Positive perception of job prospects

Some 60 per cent of university students believe their course gives them the skills they will need to find a job.

Some 60 per cent of university students believe their course gives them the skills they will need to find a job.

The highest proportion of students who believe their course prepares them for their job are in the health and medical sciences, where 67 per cent believe this is the case.

An online survey of 4540 students by GradAustralia also found that the students who feel least prepared for their jobs are in teaching, education and human welfare (52 per cent), humanities, arts and social sciences (56 per cent) sciences (58 per cent), and engineering, maths IT and computer science (58 per cent).

Of students in law and legal studies, 61 per cent believe they are being adequately prepared for work, while for property and built environment the figure is 62 per cent, and likewise for finance, accounting, economics and business (62 per cent). Overall only 15 per cent of students believe their course is not preparing them for the labour market.

The survey, undertaken last year, also found that most students hold views about their prospective jobs which would be regarded as ethically sound.

Only 16 per cent said they would work for a company with a bad image for the right salary, while 59 per cent disagreed.

A total of 74 per cent of students said it was more important to feel fulfilled at work than to earn lots of money; only 9 per cent disagreed. And 79 per cent said it was important to join an organisation with a diverse workforce, while only 4 per cent disagreed.

Most students (61 per cent) were prepared to work hard and make sacrifices in their personal life in order to develop their career, compared to 16 per cent who said they would not.

Students said that, on average, they expected to have to make 17 applications to land their first job.