Do employers value postgraduate courses or is experience more important?

With experience being the word of the moment when it comes to graduate recruitment and employability, is it worth students staying on to do a post grad or are they better off getting in to work as soon as possible?

We recently revealed that a CBI/NUS survey found that students want universities to provide more support to help them develop suitable and relevant skills to make them more employable.

The survey found that 79% of students go to university to improve their job opportunities with 82% of businesses saying that employability skills are the most  important aspect they look for when recruiting graduates.

Although 66% of students have said that they want more support and advice to develop these skills it would seem that this message has been lost somewhere along the way.

Another survey by The Student Room has found that the majority of those currently studying or wanting to study a post grad course are doing so in order to increase employability (53%) and improve their career prospects (73%) but with work experience and employability skills being so high up on employers’ lists is this wasted time and money?

70% of employers, in a CBI/EDI Education & Skills survey, have said that “university students need to do more to prepare themselves to be effective in the workplace”.

What do you think?

• Will postgraduate students be more employable?
• How can universities provide students with the skills they need?
• Do students rely too much on their degree when applying for jobs?