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Make yourself employable

Make the most of your opportunities at Bath to get the experience and skills you need to start your future career.

Being a Bath student is not just about studying and doing research. By making the most of the opportunities available here, you’ll gain experience and skills which will help you plan your career path and increase your employability.

We can help you make important decisions about the type of career you want. By the time you graduate, you should have an idea of what you want to do and know the steps you need to take.

Highly ranked for graduate prospects

Bath graduates are highly valued and sought after by leading graduate employers.

6th

We are ranked 6th for graduate prospects by the Complete University Guide 2022
7th

Ranked 7th for graduate prospects by The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2022
Top 20

We’re ranked 17th for the universities most often targeted by Britain’s top graduate employers1

90%

90% of our UK-based graduates are in high-skilled employment 15 months after leaving2

Two-thirds

The majority of our undergraduate students choose a placement or study abroad period3

Gain work experience on a placement

Doing a placement during your course can give you the experience and skills that set you apart from other graduates.

Take advantage of our strong links with industry and go on a placement as part of your studies. You have the option to do one or more professional or industrial placements in all of our undergraduate course areas 4/5/6.

On a placement, you can get practical experience and gain transferable skills at the same time as learning about working in the private or public sector. This can help you make more informed choices about your future career and you can include it on your CV as work experience.

As a Bath student, you can receive tailored support from our Placements team who have worked with many of the world’s biggest organisations to offer placement opportunities to our students.

Improve your employability with a placement
A student being shown around by an employer on a work placement.

Get careers advice

You can receive career information, advice, and guidance throughout your time at Bath.

Our dedicated Careers Service can offer advice on your career plan and help you get in contact with employers.

They provide:

  • information on employment and further study
  • individual guidance and assistance with career choices
  • workshops to develop your employability skills, including CV writing, interviews, applications, and aptitude testing
  • information on job vacancies and a programme of careers fairs and events

We hold employer events every year, providing you with opportunities to meet, understand, and network with recruiters from a variety of industries.

Our support doesn’t stop once you graduate either. As a Bath graduate, you will be able to seek advice from our Careers Service team throughout your working life.

Read more about the Careers Service
An alumnus giving a talk on careers advice.

Develop skills to prepare you for work

Choose from a wide range of free courses, workshops, and resources that you can take in your free time and use throughout your career.

You can improve your language and communication skills, get help with maths, statistics and numeracy concepts, or learn something new, including practical skills like interview techniques and CV writing.

You could also take part in a Vertically Integrated Project (VIP), working with postgraduate students, researchers, and members of staff. Our VIPs often focus on addressing global issues at a local level and are a great way for you to apply research techniques to real-world problems while you develop your collaboration, communication, and adaptability skills.

Study abroad

In addition to learning a new language in the place where it's spoken, studying abroad as part of your undergraduate degree gives you a new set of challenges. It can help you to develop your communication, problem-solving, and analytical skills.

Studying abroad demonstrates ambition, confidence, and a willingness to embrace new ideas, all of which are of great value to employers.

Find out how you can benefit from studying abroad
Four students walking through a European city

Build a professional network before you graduate

While at Bath, you can use our networking site, Bath Connection, to get in touch with thousands of graduates around the world.

You can ask questions about working in a particular industry or find a mentor to learn from someone who has been at Bath and wants to help you succeed.

Find out more about Bath Connection
A group of students working on a laptop
  1. The Graduate Market in 2021
  2. Compared to 74% of employed graduates nationally - data from the Graduate Outcomes Survey for 2017-18 leavers relating to full-time UK domiciled first-degree graduates entering work in the UK 15 months after leaving university
  3. Over two-thirds of Bath-based students graduated from a course with a placement or study abroad option in the 2017/18 academic year
  4. Based on undergraduate courses starting in the 2020/21 academic year
  5. Social Work and Pharmacy have mandatory work-based learning as part of the degree, not year placements
  6. FdSc Sport (Sports Performance) has a placement when taken with a Bachelors top-up