University of Milan, within three years of graduation 70% of graduates find employment

What professional future for the thousands of students entering the world of work after graduation? Which faculties respond best to market demands and which types of degree favour a faster start to work? What types of contract do young people obtain after graduation? And which professions are recent graduates heading towards?
This was investigated by an analysis carried out by Pts, a strategic consultancy company expert in the study of the labour market, in collaboration with Cosp - Centre for Study and Professional Orientation at the University of Milan, thanks to the design and implementation of a methodology for processing and analysing data from the University.

The study investigated the job placement paths of almost 60,000 graduates of the Milan State University, from all degree courses, between 2016 and 2021, paths that can be detected using the Compulsory Communications (COB) collected by the Sistema Informativo Lavoro.
The Statale-PTS analysis considers two indicators: overall start-up, which includes all those who declare they are carrying out an activity, including training, as long as it is paid, and qualified start-up, which considers employed only graduates who declare they are carrying out a paid work activity, excluding post-graduate training activities such as internships, apprenticeships, doctorates, specialisations.

In order to study the entry of graduates into the labour market, the research considers an entry path of three years after graduation. With regard to the type of degree, the research shows that the majority of degrees concern first-level three-year courses (31,790 units, corresponding to 53.3% of the total), while second-level master's degrees number 18,987 (31.8%) and single-cycle degrees 8,915 (14.9%).
The analysis shows that, within 3 years of graduation, graduates who have found employment are 70% of the total (total start-up, which also includes postgraduate training), a share that drops to 60% if we consider the more restrictive definition of qualified start-up, which gives more evidence of postgraduate employment opportunities.

The research shows that, with reference to overall start-ups, for master's and three-year degrees the value of starters is 77.7% in the former case and 73.5% in the latter. On the other hand, considering the data on qualified start-ups, it appears that master's and three-year degrees contribute 70.9% and 62.4% of graduates, respectively. Again in relation to this type of entry, for three-year degrees, the largest shares of graduates are in the prevention health professions (89.1%), the nursing and midwifery health professions (87.4%) and economics and business management sciences (65%).
Amongst the master's degrees, the largest shares of graduates are in the economic-business sciences (86.5%) and food science and technology (86.2%).
In the single-cycle degrees, the Pharmacy and Industrial Pharmacy course stands out clearly from the others with 83.5% in the case of starters, followed by Magistralis in Law (35.9% qualified).

Analysing the speed with which graduates find employment, the survey shows that overall starts occur very quickly: 59% take place within 6 months of graduation, plus 18% of starts between 6 and 12 months. Thus, more than three quarters of those started within 3 years of graduation find employment within the first 12 months, while only 23% find employment within the next two years. However, the data on qualified starters alone show a different situation: the proportion of graduates who find a job within 6 months falls to 36%, plus 24% of those who start between 6 months and 1 year. In this case, the share of graduates who find a qualified job in the second or third year after graduation is decidedly higher (40%).
Again with reference to this type of start-ups, and analysing the data by type of degree course, it can be seen that the fastest to find a job within 6 months are three-year and master's degree graduates (both 32%), while the shares for single-cycle degrees are lower (26%).