Master your career: How postgraduate study boosts employability

Whether you’re looking to get qualified for a career move or keen to dive deeper into an academic passion, a master’s at Surrey will help you see things differently. But how can a postgraduate course help you get ahead in the workplace?

Postgraduate study an increasingly popular way to get ahead in a competitive job market. Read on to discover what the University of Surrey offers postgraduate students and how you can make the most of Surrey’s leading careers support.

Be supported throughout your time at Surrey and beyond

Surrey recognises that you may require tailored support to develop your professional potential, both during and after your master’s.

Events

Throughout the year, Surrey hosts a range of employability-focused events, including two large careers fairs which attract a range of employers offering graduate roles and placements.  The university also holds an annual International Student Employability Week, with sessions focused on working in the UK and worldwide, building your personal and professional network, interview skills, alumni networking, career planning, entrepreneurship, visas, varsity and more!

Surrey Pathfinder

As a Surrey student, you’ll have access to a range of resources to enhance your employability. Surrey Pathfinder is a digital hub where you can find everything from careers appointments and event bookings, to jobs listings, placements and interactive development tools.

 Workshops

Whether you want to improve your networking skills or need support with writing your CV – Surrey’s dedicated Employability and Careers team are on-hand to help.

Employability Award

You can opt to undertake the Employability Award, which gives students recognition for activities that develop employability skills. The Award will help you prepare for entering the graduate job market and is a valuable addition to your CV.

Alumni access

For up to three years after you graduate, you’ll have access to one-to-one appointments with Surrey’s Employability and Careers service, as well as have lifetime access to Surrey Pathfinder.

In-house agency

Looking for extra experience? Unitemps is the University’s in-house job agency that can help you find temporary work across campus and in local Guildford companies.

Discover more about employability and careers at Surrey, including where graduates are now.

Build your network and gain practical experience

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Surrey’s arts and social sciences courses are research-led and many offer opportunities to boost your employability.

On the MSc Criminology course, you’ll have the chance to take a four-week work placement to put your skills into practice, with the department also participating in the ‘Learning Together’ scheme, a project that enables Surrey students to study alongside local prisoners at HMP Send.

The recent appointment of Iain Sinclair as the University’s distinguished Writer-in-Residence means the MA Creative Writing programme presents the chance to hone your creative practice through workshops with the renowned writer and filmmaker.

In Surrey Business School, MSc Human Resource Management, MSc Business Analytics, MSc Digital Marketing and Channel Management, MSc Management and MSc Strategic Marketing all offer the option of completing a placement as part of your studies, with students choosing placements both in the UK and abroad.

Surrey’s music, sound, film and digital production courses also offer exceptional links to industry. Discover some of the top jobs music and sound recording graduates have secured.

Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences

The Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences has outstanding professional partners you can network with. For example, the Pirbright Institute and Animal and Plant Health Agency are both founding partners of the School of Veterinary Medicine, maintaining a strong relationship with Surrey while providing cutting-edge student placement opportunities for MSc Veterinary Microbiology students. On specialist practice courses, students are sponsored by organisations such as Children and Families Surrey and Solent NHS Trust.

As well as practical visits, students enhance their employability by completing a research project with one of Surrey’s partners. The MSc Medical Microbiology (Euromasters) course, for example, offers you the chance to do extensive research alongside internationally-recognised groups.

Discover more about what you can do with a biosciences degree.

Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences

As well as enabling you to contribute to globally-renowned research at the Centre for Vision Speech and Signal Processing, Surrey Space Centre or the Advanced Technology Institute, some of Surrey’s engineering and physical sciences master’s courses also include the option of a year-long placement, helping you hone the skills you need to excel.

On the MSc Electronic Engineering (Euromasters) programme, you could work with one of Surrey’s European partner universities, while the brand-new MSc Data Science course offers an optional year-long industry placement where you’ll get the chance to solve issues affecting the world today.

Some courses enable you to complete your master’s dissertation project in an industrial, research or hospital-based environment – students on the MSc Medical Physics have previously been hosted by Royal Surrey County Hospital, Cancer Centre London and the National Physical Laboratory.

Discover where some of the University’s electrical and electronic engineering graduates are now.

“Thanks to excellent support from the University, I managed to find a placement at Cobham Antenna System,” says Irene Pastor Gutierrez, MSc Electronic Engineering (Euromasters). “During my six-month placement, I worked as a software development engineer and, at the request of the company, I’ve continued to work there while completing my studies at Surrey.”

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