Best cities to work in post-Degree

Prospects, the UK agency responsible for graduate employability, has analysed the relationship between graduate salaries and the cost of living in 23 UK cities. Derby is top, due to having many well-paid jobs in engineering and a relatively low cost of living. Southampton and Coventry make the top three, due to their combination of a relatively strong graduate jobs market and affordable living. Leicester and Liverpool are high, although starting salaries are low, they are relatively cheap places to live. Brighton, London and Oxford offer some of the highest starting salaries, yet new graduates will have low disposable incomes due to high living expenses such as rents. 

Charlie Ball, head of higher education intelligence at Prospects, said, “Graduates may need to think carefully about chasing the highest possible salary if it means moving to somewhere with a high cost of living, particularly rents. A graduate may need an extremely attractive offer in London, far above the average salary, for it to be worth them leaving a less expensive labour market ... Graduates need to understand where value lies for their degree and whether it is worth remaining in a well-known jobs market on a lower salary or moving for more money where costs are higher. It’s a common assumption that the latter choice is always better, but the data strongly suggests that it is not.”

The value of a Masters Degree

A survey from the Institute of Student Employers (ISE) found that only 19% of employers said graduates with a Master’s had better skills than those with a Batchelors. No employers in the consumer goods sector valued the qualification, while only 6% in the IT sector saw the benefits . Only 12% of employers said that postgraduate qualified hires progress more quickly in terms of salary than other hires. Stephen Isherwood, chief executive of the ISE, said: “In reality, most employers simply don’t discriminate between those with a Master’s and those with a Degree. They see them as the same. They are treated the same when they join. They do not go on a faster track or get paid a premium. I think that is a bit of a shock to some Master’s students going into the labour market.”

Apprenticeship opportunities at Ferrari and Amazon

Ferrari has announced that all twelve of the UK’s official Ferrari Dealers will be holding an “Open Day” at their aftersales facilities to showcase Apprenticeships opportunities. Each Dealer will be inviting students from selected local schools to visit the workshop and learn about Ferrari technology and potential job opportunities. Candidates will need at least 5 GCSEs. The following roles are available: 

Service Technician – 3 year Apprenticeship

Service Adviser – 2 year Apprenticeship
Parts Adviser – 2 year Apprenticeship.

Amazon has announced plans to create over 1,000 Apprenticeships over the next two years. Nine different programmes, lasting between 13 months and four years will be on offer, ranging from IT, safety and HR through to software engineering, robotics, leadership and technology. Over 90 new Amazon Bachelors and Masters degree-level Apprentices will also be available, focused on software development engineering, senior leadership and automation.

Post graduate salaries

You can use two websites (linked on the left hand side of this page) to find out potential post-graduate salaries for specific courses at particular institutions:

WHICH? University

• Use the Find a Course function – search by course and university
• Click on course information for one of the courses that comes up
• Click on – 'After graduation'
• First you can see the Destination of Leavers from Higher Education salary data, 6 months after graduation.
• Then scroll down to see mean salaries 1,3 and 5 years after graduation which comes from the Longitudinal Education Outcomes data-set. Only the mean is included, lower and upper quartiles aren’t.

Unistats:

• Search for course by subject and university
• Click on the relevant course that you are interested in
• Click on 'Employment and accreditation'.

You are what you see ...

Research undertaken by Reed.co.uk amongst 18-34yr olds found that 1 in 4 admitted that TV has influenced their career choices. The Apprentice was the top TV programme to influence careers, followed by Dragons’ Den, and then CSI and Law & Order. Love Island was seen as helping to inspire careers in fitness and sales thanks to an onscreen gym ...

Analysis of the benefits of a Degree

Analysis of data from 2015-16 has revealed some startling facts about the cost-benefits of going to university:

• 18-25% of undergraduates were studying for degrees which fail to deliver a lifetime-earnings premium that justifies the average student debt, from tuition fees and maintenance loans, of £50,000.
• 40% of undergraduates were enrolled in courses that led to median earnings below the student-loan repayment threshold of £25,000, after five years.
• 10% were enrolled in courses with median earnings below £25,000 ten years after graduation - representing 134,000 students every year who won't be paying back anything ten years after graduating yet who will have accumulated significant interest.
• 20% would be no better off five years after graduating than if they had chosen to take a non-university route, such as an Apprenticeship.

It could be argued that higher education and the "university experience" are a reward in themselves, beyond income, but ...

FBI tactics to address essay cheating

Now software is being developed using ‘forensic linguistics’, which analyses the composition of a document including vocabulary, punctuation and format. It is a technique used by the FBI to create profiles of criminal suspects. At the moment it is not illegal to set up a company writing essays, dissertations or other assignments for students. The companies simply post a disclaimer telling students their products are intended for reference or a guide. Their marketing tactics, emailing and messaging students directly, indicate just how lucrative the business is. As well as widespread use of sponsorship of young "vloggers" and other social influencers, some are also going on to city centre campuses with leaflets that imply they are from student support services. [source:GTAssociates]