policy & reform
campusreview.com.au
Great expectations
Survey shows almost half of teaching students
feel unprepared for labour market.
By Dallas Bastian
F
ew education students expect to have a job immediately
after graduating, and they’re less likely than those from other
disciplines to feel that their course provided them with the
skills they need.
That’s according to a student survey conducted by GradAustralia,
a provider of graduate job-hunting resources.
Conducted annually, the GradAustralia Top 100 Graduate
Employers survey aims to identify career expectations, top
employers, and career and job search expectations of Australian
university students and recent graduates.
Of the teaching, education and human welfare students who
responded to the survey, just 12 per cent expected to have a job
immediately upon graduating.
Those from science, humanities, arts and social sciences were
also less than optimistic about their prospects, with just 9 per cent
expecting to quickly land relevant work. This is far fewer than the
22 per cent of respondents from law, engineering, maths, IT and
computer science who saw a job in their immediate future.
Compared to those from other disciplines, teaching students
were the least likely to report feeling that their course had provided
them with the skills necessary for the labour market. Only
52 per cent of respondents felt prepared, while more than two-
thirds in health and medical science did.
They are, however, more likely to remain with their first
employer for five years or more. Almost half (45 per cent)
of education students expected to remain for that long,
compared with just over a third of health and medical science
graduates, less than a quarter of science and humanities
12
graduates, and just 13 per cent of property and the built
environment graduates.
GradAustralia said this reflects the fact that for teachers in the
dominant government system, changing schools is not necessarily
tantamount to changing employer, as in most cases they would
remain with the relevant department of education.
Geoff Adams, co-founder of GradAustralia, suggested that overall
the results point towards the need to re-evaluate teacher preparation.
Teaching students were the least
likely to report feeling that their course
had provided them with the skills necessary
for the labour market.
“However, they also show that education students who secure a
job are likely to be rewarded with enviable career stability,” he said.
Other findings include:
∞ Education students expected to work 42 hours per week in their
first professional job after graduation and earn $61,000 per year.
∞ They expected to send out 15 job applications to land their first
professional role.
∞ The majority (80 per cent) felt it was important to join an
employer that has a diverse workforce.
∞ Only 14 per cent said they would work for a company with a bad
image if the pay was right.
∞ On that topic, 80 per cent said it was more important to feel
fulfilled at work than earn lots of money.
Education students were the least likely of all disciplines looked
at to say that after studying they would make sacrifices in their
personal life to develop their career. ■