Career monitoring survey results from year 2023

The career monitoring survey is sent to students who graduated from Universities of Applied Sciences with a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree five years previously. The purpose of the career monitoring survey is to find out graduates’ career and employment situation and satisfaction with the degree they completed.

The national survey was carried out in 2023 for the sixth time, and it was answered by those who graduated in 2018. For Xamk, the response rate was 36.2%, with a total of 647 (513) graduates responding to the survey. The nationwide response rate was 43.6%.

Xamk alumni are satisfied with their degrees

The majority, 85% of the respondents, are very satisfied, satisfied or slightly satisfied with their degree.

Those who graduated as forestry engineers, emergency nurses, and public health nurses were particularly satisfied with their Bachelor’s degrees. The respondents who graduated as community educators and masters of hospitality management were most satisfied with their Master’s degrees.

79% of the respondents think that their degree is well known in the labour market. Most of the respondents (77%) felt that their degree provided sufficient skills for working life.

Employment and location of the workplace

Of the respondents, 68% have been continuously employed, and 70% work in the field corresponding to their degree. Further, 75% have a permanent full-time job, 10% have a temporary employment relationship, and 3% worked as entrepreneurs or were self-employed.

At the time of graduation, the respondents’ workplace was most often located in Kymenlaakso, South Savo, or Uusimaa. Five years after graduation, the largest number of workplaces were still located in these regions.

Skills needed for work

The respondents felt the most important skills and competences for the labour market were the following:

1. Initiative and self-direction,
2. Independent working and time management,
3. Ability to learn and adopt new things,
4. Problem solving skills,
5. Communication and negotiation skills,
6. Stress tolerance and adaptation to new situations,

The least important skills needed in their current job were:

1. Entrepreneurship skills
2. Research method competence
3. Business competence (e.g., budgeting)

It should be noted that the importance of entrepreneurship skills was nevertheless highlighted in the open answers to the survey.

A Master’s degree boosts your career

Many of the respondents (75%) who completed a Master’s degree stated that they found a new job with a higher salary as a result of their degree. This is supported by the fact that the median salaries of the respondents with a Bachelor’s degree and those with a Master’s degree were 3,300€ and 4,100€, respectively.

You can find more detailed information about the results of the career monitoring survey in Vipunen.