Latest Department for Education graduate regional outcomes data published

Employment and earnings outcomes of higher education graduates broken down by their geographical location in the 2016 to 2017 tax year has been released by DfE.

The headline messages are:

• A large proportion of graduates remain in their provider region: almost half are residing in the same region as their provider 5 years after graduation. If a graduate now lives outside of the region of their provider they are most likely to have moved to London. 
• Some of the movement away from provider region will be graduates returning to their home region. There is a strong link between home region, provider region and current region. One year after graduation a very high proportion of graduates (82%) are in the same current region as their original home region (43.7% who studied in the same region and therefore never left their home region and 38.3% who chose to study in a different region and subsequently returned.)
• Graduate earnings are highest in London but graduates earn more, on average, than non-graduates in all regions of England. Graduates typically earn more than non-graduates, with the gap in pay relatively similar across the country but greatest in absolute terms in London (around £5,000) and in percentage terms in the South West (around 22%).

Key south west England messages:

• Of those graduates whose home region was the south west, 49.2% studied in the SW, 21.2% studied in the SE, and 7.7% studied in London. All other regions saw less than 7% studying there.
• Of those graduates that studied in the south west, 5 years after graduating, 42.8% were still in the SW; 17.5% were living in London and 16.8% were living in the SE. All other regions accounted for less than 5.5% living there.
• 67.7% of graduates originally from the south west will be living in the south west 5 years after graduation.

What does all this tell us?

That graduates aren’t actually very mobile. They tend to stay in the region they grew up in to study and then to work. If they do leave to study, often they return to work in their home region.

So if you are looking to recruit graduates the best thing you can do is look in your home region – and here in south west England you can focus your recruitment budget on doing precisely that with www.gradsouthwest.com

Reference:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/graduate-outcomes-leo-regional-outcomes-2016-to-2017