Over 500 vacancies were on offer to UL students through 124 companies taking part in the largest Annual University of Limerick Careers Fair which took place today. The UL Careers Fair has been running for 13 years and over 3000 students and graduates visited this year’s event.

Since the beginning of the year in excess of 2500 jobs have been on offer to UL students and graduates through the UL Careers Office.
Speaking from the Fair, Head of Careers at UL Gavin Connell said, “The annual Careers Fair is an ideal opportunity for students to find out who the key UL employers are, what types of jobs are available, and what kind of skills employers are looking for.  Job prospects are good for UL students and graduates. Traditionally UL's Graduate Employment figures trend well above the national average. Despite the challenging environment, UL's graduate employment rate has continued to rise and our 2011 figure for primary degree-holders is now 16% higher than the HEA’s most recently-available national average figure which is 46% for 2010.”

A survey of UL’s 2011 graduates showed 88% are either employed or pursuing further study. Speaking from the Careers Fair UL President Professor Don Barry explained the demand for UL graduates; “Our doctorate students are also very much in demand, with 86% of last year’s PhD graduates currently in employment. “Year on year our graduate employment figures are increasing as a reflection of our continually-evolving programmes that offer our talented students the kind of educational and research experiences that will best prepare them for their careers.  Additionally, the growing number of employers actively recruiting UL graduates through this Careers Fair is testament to the high esteem in which our graduates are held. UL graduates have shown themselves to be ready for the workplace, highly-skilled and more employable than their peers from other Irish universities,” said Professor Barry. 

Students across all sectors benefited from attending this year’s Careers Fair as almost all industries were represented: Accounting, Banking & Finance, Insurance, Law, Retail, IT, Biomedical, Pharmaceutical, Aeronautical, Consulting, Food Processing, Nursing, Education, Professional bodies, Volunteering organisations and more.  Exhibitors include Abbot, ACI, Cook Medical, Dell, Google, Fidelity, Lidl, Medtronic, Paddy Power, PWC, Microsoft, Musgrave, State Street, VSI, Zimmer and others.  Information was also available on opportunities throughout Ireland as well as the UK, USA, UAE, Korea, Japan and other locations.

“We were particularly pleased with this year’s attendance.  It is excellent to see UL students taking positive steps by being proactive about their careers.  Final year students who attended the Careers Fair are very employable considering they have completed Cooperative Education and are already familiar with the professional world.  The Careers Fair completes the UL student experience by opening doors to careers which their studies here have equipped them for,” continued Gavin Connell