London Met leavers are a hit in the job market

A recent analysis of careers information in the publication Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) showed that on finishing their courses, London Metropolitan University leavers secure jobs in a wide range of professions all over the world, including Europe, the USA, Canada and India. The research, released in December 2007, was conducted into the careers of London Met students who graduated in the 2005-6 academic year and revealed that the leavers are now working for over 1700 employers.

The DLHE conducted a survey which asked 4119 of London Met’s recent leavers about their current employment and analysed the results by course, department and employment sector. The top employers included the Royal Bank of Scotland, the Metropolitan Police, Ernst and Young, ABN Amro, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Wipro Technologies, World Bank, Accenture, British Airways, Hermes, Harrods and Baghdad International Airport.

The survey showed that 61 per cent of 2005-6 London Met leavers are currently employed, an increase of seven per cent from the previous year, showing a three per cent decrease in unemployment figures. The survey also showed that 28 per cent of the University’s 2005-6 leavers went onto further study, with 43 per cent of these returning to London Met.

Catherine Maguire, Careers Advisor at the University said: ‘This is really positive news and reinforces the fact that getting a degree makes a huge difference in the job market, as well as being a great education in itself.’

London Met is involved with a number of graduate schemes, including the recent collaboration with Lloyd’s of London for graduates who are looking to pursue a career within the claims division of the company.

Speaking recently at a London Metropolitan University Open Day, Sam Stringer, Head of Graduate Recruitment at Barclays, said: ‘A degree is a great advantage in the job market, but employers also look for things like part-time work experience, internships and extra curricular activities.’

Penny Dekker, Recruitment Coordinator for the University's Department of Computing, Communications Technology and Mathematics, said: ‘The career destinations of our graduates continues to show that specialisation is increasingly important, as employers value the specialist technical skills of computing and related degrees.’

The DLHE is an annual publication that publishes information about the initial ‘destination’ of higher education students, six months after graduation. The publication releases statistics which reveal the number of students who are employed, in further training, or unemployed. These figures can then be compared with findings from the previous year to chart the progress of university leavers.

12 February 2008