Graduate success
It’s hard to rate graduate success — is it whether you get a job when you graduate, how much money you earn, or how satisfied you were with your course?
You need to decide on your personal goals and what you expect to achieve as a graduate. It may be further study, or even travel to broaden your horizons. But whether you’re a TAFE graduate or a university graduate, there are many different ways of measuring success.
Vocational Education and Training (VET)
There were 1.8 million students enrolled in the public VET system in 2010 (NCVER, 2011) — an increase of more than 90,000 students since 2009.
The most popular fields of VET study were:
- management and commerce (19.9 per cent of enrolments)
- engineering and related technologies (16.9 per cent of enrolments)
- society and culture (11.4 per cent of enrolments)
- food, hospitality and personal services (10.2 per cent of enrolments).
The National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) found that 77 per cent of students who completed a VET program in 2010 were able to find work within six months. This rate increases to more than 80 per cent for students who completed a certificate III qualification or higher, with a rate of 67 per cent among graduates of a certificate I or II.
Graduates of health; agriculture, environmental and related studies; education; and hospitality courses were in the best position to find work, with employment rates between 80 and 85 per cent.
The VET system also boasts a high satisfaction rate, with almost 90 per cent of students satisfied with the quality of training provided.
Almost a third of VET students go on to further study following course completion, including both higher-level VET qualifications and university study.
University graduates
A report on employment and salary outcomes of recent graduates by Graduate Careers Australia (2010) found that 76 per cent of those surveyed were able to find work within four months of completing their course. Graduates of fields, such as education, nursing and pharmacy fared the best, with employment rates between 80 and 90 per cent.
Students who completed a postgraduate degree were, on average, more likely to find employment, as were graduates of double or combined degrees.
The report also found that graduate salaries vary widely, with dentistry, optometry, engineering and medicine coming in at the top of the scale, and fields such as humanities, art and design, and social sciences toward the bottom end.
However, it is important to remember that a university education is not just about a high salary at the end of the day. It's better to choose a career you will enjoy — even if the starting salary is lower than you would like!
The Good Universities Guide 2012 found that university graduates from the fields of agriculture, environmental studies, human and social sciences, languages and rehabilitation were the most satisfied with their chosen field. However, data shows that satisfaction with a field of study does not necessarily translate into the graduate achieving the highest paid salary, and vice versa.
How to improve your job prospects
In many fields, students may be expected to gain a certain level of industry experience before they are considered employable. This may include a cadetship or an (often unpaid) internship. Gaining this experience while studying or shortly after graduation has become increasingly popular in the fields of marketing, public relations and communications, as well as in arts and design — where competition for jobs may be quite high.
See Five benefits of completing an internship for more information.
Please rate this article:
(hover over the stars then click to rate)
