Hidden Talents: A Statistical Review of Destinations of Young Graduates

Simon Rutt, Palak Mehta

16 August 2012

Hidden Talents: A statistical overview of the participation patterns of young people aged 16-24

The Higher Education Statistics Authority (HESA) report was commissioned by the LGA as an addition to the report recently published; 'Hidden Talents - A statistical overview of the participation patterns of young people aged 16-24'. This additional report was to look at data available from the Higher Education Statistics Authority (HESA) who hold data on the student destination survey, undertaken by students when they leave higher education. This survey collects information at a number of levels, but of interest to this report was information on the students' employment status six months after leaving HE. When combined with the students' home location prior to starting HE, aggregated data can identify variation in graduate employment rates for each Local Authority, and how these have changed over time.

Key Findings

  • Graduate full time employment has fallen continuously between 2002 and 2010, from 57 per cent of graduates in 2002 to 51 per cent of graduates in 2010.
  • Between 2002 and 2010 graduates in part time work increased from 7 per cent to 11 per cent.
  • Between 2002 and 2010 graduates considered unemployed, increased from 6 per cent to 8 per cent.
  • Of the twenty Local Authorities with the lowest proportion of graduates in full time employment, seventeen are London Local Authorities.
  • The largest three year fall in the percentage of graduates in full time employment was in Stoke-on-Trent (-14.7 per cent). Over the same period Bolton had a 2.0 per cent increase in the proportion of graduates in full time employment.

Sponsor Details

LGA