Widening graduate employment opportunities for students on Education Studies degrees: a case study at a School of Education in one London university

The purpose of this small-scale study was to explore the aspirations of a final year cohort of students on an Education Studies degree programme at one School of Education, within a London university, with the intention of widening graduate employment opportunities. The Education Studies degree attracts candidates who are almost always aspiring for a career in the teaching profession, and in particular, the primary sector. The responses collected via a survey revealed that thirty per cent of respondents were going to take up jobs in non-graduate employment, a job that they could have secured without a degree. The School of Education, in a bid to increase graduate employment opportunities, widened the choice of career routes into teaching by providing two additional teacher training courses for the post compulsory sector. This is the first phase of the research. The following phase, planned for next year, will track the students into their teaching roles in order to evaluate the popularity and success of these graduate courses.