Universities are due to publish their own information about courses at the end of the month when the Key Information Sets are launched.and that:
Other existing comparison sites include bestcourse4me.com, established by the educational philanthropist Steve Edwards.
Take the new research from the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR). If you'll pardon me for glossing over the headline finding that there are now an average of 83 graduates chasing each vacancy, it was actually the sector that graduates favour most which caught my eye.
What do you think it is? Law was my first guess, because it remains a firm favourite among Guardian Careers’ regulars. But I was wrong. If you guessed IT or the third sector, you’d be wrong too. It’s financial services employers which have proved the most popular, with investment banks and fund managers receiving an average of 232 applications for every opening.
These findings aren’t a million miles away from the results of a recent survey by High Fliers Research. They too found investment banks are the most popular destination for grads this year, with 8.5% of early applicants chasing jobs within them.
My surprise that this career choice came out top stems from that, erm, small matter of the recent global financial crisis. And, understandably, applications for investment banking fell by a third during the height of the credit crunch. However there's been rather a turn-around lately, with most of the best-known City names actually back to recruiting at 2006-07 levels, High Fliers MD Martin Birchall recently told the Guardian.
It is essentially a mapping study of the current postgraduate situation in the UK and provides a useful overview, which will be of interest to careers practitioners, particularly those working with postgraduate students.
Download Higher Degrees: Postgraduate Study in the UK 2000/1 - 2005/6
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate what employers seek when recruiting library and information professionals in the UK and whether professional skills, generic skills or personal qualities are most in demand.
Design/methodology/approach
A content analysis of a sample of 180 advertisements requiring a professional library or information qualification from Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professional's Library + Information Gazette over the period May 2006-2007.
Findings
The findings reveal that a multitude of skills and qualities are required in the profession. When the results were compared with Information National Training Organisation and Library and Information Management Employability Skills research, customer service, interpersonal and communication skills, and general computing skills emerged as the requirements most frequently sought by employers. Overall, requirements from the generic skills area were most important to employers, but the research also demonstrates that professional skills are still valued. An unanticipated demand for profession-related experience was found: this was the single most frequently sought requirement in the advertisements analysed.
Research limitations/implications
Although the Gazette is the largest source of library and information jobs, it does not provide a complete picture of the employment market.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to debates about the skillsbase of the profession, and raises awareness of the abilities professionals need to cultivate in order to progress through their careers.
