The following article was submitted by Office of Planning & Institutional Research, The University of the West Indies, Mona.

Recent calls for a national tracer study to determine what happens to tertiary education graduates in the year after the completion of their first degree are timely given the current financial crisis and the need to allocate scarce resources in the local education sector.

The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona conducts tracer studies of its graduates on an annual basis. The most recent of these studies, carried out by the Office of Planning and Institutional Research, was of the Class of 2007. The survey sought to determine how students have fared in the job market shortly after graduating, but also revealed important trends in the labour market.

The survey was initiated in January 2009 among 2,464 graduates residing in Jamaica and 180 graduates residing in other Caribbean territories. By the end of the survey period 24 per cent of those surveyed had responded.

The survey sought to obtain information pertaining to the student's gender, faculty of study, degree earned, and class of degree. A series of questions were also asked on the graduates' employment status, the skills and competencies acquired while studying at Mona, and the extent to which their current job was related to their field of study.

FINDINGS

The most important finding was that some 90 per cent of UWI, Mona graduates are employed shortly after graduation and of the rest, 4.6 per cent were in postgraduate studies. Interestingly, 65 per cent of graduates are employed in three areas of critical importance to the country's development: education (194), health care (90) and finance/banking (90).

The majority (42 per cent ) of respondents were in the 19-24 age group, and in keeping with recent trends, had a female: male ratio of 79:21.

Table 1 shows the breakdown by faculties.

Most respondents graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree (62 per cent), followed by a Bachelor of Education degree (18 per cent) and a Bachelor of Arts degree (17 per cent). The top-10 major fields of study were management studies (66), nursing (64), history (33), hospitality and tourism (28), psychology (28), education (22), international relations (21), media and communication (19), educational administration (18), literacy studies (15) and mathematics (15).

EMPLOYMENT STATUS

Among the employed graduates, 37 per cent were employed by a central government/statutory authority, 34 per cent by the private sector, 23 per cent by other public sector institutions, and six per cent by other entities. Most respondents reported employment in the education sector which accounted for 35 per cent.

TYPE OF JOB

Among the employed graduates, 71 per cent reported being employed on a full-time permanent basis, while 22 per cent were employed on a full-time temporary basis. Another six per cent reported part-time employment and one per cent, self-employment. The fact that 93 per cent of respondents reported full-time employment speaks positively for the Mona campus and is an indication of the opportunities in the labour market. Full-time employment was not limited to a particular age group and all three sectors (education, public and private) accounted for almost equal shares of the full-time employed graduates.

Fifty-one per cent of respondents said a first degree was not a minimum requirement for their job. The youngest age group (19-24) was the most likely to report that their job required a first degree and, among the sectors, the private sector was the most likely to require a first degree.

JOB RELATED TO FIELD OF STUDY

Fifty-one per cent of respondents said their job was directly related to their field of study, and another 27 per cent said their job was somewhat related to their field of study. Only 10 per cent of respondents reported that their current job was neither related to their field of study nor their preference.

Interestingly 93 per cent of graduates reported that they would be pursuing advanced degrees, most of them in fields other than in the areas of their first degrees, the most popular being, human resources management, business administration, marketing, law and education.

The median gross monthly salary (91 per cent response rate) was $82,250. The minimum and maximum full-time salaries ranged from $16,000 to $380,000 per month. When the mean salaries were compared by faculty, the faculty with the highest mean salary was humanities and education ($98,181) followed by pure and applied sciences ($90,700) and social sciences ($87,951). The mean salary for medical sciences was $79,480.

Sixty-three per cent of respondents from the education sector were 35 years or older, many of whom were employed as teachers with the Ministry of Education. Teaching salaries were reported on average in the $90,000-$120,000 range. Additionally, in the faculty of medical sciences, 75 per cent of respondents were nurses whose monthly salaries were in the $40,000-$50,000 range compared with the few MBBS respondents who reported monthly salaries in the $100,000 and over range.

As would be expected, salaries increased with respondents' age. When the mean salaries were compared by sex, males had a higher mean salary ($98,194) than females ($89,758) by almost $9,000.

Salary data were also converted into annual income to see what patterns emerged. The results indicated that 61per cent of employed respondents were earning $900,000 or more a year.

Summary and Conclusion

'The Survey of First Degree Graduates, Class of 2007' has provided some useful information on graduates shortly after graduation.

Findings also reveal important information about the labour market. Most notable are the three main sectors in which graduates are employed, education, health care, and finance and banking. Despite concerns over a weakening economy, many graduates are able to find decent-paying jobs on a full-time permanent basis.

One area of concern is the gender imbalance at the Mona campus which requires intervention at the level of the high school. More growth also needs to occur in postgraduate research programmes, perhaps through better funding opportunities for students.

With regard to innovative and entrepreneurial skills, the Mona Campus has moved to better prepare graduates in this area. Only one of respondents reported that they were self-employed. In 2009, the Department of Management Studies implemented the BSc Management Studies (Entrepreneurship) degree. This programme not only prepares graduates for the world of work, but will also contribute to the country's economic growth through increased entrepreneurship.

At the Mona School of Business, the Vincent HoSang Entrepreneurship Programme links students with successful business persons to help them learn the skills of entrepreneurship and start successful companies.

The campus is also developing new programmes in engineering, agri-technologies and digital media. As the economic situation worsens, initiatives like these will help the UWI, Mona graduates to not only create jobs for themselves, but also to create opportunities for others.

Percentage of graduates by faculty

Faculty Percentage

Humanities and Education 35

Medical Sciences 13

Pure and Applied Sciences 13

Social Sciences 38