Reading Graduate Employability Best for a Decade (2011)

Reading Graduate Employability Best for a Decade


Tuesday, 26 April 2011

'It is very gratifying to see, in difficult economic times, that our graduates are in demand in the work place and in the main are obtaining graduate positions.' Professor Rob Robson, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Teaching and Learning

The latest survey of the destination of our 2010 graduates shows a significant fall in the unemployment rate of our graduates, and our best result for a decade in graduates who reported they were in graduate level work and/or study (graduate employability).

The Destination of Leavers Survey 2010 (DLHE) asked graduates from 2010 what they were doing six months after graduation. The percentage of Reading 2010 graduates who reported they were in graduate level work and/or study has risen by 3.3% from 2009 to almost 70%. This is the measure referred to as the Graduate Prospects Score that features in the Times Good University Guide and will first be included in the Times' Guide in summer 2012, due to the time lag in data.

The rating is the highest Reading has achieved since the establishment of DLHE data in 2002/3 and takes the University's graduate performance above the pre-recession high of 69% in 2007.

With a generally difficult economic outlook for graduates, the unemployment rate for Reading graduates has fallen by 2% to 6.6%. Approximately 92% of our graduates describe themselves as being in work, voluntary or unpaid work or further study. Of those in work, 66% are in graduate jobs, as defined by the Institute of Employment Research, based on an analysis of the Higher Education Standards Agency's (HESA) Standard Occupation Classification (SOCDLHE). Over 80% of Reading graduates replied to the survey.

Full results by School are available on the Careers Advisory Service website, but Schools that performed particularly well in terms of graduate employability, include Pharmacy (100%), Food and Nutritional Sciences (100%), Real Estate and Planning (97%) and Health and Social Care (91%), Meteorology (89%), Computer Science (88%), Environmental Science (85%), Law (83%), Mathematics (81%), Construction Management (81%) and Agriculture & Food Economics (80%).

In addition, a number of Schools have seen real improvements in their employability since 2009, including Economics, which has risen from an average of 63% over the previous five years to 77% in 2010, and Chemistry from 68% for the same period to 78% in 2010.

Professor Rob Robson, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Teaching and Learning, said: "Staff across the University have worked extremely hard to ensure our students are as well prepared as possible to pursue their future plans and dreams after graduation. It is very gratifying to see, in difficult economic times, that our graduates are in demand in the work place and in the main are obtaining graduate positions.

"In addition, we continue to provide excellent support for the ambitions of a significant proportion of our graduates who choose to go on to further study here or elsewhere."

HESA release the data for all institutions in July 2011 at which point we will know how we fare relative to other comparative institutions.

Description 2010 2009

Full-time paid work 53.5% 47.1%

Part-time paid work 7.7% 8.1%

Voluntary work / unpaid work 2.3% 2.6%

Work and study 6.7% 6.5%

Further study 17.6% 20.6%

Unemployed 6.6% 8.5%

Not available for employment 4.3% 5.8%

Other 1.2% 0.8%

Graduate level work/and or study (graduate employability) 69.4% 66.1%

Graduate jobs (as % of those in work) 65.9% 61%

Further information can be found on the Careers Advisory Service website: http://www.reading.ac.uk/careers/development/dlhe/.