Who gets the jobs? Factors influencing the employability of property and construction graduates in the UK

Abstract

Against a background of a strongly performing property market, the last decade saw a significant rise in entrants to undergraduate and postgraduate built environment programmes in the UK. The growth in postgraduate numbers reflected the emergence of conversion programmes with the result that, across a range of built environment pathways, employers can choose between different types of graduates: those straight from an undergraduate degree, those who have completed an additional postgraduate course or those who have taken, following a first degree in another discipline, a conversion programme in property or construction at postgraduate level. The paper uses a bivariate probit modelling approach to explore whether having a postgraduate taught (PGT) qualification systematically improves the probability of finding graduate level employment. It considers different built environment programmes while controlling for other factors that may influence employment outcomes, including university type, mode of study, gender, ethnicity and age. The results suggest that a postgraduate degree in land and property management significantly increases the probability of gaining graduate level employment, but this is not so for construction, quantity surveying or building surveying. The paper concludes by relating the findings to the wider discussion on changes in UK Higher Education.

An investigation of characteristics affecting employment outcomes and patterns of real estate graduates

“…undergraduate or postgraduate, had an impact on graduate employability as they mainly focused on studying either one type or another of the degrees. For example, Lim (2010), Smith et al (2000) focused on studying undergraduate courses while Devaney and Roberts (2012) and Urwin and Di Pietro (2005) focused on investigating employability for graduates of postgraduate courses only.…”

A Study of the Impacts of Variable Factors on Built Environment Graduates’ Prospects

“…The type of university which the graduates attended also had an influence on the employment prospects of new graduates (Devaney & Roberts, 2012;Finch et al, 2013;Urwin & Di Pietro, 2005). Urwin and Di Pietro's (2005) research found that the postgraduate students, the students who studied in Graduate School in the USA context, who graduated from institutions with a stronger research culture had and enhanced employment rate.…”

“…undergraduate or postgraduate, had an impact on graduate employability as they mainly focused on one type of degree. For example, Lim (2010), Smith et al (2000) focused on studying undergraduate courses while Devaney and Roberts (2012) and Urwin and Di Pietro (2005) focused on investigating employability for graduates for postgraduate courses only.…”

“…Other similar studies conducted in the UK, such as Smith et al (2000) and Devaney and Roberts (2012), also used the government statistics on graduate destination. Smith et al (2000) (2000) has only used one year (1983) data.…”

“…These demographic variables include gender (Fielden et al, 2000), age (Devaney & Roberts, 2012) and ethnic background (Lim, 2010). However, there is as yet no research which focuses on investigating variable factors, which are the factors that graduates can change during their study in order to enhance their employability.…”