This research investigates the drivers of early graduate career success through analyses of large-scale graduate destination surveys. The research focuses on career-related factors which the higher education system has the potential to influence, whether directly or indirectly. These include factors such as support for developing transferable skills; the degree subject and type; work experience within the degree; and whether the first job was gained via university. For instance, universities can run activities targeted at developing transferable skills, emphasise the language and links to tran
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This research investigates the drivers of early graduate career success through analyses of large-scale graduate destination surveys. The research focuses on career-related factors which the higher education system has the potential to influence, whether directly or indirectly. These include factors such as support for developing transferable skills; the degree subject and type; work experience within the degree; and whether the first job was gained via university. For instance, universities can run activities targeted at developing transferable skills, emphasise the language and links to transferable skills in students' work, and provide support to students in articulating and evidencing their skills. Degree curricula can be grounded more explicitly in career requirements and support provided to articulate subject relevancy. Work experience could be included, extended or diversified as part of degree programmes and higher education provision more generally. Also, the work of careers services can be expanded and made more visible to the students. In the discussion we explore the findings further through linking them to wider qualitative case study examples, in order to demonstrate what the findings could mean in practice.
Eight key features of the university experience were positively associated with higher career satisfaction and higher salaries. These are: support for transferable skills; the importance of their degree grade for their current work; the importance of their degree subject; the importance of their degree type; the importance of their degree as evidence of skills; work experience within the degree course; whether the qualification was formally required for the job; and whether they gained their first job via the university. The single strongest relationship with career satisfaction was graduates feeling that higher education provided them with the ability to function highly effectively at work across eight different transferable skills.
Excerpts from publication.
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