The University of Hong Kong

Careers Education and Placement Centre

Where did the 1996 B.S.W. graduates go?

I. Introduction

The information contained in this paper is extracted from the Graduate Employment Survey of 1996 to answer the following questions about B.S.W. graduates : -

• How were they employed six months after graduation ?
• Of those who pursued further studies, what programmes did they follow ?
• Of those who were employed full-time, how long did it take them to secure their first job offer ?
• In which sectors were they employed ?
• How much did they receive in salary ?
• How many job offers did they receive ?
• Who were their employers and what were their job titles ?

II. Employment Situation in 1996

Out of 67 B.S.W. graduates, 60 responded to our survey, representing a response rate of 90%. Of these, 87% were in full-time employment within six months of graduation. The remaining 13% (or 8 graduates) were still looking for full-time employment at the time of the survey in December 1996. (Table 1)

Table 1. Employment situation

* HKU overall refers to the figure for the total HKU population and includes M.B.,B.S. and B.D.S. graduates.

III.Time Taken to Secure Employment

Among those who were in full-time employment, 71% secured their first job offer before the end of September. The figure increased to 96% by December. (Figure 1)

Figure 1. Time taken to secure employment

IV. Employment Sectors

The largest employment sectors for B.S.W. graduates were community, social & personal services (50%) and civil service (34%). 10% were employed in commerce and industry and 6% joined the education sector. (Figure 2)

Figure 2. Employment sectors

Figure 3. Employment sectors by sex

V. Basic Salary and Gross Income

On the whole, the average income of B.S.W. graduates is shown in Table 4.

Table 4. Basic salary and gross income

* HKU average refers to the figure for the total HKU population and includes M.B.,B.S. and B.D.S. graduates.

VI.Number of Full-Time Job Offers

56% of the B.S.W. graduates in full-time employment had more than one job offer. 21% reported having received three or more offers (Figure 4). On average, each graduate received 1.8 job offers, compared with 2.0 last year.

Figure 4. No. of full-time job offers

VII. Names of Employers and Job Titles

Among the 52 B.S.W. graduates in full-time employment, 76% were employed as social workers and 6% as business professionals*. Their job titles and the names of their employers are listed below. (Table 5)

Table 5. List of employers and job titles

No Response = 1

* Business professionals include the following occupations : marketing / sales executives, shipping / airline / transport executives, trading executives / merchandisers / buyers and purchasing agents, travel executives, personnel / administrative / management executives, management consultants, investment consultants, bank executives, finance executives, organization and method officers, estate development / management officers, etc.

Note : Some alumni have indicated willingness to talk to individual students about their work. Their contact telephone number can be obtained from counsellors at CEPC.

VIII.

Similar information on graduates from other disciplines of study are available for reference in the Careers Library. Please enquire with the CEPC.