Graduates’ Career Planning – What behaviours, factors and characteristics determine graduate outcomes?

The study examined a cohort of UK domiciled students who completed their full-time undergraduate study in 2011/12 and were aged 18-21 at the outset of their study. The cohort consisted of 7,500 students drawn from 27 institutions. This study combined data from the 6 month Destination of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey with data from a follow up survey conducted two years later. It employed multivariate analysis techniques to understand the relative importance of different behaviours, characteristics and factors in determining graduate outcomes. We considered in turn:

a.) What led graduates to a positive outcome; that is employment or further study rather than unemployment;
b.) What led graduates with a positive outcome to employment, and what to further study;
c.) What led the employed to professional or managerial employment as opposed to non-professional employment;
d.) What led those in professional or managerial employment to full-time as opposed to part-time roles.
The three factors which were most important in guiding graduates to a positive outcome, that is employment or further study rather than unemployment, were:
1.) Undertaking paid work while at university or in the six months immediately after;
2.) Focusing job searches exclusively on graduate level jobs1 and making most
applications while still studying;
3.) Having a career plan upon leaving university.

The type of the institution that they attended was the most influential factor on whether students with a positive outcome ended up in employment as opposed to further study.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at  Planning for success: graduates’ career planning and its effect on graduate outcomes