Top 10 most targeted UK university by employers

High Fliers Report 2019

Eighth in the UK for employability

QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2019

Few universities offer the range of careers support you will receive at Leeds. 

At the Business School, our dedicated employability team will help you to develop the professional skills and experience that top graduate employers are looking for.

You will also have access to the University’s award-winning Careers Centre - one of the largest in the country.

Go further at Leeds

Top employers are looking for graduates who go further during their time at university. At the Business School we offer a range of opportunities for you to develop the skills and experience that will boost your CV and make you stand out from the crowd.

Optional years

All of our courses include the opportunity to spend a Year in Industry or studying abroad, extending your degree to four years. These opportunities are a brilliant way to enhance your degree and many students achieve much higher results in their final year after the experience.

Meet employers on campus

We run a range of employability workshops and one-to-one advice sessions involving employers, giving you valuable insight into how to stand out in the graduate employment market.

We are also a top 10 most targeted UK University by employers. Top companies such as Accenture, L’Oréal, M&S, KPMG, IBM and Unilever regularly visit campus to attend employer fairs and actively recruit our students.

Improve your entrepreneurial skills

The University of Leeds Centre for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Studies provides practical support, materials and guidance to all those who are interested in gaining new skills and improving their enterprise background.

If you are already an entrepreneur with a business plan you may be interested in applying for the Year in Enterprise (a variation of the Work Placement Year) during your degree.

Professional mentoring

Our Nurturing Talent Mentor Scheme connects undergraduate students with professionals from industry.

Applying for the scheme is a competitive process and capacity is limited; successful students are matched with a professional and receive one-to-one mentoring for an academic year.

We have recruited 200 mentors in a wide range of roles from companies including KPMG, M&S, PwC, Santander, Barclays and L’Oréal.

From study to work

As well as the opportunities above, you have access to a wealth of facilities and support which will help you to stand out from the crowd when you graduate. These include a specialist second year module 'From Study to Work', which helps you to secure placement opportunities and prepare for a professional career.

You will also be able to keep track of your progress using the Leeds for Life online facility which helps you to recognise and record your personal, professional and academic development and to articulate your skills and knowledge to employers.

Professional relevance

We work closely with employers and industry experts to ensure that all of our courses are relevant to the changing business world. Employers regularly deliver presentations and workshops as part of our courses and many of our programmes are professionally accredited - giving extra value to your degree.

Accreditations and exemptions

• Our BSc Accounting and Finance course offers significant exemptions from the main professional bodies in the field, including ICAEW, CIMA and ACCA
• We are one of only a handful of institutions to hold CIPD accreditation for our BA Human Resource Management degree
• Our International Business degrees are accredited by the Institute of Export
• Our BA Business Management with Marketing and BSc International Business and Marketing degrees are accredited by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) for the purpose of gaining CIM qualifications through the Graduate Gateway

See more of our accreditations.

Q-Step

Top employers have identified a shortage of social science graduates with the quantitative skills needed to analyse data and evaluate research evidence. Q-Step is a new initiative aimed at addressing this need.

As a member of the Q-Step initiative, the University of Leeds has developed a range of modules which allow students to develop quantitative skills though their business or social science degree, enhancing their employability.

These modules will be available on the following programmes:

• BA Human Resource Management
• BA Business Management and the Human Resource
• BA Business Management
• BSc International Business

How does it work?

You apply for the course as normal. In your first year you can then choose to enrol for special quantitative-based modules, such as Understanding Data in the Social Sciences. If you pass these modules, further Q-Step modules will be available in your second and final years.

How will it help me?

Taking Q-Step modules will help you develop the vital quantitative skills sought by employers whilst allowing you to maintain the subject focus of your degree.

The University of Leeds has an outstanding reputation for quantitative social science and is home to the Leeds Institute for Data Analytics, a prestigious UK Research Council Centre for big data analytics in both health and consumer behaviour. This expertise, along with our links with industry and government, will help to inform your teaching on the new modules.

Student prizes

We recognise and reward our students with prizes for exceptional hard work and achievement. Winning a Leeds University Business School prize is a great addition to your CV and will help to demonstrate your ability to top graduate employers.

The Crabtree Scholarship	Outstanding academic achievement in examinations and/or assessed coursework at year 1.
The CIPD West Yorkshire Branch Prize	Awarded to the student in the final year of BA Human Resource Management who achieves the highest credit grade average in their upper-level modules.
The Dean’s Prizes	Awarded for improvement and for performance in years 1 and 2.
The Denise Gallagher Award for Accounting	Awarded to the first year BSc Accounting & Finance student who has been nominated by their module leader for demonstrating passion, excellence and originality in the key aspects of the late Denise Gallagher’s teaching and work.
The Gerald Veale Prize	Awarded for the best overall performance in the final year examinations for the degree of BSc Accounting and Finance.
The Harold Speight Prize	Awarded for an outstanding first-class honours degree in any scheme of study taught wholly or partly within the School provided that the majority of the student’s final year examination papers are in the fields of economics, econometrics or economic statistics.
The Ernst & Young Prizes	Awarded for outstanding performance in the Introduction to Financial Accounting module.
The Richard Falshaw Prize	Awarded to the student in the final year of BA Management or BA Management with Marketing who achieved the best mark on the Strategic Management module.
The Pearson Education Prizes	Awarded for the best result in the Organisational Behaviour module, and for the best overall performance in the second examinations in BA Management.
The Study Abroad Employability Prize	Awarded to the student in the third year of an ‘International’ Undergraduate degree from Leeds University Business School who produces the best reflective learning log for the Study Year Abroad module.

This course is very niche, BSc Business Analytics students learn about statistical software, the psychology behind decision making and key business management theory.

Emily Catterson, United Kingdom
BSc Business Analytics

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I believe it will be easier for me to spot potential markets and industries, providing more opportunities for me to develop my career in the future.

Ziying Gong, China
BSc International Business

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Going back to education has reshaped my life and set me on a career path I could have only dreamed of when I started.

Matthew Moore, United Kingdom
BSc International Business

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