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This summary covers our main activities in the period from April 2002 to April 2003 and also includes information on the destination of Cambridge first-degree graduates and postgraduates who completed their studies in the academical year 2001-02. Cambridge graduates have continued to enjoy success in an employment market which was difficult for some sectors. The number of Cambridge graduates and postgraduates that we knew were unemployed declined from 102 amongst 3,157 replies in 2001 (3.2%) to 99 out of 3,926 replies received last year (2.5%).
Copies of the full report are freely available on request by telephoning 01223 338288, or by e-mail to GlenysEdwards@careers.cam.ac.uk, or as a 'pdf' file from the website at http://www.careers.cam.ac.uk/.
Tony Raban, Director of the Careers Service, retired in September 2002 after 28 years of service, ten of them as Director. Gordon Chesterman took over as Director at the beginning of the academical year and David Ainscough took over as Deputy. In February 2003 Sally Todd joined us as a full-time Careers Adviser specializing in the life science sector.
Confidential one-to-one student interviews with a Careers Adviser form the backbone of the service we offer to Cambridge students. For the full year, from the end of the Lent Term 2002 to 2003, we gave 4,084 individual appointments, an increase of 120 on the same period a year before. In addition to this increase in personal interviews we also managed a 35% increase in the amount of advice and guidance we offered students by e-mail or correspondence to over 1,000 individuals. Last Michaelmas Term we introduced 'Quick Query' sessions as one solution to meet student demand for one-to-one careers interviews. These ten-minute sessions helped students with their immediate queries and successfully reduced the number of students unable to see a Careers Adviser when they wanted from 323 in Michaelmas 2001 to 142 in Michaelmas 2002.
C L I C K is our e-mail news service for students. In five years it has grown to become a major part of our service to current students and, for the last year, alumni too. In the first six months of this academical year 953 messages have been sent, compared to 867 for the similar period last year. 4,851 students are signed up to C L I C K (3,668 in 2001-02).
Jobs Now and Future Jobs carried vacancy details for 1,050 employers for the Michaelmas and Lent Terms compared to 1,036 for the similar period last year. Although we listed more employers, this should not be seen as more vacancies - many employers, we know, had lower recruitment targets.
The first event in the period covered by this Report was our Summer Event in June 2002, which has grown from just five employers in 2001 to ten employers in 2002, intended for finalists who have just finished their exams and are still seeking employment for the coming Autumn. Early in Michaelmas Term 2002, before the start of employer presentations, we again ran our Banking Event (15 October) and Management Consultancy Event (16 October). The Banking Event attracted 27 employers (four more than 2001) and 800 students (150 more than 2001) and the Management Consultancy Event 19 employers (five fewer than in 2001). Our main Careers Information Fair (November) was attended by 118 organizations, well down on the 161 who attended in 2000 and the 130 in 2001. Student attendance increased from 2,250 in 2001 to 2,650 in 2002. On 5 and 6 December we ran our two-day Law Event which was attended by 80 organizations, mostly firms of solicitors. 821 students visited over the two days. In the Lent Term 2003 we ran 'The Works - for more than profit' event on 13 February, attended by 84 exhibitors and individuals and visited by 1,200 students. The Media Event on 20 February, covered publishing, arts administration, museums, TV, film, radio, and journalism with 64 different organizations or individuals attending. On 20 February, in conjunction with Cambridge Enterprise, we hosted our Cam Connect event at the Judge Institute of Management Studies. This event is intended for local employers in a variety of sectors and 22 attended, with 364 student visitors: a good indicator of the considerable number of Cambridge students who were interested in staying in our region after completing their studies.
From the start of Easter Term 2002 to the end of the Lent Term 2003 we delivered 51 briefing sessions on topics such as specific careers, vacation work, time out, and postgraduate study in the UK and abroad, or covering the skills necessary to apply for and secure a job. We also arranged eleven careers evenings where we invited practitioners, usually Cambridge alumni, to talk informally about their careers, advise on how best to apply and the work they do. Employers also visited us to deliver 27 employer-led skills sessions during the Michaelmas and Lent Terms. Topics included the skills required to apply and be interviewed successfully and also 'soft' skills, such as communication skills and an 'in-tray' exercise.
GradLink is our alumni contact system and allows our users to contact any of the 1,200 listed alumni for information about their career, employer, or field of further study. We have completed a major exercise to contact every GradLink volunteer to check and update their personal details and will be doing this annually.
