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Post education job and career choices - This project is now closed

The Department for Education (DfE) commissioned the IER to carry out a literature review to identify ‘what drives graduate choices in their post-education jobs and careers, and how this links back to their decisions when in Higher Education’. The review was one of three IER projects being carried out for the DfE, feeding into the recently announced review of post-18 education.

Specifically this review aimed to address the following lines of enquiries:

  • type of courses that qualify graduates to practise in their chosen industry or profession;
  • extent to which the qualifications graduates gain enable them to practise in their chosen industry or profession;
  • proportion of professions or roles that require a relevant degree;
  • extent to which graduates gain employment in their chosen field and extent to which they change their minds about their career choices during their studies;
  • effect of studying for passion/personal fulfilment/career calling on perceptions of career success, contentment with career and happiness.

Project Team:

Beate Baldauf- Principal Investigator

Peter Dickinson

Daria Luchinskaya

Wil Hunt

Alan Brown

Project Duration:

April 2018 - July 2018

Project Funder:

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