“Knowledge of foreign languages and cultures is increasingly important for us all economically, politically and culturally and the school's passion for this is passed on to its students.”
Our Graduates are highly employable and go into an extremely wide range of professions. Some use their language skills all day everyday, some from time to time, others rarely, but they all have excellent communication skills and highly developed intercultural sensitivity.
Continuing globalisation and a fast-expanding translation industry combined with a decrease in the number of UK language graduates mean that there are an increasing number of exciting jobs for our students in the UK and beyond.Our graduates fare very well in this market, with a level of employability that is higher than the national average for language graduates.The range of professions that our graduates go into is very extensive and the intercultural sensitivity, maturity, enhanced communication and presentation skills (on which we place considerable emphasis in our teaching) that students develop stand them in very good stead for all kinds of professions, providing great flexibility and increased earning power.
Alongside specific expertise in the traditional language skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening, our students also enhance their transferable skills in time management, self-discipline and self-motivation, flexibility and resourcefulness, mediation skills, IT literacy and teamwork.
The school has a great range of activities on offer to help you boost your skills and your employability such as:
- Language and Culture Workshops – team projects to take your work outside the classroom
- Brussels Internships working with EU/regional offices (English, French and Spanish)
- Brussels International Careers and Employability Programme - focused on job opportunities in international organisations
- Work-placements in translation companies in the UK and abroad
- Translation and interpreting work experience networks with local museums and other agencies
- Work experience within the school as language coaches on school outreach events
- Alumni networking events – meetings and events to bring students and successful graduates together
- An Alumni Mentoring Scheme – you get to gain from the experiences and successes of past graduates who have put their degrees to good use
And don’t forget that year abroad experience is always highly valued by employers.
We asked some of our graduates about the jobs they do now
- Azmina, Mary, Carolyn, Richelle, Sarah, Lee, Natalie, Emma, Lucinda & Zoe describe their jobs and how the skills they developed studying languages at UEA impact on their jobs.
- Accounts of working experience from our graduates
- National case studies collected by CILT, the National Centre for Language Studies, including these case studies provided by UEA graduates James Phillips, Caroline Maher, Bonita de Boer, Katerina Tornari, Nina Hall andGeorgia Mullan.
The UEA's Careers & Employability page has great experience and a wide range of contacts and expert staff to help students in establishing a career.
