English undergraduates: unemployable?

As an English student, I have received considerable ridicule from science students for being 'unemployable' and 'not doing a proper subject'. Sadly, these beliefs are not entirely unfounded- employment prospect statistics for English graduates remain among the lowest: only 29% have jobs within six months of graduating, which is all the more worrying when compared to Dentistry's 83%. Even for those English graduates who do find jobs, their average salary is £3,000 below the national average.

So why are English graduates perceived as less employable than graduates of other disciplines? Perhaps the lack of contact hours we have in comparison with other students is off-putting to potential employers; the number of hours of lectures, seminars and workshops the average English student has in a week is roughly equivalent to the number of contact hours the average Biology, Chemistry or Physics student has in just one day.

However, the fact that English students have so few contact hours is not necessarily a bad thing. While our almost empty timetable may make it look like we have all the spare time in the world, most people do not realise the amount of reading required for a degree in English- far more than that required for a degree in Maths or Engineering. The volume of independent work undertaken by English students should surely make any English graduate far from unemployable; crucial skills such as time-management and self-sufficiency are acquired.

Unfortunately, the common misconception that English students do nothing seems to have reached the ears of employers, which is why many perfectly employable English graduates find themselves without jobs. The skills of analysis and reasoning developed and the eloquence gained in the undertaking of an English degree are overlooked in favour of numerical skills. English graduates are not unemployable, but far too many people are under the false impression that a degree in English does not make someone a desirable candidate for a job.

Source: Zena Aboarkaba, Theyorker.co.uk, Wednesday 22nd February 2012