MARINE STUDIES: CAREER OPTIONS
Information provided by our Careers & Employability Service
Annette, our Careers Adviser for marine studies, says:
"The maritime sector in the UK is the largest in Europe and makes a huge contribution to the economy with a turnover of £40 billion per annum, twice the size of the aerospace or agricultural sectors. The maritime industry in the UK employs hundreds of thousands of people and there are many opportunities for well-qualified graduates to enter this key industry. Depending on your specialism chosen with your marine studies degree, you may end up working within the Mmerchant Navy, for a shipping company, a port or harbour authority or within the sailing industry, to name just a few sectors.
The skills you will develop through a marine studies course are transferrable and you may therefore chose to apply these within a completely different sector upon graduation. Many marine studies graduates choose to further specialise by going on to post-graduate study or by taking additional professional qualifications."
Skills you can develop during this course include:
- Critical analysis
- Leadership
- Communication
- Problem solving
- Report writing
- Project management
Relevant work experience
Gaining relevant work experience will help you to stand out in a competitive graduate labour market. Depending on the marine studies specialism you choose, you may have the opportunity to spend a year at sea as part of your degree, which will greatly boost your employability skills.
Location-wise, Plymouth is ideally situated to be able to offer you a myriad of additional opportunities to explore the marine sector and to develop extra skills by getting involved in marine-related extra-curricular activities, all of which will help to develop relevant skills that will interest employers when you graduate. Part-time work, volunteering and summer internships are other valuable ways of ensuring you can stand out from the crowd in the graduate job market.