Destination surveys show that graduates from agriculture enter a broad range of careers. In 2009, just over 55% of agriculture graduates had gone into full or part-time paid work, including self-employment, with a further 9% combining work and further study. Of these, 23% were working as commercial, industrial or public sector managers. Other sectors entered included retail and catering, professional and technical, marketing, sales and advertising and clerical and secretarial. Figures collected by those universities offering agriculture showed that the jobs entered by their students included a statutory body certification officer, rural business consultant, farm management, research assistant, trainee agronomist, commodity logistics trainee, livestock production trainee, commercial graduate trainee, auctioneer and quality welfare inspector. Students have also entered career openings in food processing and manufacture. Where are the jobs?The major employment opportunities with agriculture are not just in farm management. Greater opportunities exist with commercial ancillary companies both in the UK and abroad. Common employers of agriculture students include British Sugar, Frontier Agriculture, Soil Association, National Farmers Union, HGCA, Velcourt Farms, Co-Operative Group, Grant Thornton and HSBC Bank. Opportunities and vacancies can be viewed at Harper Adams Careers Service. Relevant and associated sectors to agriculture include: - Environment and agriculture - the environmental, food chain and rural sector uses about 77% of the UK’s total land mass (18.4 million hectares) and employs over a million people. These industries include agriculture crops, agricultural livestock, environmental conservation, land-based engineering and game and wildlife management.
- Engineering - the engineering sector is huge and thriving. Work opportunities are vast and incorporate land-based engineering. The most prominent of these areas at present includes UK agricultural engineering exports which has gone up by 14% in the first six months of 2008 to reach £815.5 million (IAgricE).The UK has a significant manufacturing sector in agricultural and off-road vehicle engineering. Developing areas also include energy production, climate change, alternative energy resources, innovative recycling methods and the development of sustainable technologies.
See industry insights for further information on possibilities in other employment areas. Statistics are collected every year by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) to show what HE students do immediately after graduation. These can be a useful guide but, in reality, with the data being collected within just six months of graduation, many graduates are travelling, waiting to start a course, paying off debts, getting work experience or still deciding what they want to do. For further information about some of the areas of employment commonly entered by graduates of any degree discipline, check out what do graduates do? and your degree...what next?
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