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Prepare for your career with an undergraduate degree at Bath

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.

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We are ranked 4th for graduate prospects by the Complete University Guide 2024
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Ranked 5th for career prospects by the Guardian University Guide 2024 1

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Ranked 6th for graduate prospects by The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024
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We’re ranked 16th for the universities most often targeted by Britain’s top graduate employers 2

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92.5% of our full-time UK-based graduates were in high-skilled employment 15 months after leaving university. 3

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Placed in the Top 100 of the QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2022

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. In fact, the majority of our undergraduate students choose a placement or study abroad period.4

Take advantage of our strong links with industry and go on a placement as part of your studies. Most of our undergraduate courses give you the chance to take a professional placement of between six and 12 months 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 looking at a Formula 1 car on a work placement at Alpine.

Get careers advice

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

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

Using tailored online resources, workshops, group sessions, and one-to-one appointments, they can help you:

  • decide on your goals
  • learn how to search for a job
  • prepare an application, including developing your CV and cover letter
  • use LinkedIn and develop a professional presence online
  • prepare for interviews and other recruitment experiences

We hold employer events every year, giving you opportunities to meet with recruiters from a variety of industries.

Our support doesn’t stop when you leave university. As a Bath graduate, you'll be able to seek advice from our Careers team throughout your working life.

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

Develop skills to prepare you for work

Choose from a wide range of courses, workshops, and resources to develop the skills employers want.

You can improve your language and communication, maths and statistics, and digital skills. You can also get practical support with 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

We have partner institutions across the globe, including in Europe, Australia, Asia, Latin America, Canada, and the United States.

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

Studying abroad also 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

Start your own business

We can support you throughout your entrepreneurial journey, from mentoring and networking to developing business ideas.

If you want to start your own business or develop your entrepreneurial skills, you can visit our Enterprise Lab on campus or the city-based Innovation Centre for advice, encouragement, and support.

Our Student Enterprise team also offers an Entrepreneurship Programme alongside your studies. The programme includes:

  • talks and masterclasses from graduate entrepreneurs
  • workshops
  • mentoring
  • funding
  • networking
  • startup placements
  • work opportunities

You could also meet like-minded students through the Bath Entrepreneurs student group.

  1. Ranked 5th for career prospects after 15 months by the Guardian University Guide 2024  ↩

  2. Universities targeted by largest number of top employers in 2022-23 by The Graduate Market in 2023  ↩

  3. Compared to a median figure of 73.6% for graduates from the sector (University UK members). Data from HESA Graduate Outcomes survey 2020/21. Refers to full-time UK domiciled first degree 2020/21 graduates, who entered work in the UK, 15 months after leaving university. Contains Higher Education Statistics Agency Data: Copyright Jisc 2022. Jisc cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived by third parties from its data.  ↩

  4. 67% of students from undergraduate courses graduated from a placement, year or study abroad pathway in 2022/23  ↩

  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 ↩