Career Monitoring Among Arcada Alumni:  What Do Alumni Say About Their Education 5 Years After Graduating?

Did you graduate in 2014? During the autumn, the universities are collecting data on employment, career paths and competence required in working life from those graduated in 2014. When contacted, please respond to the survey. The results of the survey help develop education and career guidance in the universities. 

Arcada takes part in the national career monitoring survey carried out by the project “AMKista uralle”. In early spring 2019 the first pilot survey was carried out among alumni graduated in 2013.  From now on the national survey will be sent out every autumn to alumni five years after their graduation. The results will directly affect future government funding and the results will be used to develop the degree programmes.  

Here is a brief summary and overview of results from the first pilot survey among all Arcada alumni 2013: 

• Arcada alumni are content with their careers thus far. Permanent contracts, temporary positions or temporary jobs without longer breaks are the most common forms of employment.
• According to the respondents their degree is highly valued by employers.
• The vast majority would recommend their education.
• When asked to send a greeting to current students, the alumni list the following: hone your team working skills, creativity, self-leadership, building networks, stress resistance, resilience and ability to work in a multicultural environment.

What do alumni say about their education? 

• Without my degree, I had not been able to get a steady job at the work place I was planning to work at. 
• I like the job, not the resourcing 
• It gave me an insight to different work styles and the importance of research for rehabilitation 
• First short temporary jobs, later a steady job. I am content.  
• The programme was new when I studied, so it has probably changed, but at that time the courses felt irrelevant and out of context 
• I <3 Arcada. Thank you for everything! 

Here are a few examples of titles that the respondents listed:  assistant department nurse, accounts ledger attendant, kindergarten teacher, book keeper, head coach, credit collector, developer, occupational therapist, family worker, physiotherapist, paramedic, insurances advisor, sales person, full stack developer, geronom, public health nurse, nurse, communications expert, consultant, customer adviser, market analyst, massage therapist, production manager, project manager, director, recruiting consultant, senior developer, welfare advisor and web master.