• Spring 2011
  • Welcome
  • Boot Camp for Accounting Vacationers!
  • From Deakin to Deloitte
  • Educating for Career Readiness Symposium 2011
  • Successful Students: Results of employer focus group
  • The Australian Higher Education Graduation Statement
• Summer 2011
  • Welcome
  • TAC Graduate Program
  • Low SES work placement program
  • Social media and employment issues
  • Employers visit Deakin in record numbers
  • Beyond graduate survey findings
  • Online interview simulation
  • Employers assess graduate competencies
• Winter 2010
  • Welcome
  • International work experience
  • Deakin at Your Doorstep
  • Enhancing student employability
  • The Fair Work Act 2009
  • Graduate Attributes: the employer's perspective
  • Valuing the skills of PhDs
• Summer 2010
  • Welcome
  • Transitioning
  • Supporting IBL
  • International traineeships
  • Career week
  • Career fairs
  • First point of contact
• Autumn 2009
  • Welcome
  • Careers in the curriculum
  • Work integrated learning
  • International students
  • Internship interview
  • Duke of Edinburgh award
  • New look Jobshop
  • Recruiting students with disability
  • Alumni in profile

Graduates .. what happens to them after they leave university?

A new survey conducted by Graduate Careers Australia throws new light on how graduates progress in the labour market. The report ’Beyond Graduation 2009’ contains information on over 7800 graduates surveyed three years after they completed their studies. The data provides universities with vital information on how well they are preparing students for their future careers and the career paths that these students have taken at the discipline level. The full report is available at the Graduate Careers website but a selection from the key findings is included below

• The labour market outcomes of male and female bachelor degree graduates are likely due, at least in part, to their enrolment profiles. Male graduates tend to be overrepresented in fields of study with higher full-time employment rates, while female graduates tend to be overrepresented in fields of education with lower full-time employment rates.

• The considerable majority of full-time employment bachelor degree graduates indicated that they were currently in employment related to their long-term career goals three years after the completion of their original course of study.

• Full time employed bachelor degree graduates worked an average of one hour more per week in 2009 compared with 2006. Male graduates worked an average of two hours more per week, while female graduate worked an average of one hour more.

• The median length of time that full-time employed bachelor degree graduates had spent in their current job was 20 months in 2009. Education graduates recorded the highest median number of months spent with their current employer .. 30 months.

• Considerable growth was observed between 2006 and 2009 in terms of the proportion of full-time employed bachelor degree graduates who considered their employability skills as being either above average or excellent. This was especially evident in regard to their level of work experience, their self-management skills, their initiative and enterprise, their planning and organisational skills, technology skills and communication skills.

• The considerable majority of bachelor degree graduates who returned to further full-time study did so in order to change or improve their career options. Relatively few graduates returned to full-time study specifically because they enjoyed their first course.

• Immediately following the completion of their 2006 course of study, postgraduates were more likely to be in full-time employment and less likely to be in part-time employment. By 2009, however, this situation had reversed.

• Bachelor degree graduates from the field of engineering and related technologies earned the highest median salary in 2009 ($75,000) while graduates from the creative arts field earned the lowest median salary ($50,000).

David Essex