vacancies as deadline dates are notified with increasing regularity.

University of Cumbria students and graduates and others looking for work in the area can register to search for vacancies and prospective employers across the North West at www.prospects.ac.uk/pnet/cumbria In spite of the doom and gloom on the vacancy front, the site regularly features over 100 jobs from employers recruiting in the North West. IT vacancies are particularly frequent with common vacancies for Trainee Recruitment Consultants (how many people think of this as a career?), Teachers of English as a Foreign Language, and Trainee Sales Managers as well as more niche opportunities in marketing, the creative sector, sports coaching and subject tuition.

We also have a large number of business placement opportunities for students and graduates at www.cumbria.ac.uk/grab At the moment there are surprisingly few applicants for these opportunities, which pay at least £6.00 per hour, often with expenses. Currently, almost all placements involve marketing in some form but this can vary from week to week.

The Growing Potential of the IT Industry

IT enthusiasts looking for a stable career choice should feel comforted by the fact the IT industry has not suffered excessively during the recession. In fact, in many areas it has grown, and this reliance on IT Consultants has led to demand far outstripping supply.

IT is a fast-paced and challenging industry in constant development as it adapts to new technological trends. IT and non-IT Graduates can enter the industry via Graduate Training Programmes or post-graduate training including specialist streams where there is particular growth and potential. New research reveals particular growth for IT services is being experienced in three key areas: 1. Improving security systems 2. Better project management methodologies and 3. Enhanced Infrastructure support.

Specialising in specific streams such as Testing, Development, Infrastructure Support or Project Management through to certification is particularly appealing to companies looking for a high degree of knowledge and skill to fit in with company requirements.

The Association of Graduate Recruiters reports that working in IT currently features in the top five sectors for graduate jobs, along with accountancy, the public sector and law firms. IT recruitment is currently at an all-time high.

If graduates pursue a career in IT, they can expect to earn anything up to £24,000 in their first year. This is £2,000 more than the starting salary in a science-related job and £4,000 better than the average starting salary of £20,000 according to the Higher Education Standards Agency and Workdigital. After a second year in IT, graduates can earn anything up to £27,000, and after their third year the sky is the limit as qualified IT Consultants possess the training, skills and experience to work across various roles in different business sectors across the globe.

Note: This post was based on a submission from Genna Singpo, Communications Officer with FDM Group who have just announced that they will be doubling their graduate intake to 1000 in 2011, thereby becoming one of The Times Top 100 UK employers.