Philosophy Graduates: employable

Jessica Shepherd wrote about the employability of philosophy graduates in the Guardian on 20th November.

Yes, philosophy graduates are a little more likely than the average graduate to be out of work six months after graduating, but their employment prospects seem to have improved over the last few years.

Several commentators have been academics or aspired to academia. It's important to point out that, although over 2000 first degrees in philosophy were awarded in 2006, only 95 people got doctorates in the subject (half of whom didn't reply to the DLHE survey), and of those, fewer than half went into academia on graduating (41%, thanks for asking, although from a small sample).

So whilst it is worth looking at philosophy as an academic subject, the facts are that very few philosophy graduates get into academia in the end.

It it therefore important to highlight for students and employers alike that philosophy is a flexible and useful subject fit for a whole range of occupations, since almost all philosophy graduates in a given year will have to go out and get a job outside of an academic environment. Fortunately, Jessica's article seems to have started getting the word out.

Technorati tags: higher education, universities, graduate employment, philosophy

edited 15:07 to remove irrelevant boasting