The latest What Do Graduates Do' report, launched recently, highlights the career destinations of graduates six months following graduation and shows civil engineering graduates topping the employment table once again with 78.6 per cent of graduates finding work. Further analysis shows that of these, nearly a quarter, 23.1 per cent, had returned to a previous employer.
Other top rated degrees in the employment stakes showed a similar trait: of the seven in ten design studies graduates who found work within six months, over a third, 34.5 per cent, had returned to a previous employer; followed by over a fifth, 21.7 per cent of electrical and electronic engineering graduates; 21.3 per cent, of IT graduates, 21.2 per cent of mechanical engineering graduates; 20.1 per cent of building graduates; and 19.8 per cent of sociology graduates. Across all first degree subjects, 16 per cent of graduates returned to a previous employer within six months following graduation. This figure rose to 23.8 per cent for HND graduates.
"The message to students is loud and clear; get some relevant work experience under your belt while you're studying and you'll have a definite head start when you look for that all important first job," said Mike Hill, chief executive, Graduate Prospects.
Published by Graduate Prospects; AGCAS; and UCAS, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, and using data sourced from the HESA First Destination survey, What Do Graduates Do' 2004 tracks the career destinations of the 2002 first degree and HND graduating cohort, and examines the employment market by type of work and subject of study.
The report shows that building bridges with employers is paramount in today's graduate job market with graduate unemployment in these first six months post graduation continuing to hover around seven per cent (6.9 per cent), an increase of just over half a percentage point over the previous year's graduating cohort. The employment rate declined a little from 67.7 per cent in 2001 to 66.9 per cent in 2002. The proportion of graduates opting for further study increased slightly from 18.4 per cent to 18.7 per cent over the same period.
The lowest unemployment rates are to be found in law, 3.8 per cent, civil engineering, 4.4 per cent, and building, 4.5 per cent. The highest unemployment rate is in IT at 14.6 per cent reflecting the continuing downturn in the IT sector following the highs of the late nineties when those graduating in 2002 started their courses.
