The government has advised graduates of this and the past year to consider working abroad, one of the reasons being the lack of opportunity for employment within the U.K.
This combined with nearly six in ten graduates over the past two years not working in professions related to their degree (taken from a survey conducted by the CIPD), makes working abroad look like an appealing idea.
With more than one third of British graduates considering moving abroad, what should be considered before taking the plunge? Universities minister David Lammy told the BBC ‘It is right to say that we live in a global market place, opportunities abroad can add to your skills and sometimes your language skills’.
Working abroad can certainly broaden a graduate’s horizons, not only is it a new and exciting experience but it also looks impressive on a C.V as it shows intuition and determination. All of these being appealing qualities to future employers whether in the U.K or another country.
Apart from all the positives of working abroad there are also other aspects to consider; one of the prime concerns being the language barrier, unless you speak the language well this is definitely a main consideration. The ability to overcome a language barrier is impressive but being alone in a foreign country without friends or family can be isolating and lonely and, lets face it, flights back home may be very expensive.
Another issue is that U.K graduates on average study shorter degrees and graduate younger, often with not much work experience. Aditionally, there is red tape that needs to be considered, such as visas and work permits, all of which will determine how long you will be allowed to stay and work in the country.
I spoke to one third year Educational student to discover her reasons for wanting to teach in South America or Europe: ‘I really like the idea of travel. For me it’s not affected by what I’ve heard about the current graduate job situation, it’s just that for a long time I’ve wanted to work outside the U.K, to experience a different culture and lifestyle. So despite all the media coverage, I think students leaving university this year should look abroad for work because it interests them, not because of the fear of not getting a decent graduate job. Although I can understand that being quite a big factor in any decisions they make’.
As seen from the statistics there is a situation that means graduates face the possibility of not securing the graduate job they were in after the time they previously thought. However, these figures must be read with caution as there are so many possibilities for university graduates that don’t include going straight into the job market, including a master’s degree, gap year and the decision of a quarter of graduates (survey by Career Journal) to postpone the start of their careers entirely, so working abroad is just one of the many options available.
I must add that most of the current graduate employment statistics only reveal student employment levels after about a year or two of leaving university, not leaving sufficient time for graduates to break into the professional world, so the picture may not be as simple as it looks.