Business & administrative studies - an overview

• An overview
• Destinations
• Types of work
• Graduate salaries
• References
• Contacts and resources
• Case Studies

View destinations of specific subjects:

» An overview

Business, management, finance and marketing courses continue to be popular amongst students entering higher education. An obvious question follows and that is, does a large number of graduates in these subject areas equate to a large number of graduate jobs once it is time to leave? Results from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey reveal a positive answer: six months after graduation, more graduates were working in the business, finance and administrative sectors than any other sectors .

The Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) survey of 219 blue chip employers in the UK reported a 12.7% year-on-year rise in graduate level vacancies, an increase for the fourth consecutive year. Of this year’s vacancies, 23% were provided by accountancy and professional services and 12% by banking/financial services organisations, thus over a third of all vacancies were offered in areas ripe for entry by graduates of this chapter!

Evidence abounds that business, management, finance and marketing positions are prized goals. A report by Trendence, The UK Graduate Recruitment Review 2007, analysed the career expectations of over 24,000 students across 111 UK higher education institutions and found that business, management and marketing were the most popular career choices for students, with over a fifth aiming for jobs in this area. Finance careers also attracted considerable interest.

With this in mind, The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers 2007/2008 lists accountancy and professional services firms (PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte and KPMG) as the top three of a list of dream employers for the cohort who have most recently graduated.

» Destinations

According to the last available statistics, there were over 26,000 graduates from business and management courses in 2006. 77.8% of accountancy graduates entered work or were combining work and study in 2006 (see Table 1). This is the same figure as the previous year. For business and management graduates, this figure rises to 78.4%, and is even higher for marketing graduates, at 79.6%. In comparison with the data for all subject areas which shows that 71.9% of graduates entered work or were combining work and study, one can deduce that business-related degrees continue to be attractive to employers.

» Types of work

The DLHE data for 2006 leavers shows that over one in five (22.4%) business and management studies graduates entered commercial, industrial or public sector managerial positions compared with just 9.6% across all subjects. If readers are looking for this type of work, then a business and administrative course could be for you.

Marketing, sales and advertising positions continue to attract a lot of interest from graduates and the data reveals that whereas only 4.6% of graduates from all areas were employed in this field, 30.9% of marketing graduates successfully found work in this sector, as did 10.9% of business and management studies graduates. Of all UK-employed marketing graduates, 18.1% were actually employed in marketing and advertising executive positions.

Nearly 45% of all accountancy graduates entered business and financial jobs, including accountancy, taxation and financial analyst types of roles, compared with a much smaller 8.1% across all subject areas.

According to the government’s Enterprise Directorate, an agency of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) (BERR), 99.3% of UK businesses are classified as small (0-49 employees). One of the most important sectors in terms of numbers of companies is the financial services sector, so don’t just concentrate your thinking on the large blue chip employers.

» Graduate salaries

An analysis of graduate vacancies featured in publications from Graduate Prospects and on this website reveals an average salary of £18,744 for the year to 31 December 2006 (Graduate Market Trends, 2007). For vacancies in finance, insurance, pensions and actuarial work, the average salary was £24,577, whilst the average salary for vacancies in advertising, marketing and public relations was £20,253.

The AGR reports a median salary of £23,500 for the 2006-07 recruitment year, an increase of 2.4% from 2005-06. Positions in financial management reported a median salary of £26,500 and in accountancy as well as marketing, a median salary of £24,500.

The most comprehensive survey of graduate salaries is carried out as part of the DLHE survey. For the 2006 survey, 49% of first degree graduates (full- and part-time) in full-time employment in the UK disclosed salary information. Average salaries by relevant subject studied were as follows: business studies, £18,471; finance, £21,384; accounting, £17,175; marketing, £17,682; management studies £18,610. These figures include those in graduate- and non-graduate level occupations, and as a result, were lower than those reported earlier.

» References

The AGR Graduate Recruitment Survey 2007: Summer Review, produced for the AGR by Trendence.

The UK Graduate Recruitment Review 2007, Trendence, May 2007.

‘Graduate salary and vacancy survey’, Graduate Market Trends, Summer 2007. HECSU

» Contacts and resources

Websites

Resources on this site

• Your degree in accountancy and finance
• Your degree in business studies
• Explore types of jobs - occupations especially relevant to business and finance graduates can be found under advertising, marketing and PR, administration, sales, retail and buying, finance and management consultancy and insurance and pensions and actuarial work.

