Career prospects

Here in the Department of English, we acknowledge the part we have to play in preparing you for your future career, and seek to equip you with the skills you need to be a success in the workplace through our curriculum.

As a student of English, you will develop the skills to:

• Construct a cogent argument or account, drawing pertinently upon a range of types of evidence
• Undertake independent critical thinking and judgement, including sophisticated conceptual, analytic and communication skills of value in graduate employment
• Work with and in relation to others, to gather, sift and organise material independently and critically, and to evaluate its significance
• Use and evaluate electronic resources with competency and confidence, through well-developed IT abilities
• Manage your time and organise your workload effectively, and possess advanced literacy and communication skills
• Competently plan and execute essays, presentations, and other writing and project-work, developing the potential to implement these abilities in appropriate ways in your subsequent career.

Graduate destinations

Six months after graduating in July 2017, 95.8% of UK English graduates were in work and/or further study. This breaks down as:

• 66.7% in work
• 24.0% in further study
• 5.2% working and studying
• 1.0% unemployed/due to start work
• 3.1% other.

Typical areas of employment included media, publishing and creative writing; social media, marketing and events; and project management. Historically, our graduates have progressed to careers in a vast range of areas, including journalism, broadcasting, advertising, management, teaching, retail, computing, librarianship, the arts and the Civil Service, with some also having trained as solicitors or accountants.

(Source: Destination of Leavers from Higher Education report, 2016-17). 

Work experience

In conjunction with the University’s Careers and Employability Service, the School of the Arts offers a 30 credit, year-long module (SOTA300) which incorporates a work placement with a local company, group or institution related to your subject, providing practical/vocational experience. A School Employability Support Award is also available to help with the costs of undertaking a work experience opportunity or other activity that will enhance employability.

Other opportunities can be sought through the Guild’s student media, which include the student newspaper, The Sphinx; Ellipsis, the arts and culture magazine; and student radio station LSRadio.

Recent employers include:

• BBC
• Debenhams
• Euro RSCGWNEK Gosper
• Griffiths and Armour
• UK Border Agency
• Home Office
• Littlewoods
• Macmillan Publishers
• The JET Scheme
• Virgin One
• Waterstones
• Wiley-Blackwell. 

* Liverpool tops Russell Group for Graduate Employability 

Careers and employability: where might you go next?

We acknowledge the part we have to play in preparing you for your future career. We know that during your English degree you will want to develop skills and experience to help you in whatever you decide to do next. On this page you can read about the support and initiatives available to students, the skills you’ll gain during your study and your future career prospects as a graduate of the university.

Read more about some of the work-experience partners we work with.

Placements and employability

We have a variety of initiatives designed to support students gain experience and skills that will help them into the careers that interest them:

• SOTA300: a year-long module allowing you to take an extended work-experience placement with a local employer. Students have taken positions in publishing houses, theatres, galleries, teaching and journalism. Have a look at some of the partners we work with on the scheme and read some of our students’ testimonials.
• Year in Industry: on this four-year programme the third year is spent entirely on placement in a salaried role in a field or industry relevant to your studies, before concluding your degree in your fourth and final year.
• Skills Week: a dedicated week in Semester 2 of each year, exploring what you can do with an English degree, whether undergraduate or postgraduate, and offering practical sessions on developing digital and other skills, and advice on how to articulate your qualities and skills on a CV.
• Film Buddy: a mentoring and placement initiative designed to ​​help students into work in film, television and creative media industries. Film Buddy works with some of the leading production companies in the UK and US to provide placement opportunities, including Lucas Film, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. One of our students gained work experience on the set of Channel 4’s ‘It’s a Sin’; read it about it Read about Film Buddy here.
• Bido Lito Summer School: an eight-week programme focusing on writing about the arts in association with Bido Lito!, a monthly magazine for and about Merseyside’s thriving creative community.
• Employability Support Award: provides financial support to help you take up opportunities for career-related activities, such as travel for work experience.
• Art Works: a series of talks and workshops from local and national industry experts designed to give you information and inspiration about how to get into arts-related careers.
• The Enterprise Fund: get up to £5,000 to kick-start your new business idea or side-hustle.
• Careers Studio: a university-level support service that can help you with improving your CV, finding placements and graduate schemes, and much more.
• Other opportunities include: working with staff on our research assistant schemes; Student Guild and departmental media, including the student newspaper The Sphinx; Ellipsis, the arts and culture magazine; student radio station LSRadio; and the Department of English blog, where students have published their reviews of events, including local festival of radical writing WoWFest and talks run by the Royal Society of Literature.

Career prospects

Our recent graduates have gone on to have careers in the arts and the media, working for employers like the BBC, the Liverpool Echo, the Guardian and the Royal Shakespeare Company; in creative writing and publishing, for Hodder & Stoughton, Routledge, Oxford University Press; Macmillan and Liverpool University Press; in the Civil Service, working for the Home Office and the UK Border Agency; and in social media, marketing, advertising and events. Many of our graduates become teachers. Others have joined multinational firms like Virgin and Rothschild & Co Investment Bank.

Skills

Here in the Department of English, we acknowledge the part we have to play in preparing you for your future career, and want to equip you with the skills you need to be a success in the workplace.

As a student of English, you will develop the skills to:

• Undertake independent critical thinking and judgement
• Construct a cogent argument or account
• Work with others
• Gather, sift and organise material independently and critically, and to evaluate its significance
• Use electronic resources with confidence
• Manage your time and organise your workload
• Communicate your ideas at an advanced level
• Competently plan and execute essays, presentations, and other writing and project-work.

Through all of this, you will develop resilience and hone your emotional intelligence, qualities that employers consistently look for in graduates today.

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