Newcastle University has increased the number of its graduates who find jobs soon after leaving, Government statistics have revealed.

The latest numbers from Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) show that 95.2% of 2012 UK graduates from Newcastle were in employment or further study within six months; an increase from 93.4% the year before.

And the region’s economy is also being boosted, as the number of students staying in the North East to work has increased from 1145 to 1239, meaning over 44% of all graduates in UK employment are providing key skills for sectors such as engineering and marine technology across the region.

Encouragingly, the proportion of all leavers (including international graduates) finding graduate level jobs has also risen, to 80.4% from 78.7% in 2011.  Of those graduates in employment from full-time undergraduate courses, 84.9% were in professional or managerial occupations.

Andrew Haxell, Assistant Director of the Careers Service at Newcastle University, said: "This is a really pleasing result given the ongoing economic difficulties the entire country is facing.

"These numbers show the true value that gaining a degree can have for getting a great start on the career ladder. Here at Newcastle University, we not only arm our students with academic achievements but we also provide them with a range of opportunities to develop employability skills alongside their studies – ensuring that they have the best chance possible of succeeding in their chosen careers."

Recent graduate Emma Cash will start work at Tesco this summer as a product technologist, where she will be approving many of the new healthcare products that Tesco is looking to stock.

Emma, who completed a degree in Medicinal Chemistry, said: "Tesco were only looking to recruit people with a relevant degree for these roles and it was a hard recruitment process to get the job. I had to go for a full day assessment, which involved presentations, group work and individual interviews.

"Fortunately the Careers Service at Newcastle University was amazingly supportive during the whole process. They even arranged a mock assessment day where they gave me really useful feedback on how I could improve my performance. It really helped my confidence on the day."

Newcastle graduates get jobs with some of the biggest multi-national companies, but they are also increasingly setting up their own businesses as well, again helping the regional economy. In fact last year there was a 47% increase in the number of students who were self employed.

Rise Up, which is part of the Careers Service, provides enterprise support to budding student entrepreneurs, who can get advice and mentoring from some of the region’s top experts, as well as a dedicated space to develop their business idea.

Cut Out Girls, set up by fine art graduates Carla Bromhead and Libby Chilton, is just one of the many start-up businesses that the Rise Up team has helped to start in the past 12 months. Together, Carla and Libby design and produce fashion bags, satchels and rucksacks. They have been so successful selling their unique, quirky designs through small stockists and online that they have started to branch out overseas.

Libby said: "We create two different collections each year, made out of rope or leather or other natural materials. It was going really well and then we got an agent in Japan. We are actually bigger in Japan now than we are in the UK, but we would love to expand and take on more staff.

"This was the first time either of us had set up a business, so the advice we got from the Rise Up team in the Careers Service was wonderful. They were so useful - providing general advice on setting up a business such as places to go for funding and how to get established and then helping us to focus and fine tune the business so we could get out of it exactly what we wanted. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without them."

published on: 19 June 2013