GOING to college is about study and developing yourself, but ultimately it's about, getting a job; and there has, rarely been a better time for graduates in the jobs market. Any Leaving Cert student dithering about whether the points race and the whole hassle of seeking " CAO/CAS place is worthwhile need think no further. The jobs market for graduates is absolutely bouyant. Indeed, there is a shortage of: graduates in a number of areas, such as computing, and electronics.
In several areas employers are falling over one another to recruit graduates. One employer told Countdown that the competition to hire computing and electronic graduates was so keen that one college suggested that firms might hire a hotel to interview graduates rather, than come directly to the college in the traditional "milk round". In another case the possibility of the college charging companies for recruiting on campus was raised.
For the first time, Marlborough Recruitment in Dublin reports that employers are approaching them looking for graduates - previously they have always sought only experienced staff. UCC has had 26 large firms in on its milk round, many hiring for financial services, banking, accounting and computing. Trinity also reports that financial services, tourism, hotel/catering, management consultancy have all been recruiting strongly. But top of every college's list is computing, electronics and engineering. These are the areas with the really hectic demand.
The jobs boom extends to certificate/diploma level, too. Indeed, one of the complaints of some recruiters who spoke to Countdown was that so many certificate/diploma graduates now stay on to do degrees that they found it hard to find people to fill jobs at technician level.
The Higher Education Authority (HEA) compiles a report each year on the situation of graduates - about nine months after graduation. The best year in recent memory was 1989 with only 3 per cent unemployment among graduates and 58 per cent going straight into jobs. However, 1994 has run it a close second with graduate unemployment down to 4 per cent, with 51 per cent going straight into jobs. Virtually everybody we talked to expects the class of 95 to have done even better.
So college certainly means jobs right now; indeed judicious choice of area of study can practically guarantee a job. A 4 per cent - and falling unemployment rate is negligible, so a student's chances in the jobs market is dramatically better with a college qualification.
The jobs situation does, of course, vary a lot from faculty to faculty as the tables with this column show. Most arts and science graduates go on to further postgraduate training to equip them for the jobs market, while most engineers and computing graduates go straight into employment. But the colleges Countdown spoke to all agree that arts graduates are doing well in the jobs market, too, and that in many cases employers are looking for people with broad general qualifications.
POSTGRAD: Probably the best indicator of the boom in graduate jobs is the extent to which the proportion of graduates who stay on in college for further training is falling. During, the last three years, more and: more graduates were staying on in college to do masters, graduates diplomas and other vocational qualifications in a desperate attempt to boost their qualifications for the market.
Now the trend has reversed, the jobs are there, so fewer graduates are staying on for further study. Arts is the best example of this, as our table demonstrates. In 1993, 65 per cent of arts graduates went on to further study; but by 1994 it had, fallen to 55 per cent.
The message seems to be that: employers are prepared, in an increasing number of cases, to hire an arts graduate without a post graduate specialist diploma - though UCD careers officer Colm Tobin advises that a one year postgrad business diploma is still an enormous asset to an arts graduate seeking a job.
The more bouyant the jobs market, the smaller the proportion going on to further study. Thus, only 16 per cent of computer graduates in our table went con to further study, whereas 56 per cent of law graduates - an area with a very real employment problem at the moment - did so.
Indeed, it is a sign of the times that more law graduates opted for further study in 1994 - 56 per cent - than arts graduates at 55 per cent. And this 56 per cent does not include the law graduates who are undergoing further study at the Law Society as they are technically described as "employed" as they have contracts with solicitors firms.
WHICH COLLEGE?: There is hardly a more vexed question in the whole area of graduate employment than that of which college has the best record in job placement. UL regularly boasts that it has. This year it registered a job placement rate of 73 per cent, up by an impressive 12 percentage points on last year. By contrast, UCD registered 46 per cent. But these figures have to be placed in context. UCD actually had only half the unemployment rate of UL - 2.5 per cent as against five.
The biggest difference is probably accounted for by the fact that UCD has a huge arts faculty with an annual output of 1,000 graduates, with most going on to further study; thus 44 per cent of UCD's graduates stayed on to study further, but only 22 per cent of UL's.
Yet, the "further study" figure itself is revealing as outlined above. In 1993, when there were fewer jobs around, one third of UL's graduates stayed on for further study. And UCD points out that the "further study" pays off: its postgrads registered an 84 per cent job placement rate in 1994 against UL's 79 per cent.
Not all colleges publish their job placement rates and it would be silly to make a college choice just on the basis of such figures. What the UCD/UL comparison probably best illustrates is that the biggest boom at the moment is in technological/engineering computing courses, areas which are very practical. What it also highlights, something employers tell this column over and over again - is that colleges with job placement or work experience built into the course tend to do well in placing graduates. DCU, which operates a work experience element, had a 69 per cent direct job placement rate last year.
WHICH FACULTY? Clearly no sensible CAO/CAS applicant is going to make a decision on which course to follow purely on the basis of the jobs situation. But the table with this column does help to paint a broad picture of what the scene was for graduates last year.
Vets and architects were simply walking into their choice of jobs; computer science, computer applications, computer systems, software engineering graduates were virtually naming their price; electronics graduates and technicians were picking and choosing at will. Engineering graduates' were doing very nicely and financial services, accountancy firms, management consultancies, insurance companies and banks were taking plenty of business graduates.
Arts and science were slower, with an additional postgrad qualification needed in most cases. Law, with a big increase in graduates in recent years, did worst of all and the scramble for places in the Kings Inns and the Law Society is getting more desperate.
Medicine is not included in the table because medical graduates automatically do a one year registration placement - it is only after this year that the scramble, for jobs begins, and it is a scramble. Dentistry, physiotherapy, radiography and pharmacy graduates did very well also.
SALARIES: The sensible CAO applicant is not going to decide on the basis of salary, either; but it is worth having some idea of what you might earn in the different areas. Again, law is clearly the worst in terms of starting salaries, with almost one third starting on less than £5,000; vets are doing best with 12 per cent into the £20,000 starting salary bracket. The medics are well paid by starting salary scales - but they have a much longer training period.
CERT/DIPLOMA: Job placement rates for certificate/diploma holders have not been included in the table as the proportion going on to further study makes the picture very contorted. The "ladder of opportunity" with the possibility of transfer from certificate to diploma to degree, has caught on to such an extent that 56 per cent of certificate holders went on to diploma level and 44 per cent of diploma holders advanced to degree level.
For those interested in jobs outside of the greater Dublin area only 5 per cent graduating with degrees went to work in the west and 7 per cent in the mid west. In the case of those with cert/diplomas, 10 per cent got jobs in the west and 14 per cent in the mid west. The figures consistently show more jobs for those with cert/diploma qualifications in the regions.
BEST OPTIONS: During the next two weeks Countdown will be looking at the graduate job situation in the different study areas in greater detail. It is a picture which will show over and over again that points are not everything look at law! There is a course in Sligo RTC which registered a cutoff of 145 points last year. It's called Computer aided Precision Engineering and there is a follow on degree available. Last year they had 100 job placements from the course and, according to Sligo RTC registrar Morris Doran, employers are looking for more people in this area than the college can provide. Sligo has a capital investment of £1.8 million in equipment in the tool making/precision engineering area; it's worth thinking about.