WOMEN graduates are more successful at finding work than their male counterparts because they present themselves to employers as more mature and adaptable, university careers advisers said yesterday.
Figures produced by the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services indicated that 45.4 per cent of women who left university in 1993 found permanent employment within six months, compared with 42.5 per cent of men.
Women were more successful across 13 of the 19 subjects analysed, with their advantage greatest in disciplines such as biological science, art and design, psychology and sociology.
The job -hunting performance of female graduates from traditionally "masculine" areas such as chemistry, mathematics, physics and all forms of engineering was also proportionately superior, though women still comprise only a small minority of students in these subjects.
Mrs Margaret Wallis, association president, said the statistics showed that women were
now competing effectively with men in all areas of employment.
"They are extremely assiduous in their applications, spend more time planning their careers
and prepare very well for each stage of the job -seeking process."
"More and more employers tell us that female candidates present themselves more effectively
than male.
"Some 20 and 21 year-old women are very mature for their age, whereas some young men are disproportionately immature."
Other careers advisers said women were more flexible and adaptable in the kind of career they considered, and therefore gained the lion's share of the 40 per cent of graduate vacancies for which no specific degree discipline was required.
Mr Nigel Llewellyn, national recruitment partner at accountants Touche Ross, which takes
on 400 graduates a year, said women candidates tended to have stronger inter-personal skills
and to have done more research about the job for which they are applying.
"Some men turn up without knowing what the job involves, and without any relevant work
experience," he added. Touche Ross was so impressed with its women recruits that it was
taking steps to increase the number of applications from females.
Overall graduate employment rose three per cent to 43.9 at the end of 1993, compared with 12 months earlier, and despite an increase of nearly 20 per cent in the output of new graduates.
Unemployment fell back to 11.7 per cent, with remaining degree-holders going mainly into postgraduate study, training courses for teaching and other professions, or short-term jobs.
In a separate survey, the association provided evidence of how large employers, faced with big increases in the numbers of universities and graduates, are increasingly confining their hiring activities to the more established institutions.
For next term, 1,574 employers have arranged to take part in recruitment "milkrounds" at the old (pre-1992) universities, compared with only 308 at the former polytechnics, and just two at colleges of higher education.Similarly, 826 employers were scheduled to make presentations at old universities, 198 at new universities, and 24 at colleges.
