What does a Graduate earn ?

A common question asked by anyone embarking on a period of study is how much a graduate can expect to earn. Although this is a very complex question, as a lot does depend on the individual in some careers, you can get rough summaries from website such as prospects.ac.uk and hotcourses. One quick summary is available by clicking on http://www.scholarship-search.org.uk/pls/mon/hc_edufin.page_pls_user_wage_predict?x=16180339&y=&a=220707 and selecting the area that interests you. These range from Arts. Designs & Crafts to Scientific Services and are summarised in terms of salary. As they say in all the best adverts about Financial Advice these are examples only and not a guarantee that you could earn this much. In some cases the amount of money you could earn as a graduate may not seem a lot more than if you did not have a degree, but it is worth remembering that some careers are graduate entry only, such as teaching, or overwhelmingly recruit graduates although it is not a stated job requirement, such as media and publishing. As always do speak about this with your careers adviser/tutor to research the financial aspects of career choice, it is a big area !  Another side of this questions is what can a gradaute earn, a very different questions and another area to explore

HE opportunities after access courses for Adults

I attended the recent higher education opportunities day for adults who had completed their access courses in Somerset this week. Excellent day with 10 providers of HE attending, Universities such as Bath, Bristol and Plymouth etc plus those FE colleges offering HE, such as Trowbridge College which offers a BSc in Social Work. A good buzz about the day and it was interesting to hear people’s journeys which had taken them to this place. Spoke with prospective HE students from 18 years of age to… well a bit older (!) and it did remind me of the true value of the work we all do. Got a nice writeup in the local paper which might encourage more adults to explore this as an option. http://www.chardandilminsternews.co.uk/news/4709099.Student_boost_from_university_open_day

It was good to see so many Higher Education Institutions coming into the community. I do realise many do this but unless you see it yourself it is easy to forget what happens. After the exciting side of choosing possible careers that some HE options might lead to, the funding and more practicaly aspects of how it might be managed alongside the other circumstances of the students was discussed. Hopefully the advice they received from the various attendees would have helped them to answer these questions.

Perhaps this type of event could be made into more of an awareness raising event for local communities wherever it takes place. A smilar event at Strode College earlier this year had this focus and very good it was. http://www.strode-college.ac.uk/events/he_open_afternoon/8