Vocational graduates hardly have to look for a job; 87% find work almost immediately

There is more than enough work for recent HBO graduates. Nine out of ten students who graduated from a university of applied sciences in the 2020-2021 academic year (87 percent) immediately found work, according to the HBO Monitor published on Tuesday. Only 7 percent of graduates took longer than three months to find a job last year. A year earlier, that was still 11 percent.

Maastricht University produces the monitor annually for the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences. Of the 30,000 graduates who participated in the study, which forms the basis of the monitor, 67 percent had a permanent job within a year and a half. That percentage is considerably higher than a year earlier: 61 percent.

“The survey once again shows that you can make a good start to your career with a higher vocational education,” said Maurice Limmen, chairman of the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences.

Former students were even more optimistic than a year earlier, “perhaps also helped by the tight labor market,” the association reported. It called it striking that 90 percent of students who obtained an associate degree found work immediately after graduation. These courses are shorter than regular HBO courses. In more than half of the cases, students do these courses part-time. Students who opt for this usually already work alongside their studies.

Over three-quarters (77 percent) of HBO graduates found a job in the field of their study. That figure remained the same as a year earlier. Especially in sectors with a shortage of personnel, HBO graduates find work very quickly and are most often able to secure a permanent position. That concerns, for example, jobs in science and technology, healthcare, and education.

Unemployment among recent HBO graduates is low at 2.7 percent in 2022. Part-time and dual students lower this percentage. Among those groups, post-graduation unemployment is less than 1 percent. Of the full-time students who participated in the study, 3.2 percent were unemployed. That was 3 percent in the previous HBO Monitor.

Compared to a few years ago, the unemployment figures are very low. In 2013, for example, 7.3 percent of HBO graduates were still unemployed a year and a half later.

Unemployment is lowest in education, at only 0.5 percent. Students in the social studies category have slightly more difficulty, but unemployment is low there too, at 3.7 percent.