General links

• Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)
• Biz Ed
• Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA)
• Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM)
• Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy (CIPFA)
• Chartered Management Institute (CMI)
• Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW)
• Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS)
• ifs School of Finance

Publications

• Careers in Accountancy (7th Edition),Kogan Page
• Q&A: Accountancy (2nd Edition), Trotman
• Accountancy Uncovered (2003), Trotman
• How to Make it in the City by Debbie Harrison, Virgin Career Guide 2001
• Careers in the City by Joanna Minett, Management Books 2001

» Case Studies

Isabel - BA in Accounting and Finance. Management accountant in her final year of training.

Isabel chose management accounting because she wanted the variety of experience that working in industry allows. 'My training has allowed me to experience working in different areas of the company, to get to know the company and be a part of it. There is lots of interaction with other departments'.

Now in the final year of her three-year training programme with Masterfoods (part of the Mars UK Ltd Group), Isabel joined the company after graduating with a degree in accounting and finance. Each year of training has been spent working in a different finance area of the company. The programme is structured around the practical experience required by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). This has included a factory-based role with an emphasis on cost accounting, budget management and capital control. Her current, and favourite, placement, involves providing support to the sales and marketing departments. This involves tracking the performance of the company with emphasis on the brands, monitoring the market and providing information to the sales and marketing professionals.

The company has offices in various sites around the UK and trainees are expected to move around to gain experience and insight into the business. Isabel is currently based in the national headquarters. Her current focus is on the final year of the training and on the final exams. Her degree subject was helpful, in particular it enabled Isabel to gain some exemptions from some of the CIMA examinations (all but one of the foundation examinations and one of the intermediate level). However, she has colleagues with degrees that are not relevant to finance or accounting who have progressed well.

The company pays for Isabel's exam fees, the taught courses and the revision courses she attends (offered by the training provider, BPP). Some time off is given for study leave - two and a half days per course. However, this is for either a taught course or a revision course, so Isabel spends some of her own time on study. At the moment she attends two nights per week and some Saturdays.

Nick - BSc in Business Studies. Captain, 1st Battalion, Royal Green Jackets

Nick is 2i/c (second in command) of a training company at the Army Training Regiment, Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire. New recruits into the Army are initially posted into a training depot, such as Bassingbourn, where, during a basic training course of 14 weeks, they learn how to cope with the routine and discipline of military life and are prepared for the specialist combat, technical or service training they will receive in their chosen regiment or corps.

In his Company, Nick is responsible for up to 200 recruits, both men and women, from a variety of backgrounds and cultures, ranging in age from 17 to 30.

Nick left school with no clear career ambitions. In a gap year prior to university he spent a seven-month period in Nepal teaching English and travelled across Europe. He then went to university, graduating with a 2.1 honours degree in business studies. His course included an industrial placement year within a medium-sized consultancy and software house. In his final year he applied for a number of City-based posts and, on graduation, he immediately joined an internet business supplier in London. However, he became increasingly dissatisfied with the hours and lifestyle that an aggressive sales job imposed and he left this post after a year.

During several months spent job-hunting he talked with a number of Army friends and as a result he successfully passed the Regular Commissions Board, RCB, (now called the Army Officer Selection Board, AOSB) and entered Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst for officer training. He decided on an infantry career and was accepted by the Royal Green Jackets.

From Sandhurst he moved to Warminster for the three-month 'Platoon Commanders Battle Course' and then he joined his regiment. At the time the Royal Green Jackets were a battalion on standby and within ten days he found himself in Basra, Iraq. His unit was given the task of giving basic training to the newly reformed Iraq Civil Defence Corps (Army). He was expected to prepare a training schedule and run a three-week basic training course for three consecutive platoons of 60 Iraqis, who then went off for further military training.

After a series of other postings, Nick received promotion to rank of Captain and spent several months in 'conventional warfare training'. This involved designing and running training exercises at various locations in the UK, ranging from platoon level attacks to brigade level operations. He moved to the Army Training Regiment, Bassingbourn in January 2006 to command a training platoon. This job requires a significant level of 'welfare management' that is often not necessary within a normal serving platoon. Nevertheless, the challenges of training young lads to become professional soldiers is immensely satisfying and rewarding.

Nick hopes to make a long-term career within the Army. He says that he really enjoys the variety of jobs available in the infantry and the responsibility that comes with them. He also gets great personal satisfaction from the comradeship of working with colleagues of all ranks.