Social sciences - an overview

• Introduction
• Destinations and types of work
• Salaries
• Trends
• Contacts and resources

View destinations of specific subjects:

» Introduction

Traditionally, graduates from these subjects have a lower than average employment rate six months after graduation and tend to have a higher than average representation in further study/training. This is largely explained by a drive to acquire more specialist qualifications which are necessary for certain careers such as law, social work, psychology and teaching. However, as with all the data in What Do Graduates Do?, it is important to bear in mind that figures collected six months after graduation only tell a partial story about career prospects.

» Destinations and types of work

Table 1 shows the destinations of 2003 social science graduates six months after graduation.

Economics - Just over half (54.5%) of economics graduates were in employment six months after graduation, with a strong representation in numerical and financial occupations. 17% were working as business and finance professionals and 15.9% as business and financial associate professionals. An above average percentage were also found to be working as commercial, industrial or public sector managers (14.2%, compared with 11.2% for all first degree graduates).

Geography - Geographers demonstrated an above average participation in further study/training at 17.9%, perhaps reflecting a desire to gain more specialist skills. Under the authority of the Privy Council, from April 2002 the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) is able to award the professional status of Chartered Geographer to suitably qualified individuals. Those in employment were highly represented in the commercial, industrial and public sector managers category (14%), which includes positions in general graduate schemes, and in the other professional/associate professional category (12.8%).

Law - 41.2% of law graduates in 2003 chose further study/training compared to the overall graduate average of 13.9%, with many opting for vocational study in law, ie the Diploma in Law/Legal Practice and Bar Vocational Courses. In addition, 11% were engaged in work and study. For those in employment, 22.4% fell into the other professional/associate professional category, which includes some legal and paralegal occupations.

Psychology - Psychology graduates had a strong representation (17.4%) in the other professional/associate professional employment category which includes psychologist posts. A significant proportion (9.9%) were employed as commercial, industrial or public sector managers. Interestingly, the British Psychological Society (BPS) estimates that only 15-20% of psychology graduates actually end up working as professional psychologists.

Sociology - As with geography graduates, sociology graduates have a wide variety of destinations. A relatively high proportion (16.2%) entered the other professional/associate professional occupational category, which includes social care and community roles. In addition, 12.5% were found to be in the commercial, industrial and public sector managers category.

It should be noted that a significant number of graduates from these subjects were found in what could be considered sub-graduate employment such as clerical and secretarial or retail and bar staff occupations. Many graduates, especially those from non-vocational subjects take transitional or stop-gap jobs before they find a job that more clearly utilises their graduate skills. The research in Working Out, Moving On, and Seven Years On supports this view.

» Salaries

A recent survey conducted by the Council for Industry and Higher Education notes that economics and law graduates have strong earning potential. It estimates that a male law graduate earns on average 27.3% more than a peer who has a qualification level of two or more A-levels. For economics, the figure quoted is 26.8%. These figures are even higher for female graduates at 39.3% for economics and 43.8% for law.

» Trends

Working Out, a survey of graduates 18 months after graduation, found that non-vocational social science graduates were more likely to have experienced difficulty in finding appropriate employment and were more likely to have opted for postgraduate study. Social science students all reported the importance of work experience and extracurricular activity in helping them secure employment. Moving On, however, found that differences between graduates levelled out three years after graduation when most graduates were in professional or associate professional occupations, or management and administrative jobs.

These findings from Moving On are reinforced by figures from Graduate Market Trends, which reported that of those employees with a social science degree between the ages of 25-34, over 80% were in professional/associate professional/managerial jobs.

In addition, a longitudinal survey from the Enterprise Centre at the University of Manchester gives an insight into the industry sectors which graduates from social sciences disciplines are more likely to enter. The survey concluded that financial, business, education and social work sectors were the biggest employers of social sciences graduates.

» Contacts and resources

Websites

Resources on this site

• Your degree in economics
• Your degree in geography
• Your degree in law
• Your degree in psychology
• Your degree in sociology
• Explore types of jobs - occupations especially relevant to social sciences graduates can be found under administration, education, teachning and lecturing, natural resources and the environment, and counselling, social and guidance services.

General links

• Enterprise Centre for Learning and Curriculum Innovation, University of Manchester, January 2000. The Social, Economic and Political Studies graduate dataset contains 260 responses from social studies graduates of years 1990-1996 from five universities in the North West. www.lmi4he.ac.uk/Documents/social.doc
• British Psychological Society (BPS)
• British Sociological Association
• Business and Economic Gateway
• Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
• Junior Lawyers Division (JLD)
• Royal Geographical Society
• Social Science Information Gateway

Publications

Graduate Prospects publications

Graduate Prospects and AGCAS publications should be available in your university careers service. You can also order publications from us, or call 0161 277 5200.

• Graduate Market Trends, Graduate Prospects, quarterly.
• Working Out? Graduates’ Early Experiences of the Labour Market, DFEE-CSU (now Graduate Prospects)-AGCAS-IER, 1999.
• Moving On - Graduate Careers Three Years after Graduation, DfEE-CSU (now Graduate Prospects)-AGCAS-IER, 1999.
• Seven Years On: Graduate Careers in a Changing Labour Market, Peter Elias and Kate Purcell, IER/ESRU/ESRC/HECSU, June 2004. The short report can be downloaded from www.prospects.ac.uk/links/CSDSevenyears.

Others

• Entry into Legal Profession, Research and Policy Planning Unit, The Law Society of England and Wales.
• What can I do with a Social Sciences degree? Trotman. ISBN: 085660867X
• What can I do with a Law degree? Trotman. ISBN: 0856608521
• Careers using Geography, Kogan Page. ISBN: 0749430699