How Goldsmiths boosts employability
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Graduates from Goldsmiths, University of London are pioneering, innovative – and ready for the world of work.
Previous research from the Higher Education Funding Council for England has shown that Goldsmiths’ English, History and Psychology graduates secure some of the highest-earning positions.
But the breadth of jobs our graduates go into shows that employability runs through every department.
At the same time, our programmes of personal and professional development dovetail with our academic work to help prepare students for their future life.
Goldsmiths’ dedicated Careers service provides help and advice on internships, working while studying, and on our students’ futures, while visiting guest speakers and events on campus and beyond provide countless opportunities for students to network with professionals.
Our Careers service includes a CV Adviser, one-to-one consultations with Careers Consultants, student-led enterprise activities, a huge range of careers information and skills workshops.
Students are issued with a HEAR (Higher Education Achievement Report) after graduating– a pioneering way of recording all your academic and co-curricular activities in one place.
And our own Gold Award is a personal and professional development programme allowing students to reflect on their experiences and develop the skills gained from co-curricular activities.
Sue Young, Head of Careers at Goldsmiths says: "Goldsmiths students go on to enter a wide variety of sectors, many have gone on to become leaders and innovators in their chosen fields. We work closely with our students throughout their time here and encourage them to consider all avenues available to them.”
Investing in our students' futures
Across all our departments, Goldsmiths prides itself on both its industry links, and on the nurturing of creative and independent thinking and the development of real-world skills.
With its internationally-renowned courses recently ranked top in the country by the Guardian, the Department of Design, for example, offers all undergraduates a placement in their second year. Recent placement organisations have included Imagination, Oxfam, Alexander McQueen, Selfridges and Studio Myerscough, with graduates going on to set up their own award-winning businesses, or become industry-leaders at existing top design companies and studios.
The most recent National Student Survey marked Goldsmiths undergraduate Design students as the most employable in the country, with 98% securing a design-related job in their first year after graduation.
The Department of Computing works closely with industry leaders to provide students with work experience at Sony, Sega, and a large range of pioneering independent developers. Degree programmes offer an optional placement year and focus on equipping students with industry-relevant skills.
The Institute of Management Studies works with students to develop the skills needed to work in business incubation, financing and training as well as policy-making at the local, national, regional or global level to promote enterprise development, innovation, and education.
Students can expect to develop vital and transferable skills in critical-thinking, reflection, time-management, leadership, written/verbal communications, and numeracy. IMS also hosts a popular series of talks by leading business figures, with recent guests including Paul Smith, Nicola Horlicks, and Adrian Furnham.
Elsewhere on campus, students studying in our Institute of Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship (ICCE) can choose from a range of courses like our MA in Social Entrepreneurship or the new BA Arts Management. ICCE has a substantial list of learning partners, from the Horniman Museum to the National Theatre to Arts Council England, who provide teaching and work placements.
ICCE is also home to the Santander Salons, where thanks to our partnership with Santander Universities UK experts drawn from across industry regularly come to campus to meet students and staff to exchange ideas and share professional developments. The partnership with Santander Universities UK is vital to Goldsmiths – with a recently-signed three-year deal worth £150,000 set to fund more entrepreneurial coaching and workshops for students across campus.
It’s not only students who are being prepared for the world of work by Goldsmiths. Scholars are using their own experiences to help encourage others into work, with a new partnership this year established with the Stephen Lawrence Trust to encourage young local entrepreneurs start their own businesses.
Explore each of our department pages on www.gold.ac.uk for more information on employability at Goldsmiths, and our news pages for the latest student, graduate and staff success stories.