Faculty of Arts : Guide to courses

3. Careers for arts graduates

Table of Contents

 3. Careers for arts graduates

Employment opportunities for arts graduates reflect the scope and volume of subjects and disciplines available for study. Depending upon the subjects you choose, your arts degree may be directed toward specific vocational skills in areas such as criminology, psychology, or archaeology, or it may help you develop a range of more general skills which are applicable right across the job sector. More specialist degrees such as creative arts, media & communications, public policy & management or social work provide specific skills for particular sectors of the workforce.

Arts Faculty graduates come to the job market as flexible, highly literate and well-informed individuals with excellent communication skills. In the course of your degree you will develop expertise in research methods and problem-solving, and in written and spoken communication. You will learn to use these skills to harness your own creative and critical thinking to the effective analysis, organisation, and presentation of complex material. These are all highly marketable skills which employers in a wide range of organisations recognise as desirable, and which you can carry with you as you develop your career in one or more directions.

Combined with your personal interests and talents, an arts degree is valuable preparation for a variety of career paths and for leadership and management roles in many fields. The University's Graduate Destination Survey shows that The Faculty's graduates often gain employment in professional areas which are closely related to the subjects they have studied. Arts research skills are applicable in the workplace in many different contexts from research for politicians or trade unions, to market research. Many arts graduates also enter the business, corporate and government sectors in graduate trainee schemes.

Arts graduates are able to transfer the skills they acquire across many sectors, and may become administrators in government, the diplomatic service, the arts, commerce or industry. Arts graduates can become archivists, historians, criminologists, psychologists, social workers, publishers, journalists, media and advertising professionals, curators in art galleries and museums, art conservationists, theatre directors, writers, poets, film directors and producers.

Graduates are also well placed to upgrade and increase their skills by pursuing further study to gain a professional qualification, such as the Bachelor of Social Work, the Bachelor of Public Policy and Management, the Bachelor of Teaching (offered by the Faculty of Education), or through further research work leading to a higher degree.

For details about further study options, see Options for further study.

Status:                   Official 2001
Last Modified:            Wednesday May 23 22:24
SGML to HTML Conversion:  Information Technology Services
Authorised by:            Academic Registrar
Email Enquiries:          Course_Information@registrar.unimelb.edu.au