What to do, what to do…
A recent report, titled What Do Graduates Do?, published by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) has revealed which third-level graduates from 2016 are now earning the most money.
The report notes that 18,229 (or 68% of) level 8-10 graduates for the year 2016 responded to the survey.
Strikingly, the study found that 40% of Honours Bachelor Degree graduates earn under €25k — though this is down from the 47% in the previous year’s report.
The highest paid courses include Health/Welfare, Education, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Manufacturing and Construction, and Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics.
According to the report, “the most common salary band for those who graduated from Health and Welfare, Education, ICT, Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction and Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics is €29,000- €32,999, with 32%, 38%, 29%, 28% and 21% of graduates indicating this salary bracket.”
This stacks up against courses like Arts, Social Sciences, Business/Law and Agriculture which all share €21,000-€24,999 as their most common salary band.
However, the difference is made in the upper bands. 9% of ICT graduates from 2016 are earning over €45,000. 18% from that discipline are earning between €33,000-€36,999%, compared to just 2% from Social Science.
Engineering (15%), Agriculture (15%) and Health (16%) also have several graduates earning above at least €33k in their first two years after leaving college. 93% of teachers, for example, are earning a maximum of €33k.
The report can be accessed in full here.
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