Despite the growth of e-mail and Web-based communication, printed material still remains a popular choice for our users. The CVs and Cover Letters book has again proved to be very popular; over 10,000 copies have been taken over the year. Our Guideline Series of 25 titles and Employer Sector Guides covering a dozen sectors have been updated and are being added to our website as 'pdf' files to allow alumni to access the information. Our Careers Service Guide and termly Diary were distributed to all penultimate- and final-year undergraduate and graduate students at the start of the Michaelmas Term.
Our website received 1.2 million page requests in the first two terms of the academical year (2002-03) and in only four years has become a major component of our service to students and employers. 12,060 students in all years have chosen to register on our website (8,327 last year). We have extended our website to include more careers guidance online with a 'Career Health Check' interactive questionnaire, especially useful for those away from Cambridge. Students continue to be able to book easily online for many of our events and also employer presentations (by direct e-mail) giving us (and employers) a more accurate indication of likely numbers attending. We have developed more applications of Web-based 'token technology' to produce some of our printed Employer Sector Guides, event programmes, and employers' presentation details. In addition to the new features already described, the website carries information and advice on fourteen individual sectors (e.g. media, law, heritage, accountancy) and on vacation work, further study, taking time out, etc.
Takeaway material in the Information Room has been reorganized by sector and all the occupational files have been updated and reclassified, using new classification codes, and the postgraduate reference section has been similarly reorganized. 27,500 personal visits were made to Stuart House over the year.
Michaelmas Term 2002 was no less busy than previous years, with 133 employers visiting Cambridge to give an evening recruitment presentation during the nine-week term, only eleven fewer than last year. This meant that five or six presentations were running on the same evening. Improvements to our website allowed us to promote all employer presentations in a clear, equitable, and informative way to all students.
In addition to the work we do at Stuart House, our staff have given over 40 careers-related talks and briefing sessions to groups of students in their Colleges, Faculties, and Departments. We have also contributed to the induction days for M.Phil. students across many disciplines - an important task for the one-year students, some of whom may need to start planning their career search as soon as they arrive. We have also contributed to GEEMA and Target Schools events for school leavers considering Cambridge, to departmental open days, and induction days, and have offered talks to Part I students making choices for Part II subjects. All Colleges and Departments have been offered, and most have accepted, careers reference material for their libraries. We continue to enjoy working closely with a number of student societies: helping them to approach employers to raise funds through sponsorship, offering advice on developing their relationship with external organizations, and attending their meetings and events. This co-operation benefits all Cambridge students by bringing them a wider range of organizations and more opportunities to meet potential employers, and we are pleased to have been asked to help.
A large proportion of our users are international students. Of the 4,850 users signed up to C L I C K, 850 (17%) are from countries outside the European Union. We have produced reference material and actively promoted opportunities for international students to work in their home country. We have over 40 reference files covering most countries in the world.
Although a Department embedded within the Judge Institute of Management Studies, the MBA Careers Service has a close working relationship with the Careers Service at Stuart House. Over 90% of MBA students were seen for individual career counselling sessions. Online career planning tools and paper-based psychometric questionnaires were used to facilitate and add value to these counselling sessions.
Several employers gave MBA recruitment presentations at the Judge, which hosted the annual Cam Connect careers fair involving local technology and related services companies. The MBA Careers Advisers also produced the annual Profile Book (and Web version) for the 2002-03 class and distributed it to recruiters around the globe.
There was a marked drop in the proportion of Cambridge first-degree graduates entering full-time, permanent UK employment from nearly 60% last year to 53% this year. This can be partly explained by the greater number of returns we received (up from 2,241 to 2,656) which now includes the medics and vets completing their first degree but staying on to complete their studies. However, it is pleasing to note that the actual number who were unemployed and actively seeking employment in December decreased from 94 to 81, despite a particularly challenging employment market (and greater number of replies). 155 Cambridge first-degree graduates chose to take a year off after graduating, a slight decrease from 163 the year before. There was a large increase in the number choosing to go into further study after their first degree, from 639 to 973. As explained, this year's returns included 293 medics and vets who completed their first degree and were staying on in their studies. Excluding the medics and vets would give a more accurate comparison of 680 this year to 637 the year before.
The number entering employment showed a marked increase, unlike the trend of first-degree graduates. 18% more entered full-time paid UK employment than last year. There are perhaps three reasons for this. We sensed last year that employers were targeting M.Phils. (including the international students) more than they have done previously. We have brought forward our publicity for recruitment activities and Careers Service events to reach M.Phil. students immediately they arrive in Cambridge. The main reason however, we suspect, is that scarcity of Ph.D. funding has deterred many from continuing from an M.Phil. to a Ph.D. Those embarking on a further research degree fell from 71% of those who replied in 2001 to 48% of those who replied in 2002.
