Graduates focusing on side skills - graduate jobs

Graduates are being advised to develop side skills outside their areas of expertise as a means of side-stepping the impact of the recession on the jobs market.

The Higher Education Careers Services Unit (Hecsu) reports that many have taken the guidance to heart by focussing on unpaid voluntary work.

For those seeking paid employment, the retail, sales and hospitality industries are top choices until they can find places in their chosen professions.

Particularly hard hit is architecture, for which graduate unemployment rose to 10% in 2008 compared with 2.4% the previous year, says Hecsu's Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education survey.

This compares with an 8% average across all subjects, prompting more students to either defer their studies or leave architecture altogether.

But those taking time out are in direct competition with former graduates who have still not found jobs, according to Birmingham School of Architecture student Anjan Farmah.

She says: "There's so much competition. There are the years above us that didn't get a job, and there are also architects out there that are unemployed. We're the least skilled, so we've not got much of a chance."