When the going gets tough: the tough get a career advantage with a taught masters

Getting to grips with anaerobic digestion (Photo: by Greenie)

A good course is key to getting ahead in the job market and access to industrial experts can really make all the difference. A taught masters is a good way of doing this, but if you are under the illusion that a taught masters course is easier than a masters by research, think again.

Imagine you have a 3-day field course, around 96 lectures to attend, a couple of exams to pass, 6 x 3,000 word essays to produce along with 4 posters, 8 oral presentations, while  coming up with an idea for a research project that you need to design, propose, seek ethical approval for, carry out and publish into a 20,000 word document, all within 12 months. This is a typical workload for a busy taught masters student.  So is it worth it? Ours students tell us it is.

This demanding schedule at an advanced level trains our students to become independent thinkers and confident managers. Without experience though, our students have no way of demonstrating this to employers. However, our students do get jobs. Good jobs! see employment case studies here.

Making career links during the course

Green IT visit to Stone Computing

This is partly down to the program and skills gained, including time management! It is also down the fact that all of our masters students on the MSc in Environmental Sustainability and Green Technology at Keele University have the opportunity to do a project with a business or public sector organisation or a research group. 90% of these students elect to work with industry.  This means that the student can align their learning experience and get some experience and insight into the career where they are heading.  Projects this year include: municipal waste management with a local authority, how solar energy can connect communities with a local social enterprise, environmental testing and land remediation at a development site for a power station, biomass ash analysis with Keele researchers, building performance with a large manufacturer and green IT projects with a local company and our research team at Keele looking at smart energy.  These students work on real problems and have something real to talk about at interview.

What goes around.....

Blustery conditions at a wind farm in Wales in the Spring

In 5 months time from now my students will hand in carefully bound and proudly labelled dissertation documents and will be celebrating with a huge sense of mixed relief and achievement. In 12 months time, they will have mostly all asked me at some point for a reference. In a couple of years, I will be proudly asking some of them to return as speakers and project collaborators as they become the employers.

For information about how to apply for the course (click here) or if you are from an organisation with a strategic problem and you would like to collaborate with us on a dissertation project we would love to know.