The only significant change compared to last year, affecting very few people, was an increase in the number still seeking employment from six last year to ten this year. This may be due solely to the larger proportion of returned questionnaires we received. 572 Ph.D. students went into employment (compared to 480 the year before). A third of these (194) were 'Professional Scientists' working in higher education as research staff (130), or in industry, manufacturing, petrochemicals, hospitals, or the Government (64). 70 Ph.D.s became university and higher education lecturers and five became secondary school teachers or education advisers.
(See table on p. 5)
First degree graduates entering the investment banking sector fell from 94 in 2001 to 66 in 2002, whilst more entered the accountancy and actuarial sectors: up from 43 to 62.
The engineering and industry sectors have also recruited a greater number of Cambridge students, an increase from 65 to 86. The IT industry and management consultants were badly hit by the recession and numbers of first-degree graduates joining IT fell from 99 to 59. Students joining the management consultancy sector have declined from 111 in 2000, to 72 in 2001, to only 36 last year. With increasing expenditure in the public sector the number of Cambridge students entering local or national government has increased from 27 to 32. 118 clinical medical students went on to become house officers in hospitals and 38 veterinary students became veterinary practitioners in the UK or overseas.
A similar number of students from all degree disciplines to last year entered the legal profession: 139 as intending solicitors and 11 as intending barristers. 42 Cambridge graduates entered careers in the media (advertising, publishing, journalists, etc.) - always a notoriously difficult sector to enter.
'Not available for employment': This category covers students neither employed nor unemployed but taking time out, travelling, or otherwise not seeking employment. In leaner employment times this figure usually increases. We believe that concerns over student debt dissuaded many from taking the time out option last year and explain why the percentage of those 'not available for employment' decreased from 7.8% in 2001 to 5.8% in 2002.
'Still seeking permanent employment': There were 128 first-degree and postgraduate students still looking for permanent employment in the December after graduating in June 2002. 29 of those were in employment, but looking for something more permanent. This compares very well with the 109 the year before when we heard from some 750 fewer students.
Postgraduate study: The number of first-degree graduates entering postgraduate study was 680 (after excluding the medics and vets moving on from their first degree) and shows no major change compared to the previous year.
| First-Degree Graduates | M.Phil. Graduates | Ph.D. Graduates | ||||||||||
| Female | Male | Total | % | Female | Male | Total | % | Female | Male | Total | % | |
| Total graduating Aug 2001 - July 2002 | 1,669 | 1,824 | 3,493 | 439 | 499 | 938 | 381 | 559 | 940 | |||
| Total not replying to enquiries | 391 | 450 | 841 | 24.0 | 152 | 171 | 323 | 34.0 | 109 | 176 | 285 | 30.0 |
| Total of known destinations | 1,281 | 1,375 | 2,656 | 76.0 | 287 | 328 | 615 | 66.0 | 272 | 383 | 655 | 70.0 |
| These graduates went into | ||||||||||||
| Employment | 739 | 674 | 1,413 | 53.2 | 107 | 131 | 238 | 38.7 | 240 | 332 | 572 | 87.3 |
| of whom temporary - 3 month contract | 39 | 44 | 83 | 3.1 | 10 | 3 | 13 | 2.1 | 10 | 20 | 30 | 4.6 |
| Study for further degree by research | 123 | 267 | 390 | 14.7 | 131 | 166 | 297 | 48.3 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 1.4 |
| Study for further degree by taught course | 76 | 103 | 179 | 6.7 | 10 | 4 | 14 | 2.3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Other further study | 218 | 186 | 404 | 15.2 | 14 | 11 | 25 | 4.1 | 18 | 31 | 49 | 7.5 |
| Still seeking permanent employment | 47 | 58 | 105 | 4.0 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 1.6 | 4 | 9 | 13 | 2.0 |
| of whom believed unemployed | 38 | 43 | 81 | 3.0 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 1.3 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 1.5 |
| Not available for employment | 75 | 80 | 155 | 5.8 | 7 | 2 | 9 | 1.5 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 1.4 |
| Overseas students returning home | 3 | 7 | 10 | 0.4 | 14 | 8 | 22 | 3.6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0.5 |
Note: M.B.A. students are excluded from these figures.
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Cambridge University Reporter, 8 August 2003
Copyright © 2003 The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars
of the University of Cambridge.