Birmingham City University : Employability

Employability

University is your best career move – it will give you the opportunity to get a better job, earn more money and reach your full potential.

At Birmingham City University, we've been launching careers since 1843, and we're dedicated to ensuring our students develop the skills employers need.

Six months after graduating, 83 per cent of our 2010 graduates had found employment. (Destinations Survey 2009/10)

We're 29th out of 123 universities for the most students in graduate-level jobs (Sunday Times University Guide 2012)

Gain an advantage

Our graduates gain an advantage in the job market because:

• We work with companies like Apple, CISCO, Cartier and the BBC to develop cutting edge curriculums and to collaborate on course projects.
• We attract the best staff – including both academic experts and experienced business leaders with the latest knowledge and industry contacts.
• We offer students opportunities for work placements, Erasmus years and sandwich courses.
• We operate an ‘employer mentoring scheme’, which gives second and third year students the chance to learn from employers or successful alumni.
• The Birmingham City University Employable Students (BEST) awards, which celebrates exceptional students, marks out the winners as highly employable.

Read our Employability Statement

Learning through doing

Like at all universities, our students learn in lecture theatres and in tutorials. But our students get the added bonus of learning through doing, which prepares them for the workplace:

• Our law students debate in simulated courts and our teaching students enjoy replica classrooms.
• Many of our courses are practice-based – most health students, for example, spend 50 per cent of their time in hospitals.
• Our media and art students enjoy state-of-the-art blue screen video production suites and photographic studios.
• We’ve pioneered virtual learning environments for our teaching students.
• Our business students benefit from our Student Enterprise Society, which helps them to start businesses together.

Find out more

Here are some more of the ways we're working to ensure our students are among the most employable in the UK:

• Creating Future-Proof Graduates is a unique toolkit of resources to help our students future-proof themselves.
• The Careers and Job Prospects Service helps students and graduates to develop employability and career management skills. Services include providing access to jobs and work experience opportunities, employer mentoring and recruitment events.
• Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) create three-way partnerships between graduates, leading businesses and the University. We're one of the top ten UK Universities for KTP programmes.
• Our bespoke Knowledge Innovation Technology Transfer Scheme (KITTS) matches the skills of qualified graduates and postgraduates with the specific needs of businesses.
• The BSEEN project provides graduates with access to business development training and funding and free workshops and events on self-employment.
• The Centre for Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT) is working with academic staff and course teams to develop student employability in the classroom as an integral part of the curriculum.