Careers with Dutch

After Your Degree: Careers and Prospects for Dutch Graduates

There are over 23 million Dutch speakers in the world. Most of them live in the Netherlands and Flanders, two of the world’s most advanced manufacturing and trading areas. The Benelux countries are Britain’s third largest trading partner in Europe, and a major economic force. The European headquarters of several multinational companies and the political heart of the European Union are located in the Benelux countries. A knowledge of Dutch gives access to two similar but intriguingly different societies and cultures.

From a recent e-mail to the department (March 2009):

I am writing to let you know that: * despite the recession, the demand for English native-speaker translators in the Netherlands remains strong; * we have recently opened a new website for our translation workshops and courses, including a special section for English-speaking job-seekers. Current vacancies for native speakers of English include openings for: (...) Whilst the above are the most urgent vacancies, please note that there is a more or less constant demand for junior English translators working for translation companies in various parts of the country.

There is significant and growing demand for Dutch-speaking graduates as evidenced by regular request from employers to the department. In an English-speaking context, a university graduate with a good command of Dutch is rare indeed, giving the graduate in Dutch a major asset. If you are thinking either of a career or of gaining work experience in the Netherlands or Belgium, it may be good to remember that while many people there have a basic working knowledge of English, the English native speaker who is also fluent in Dutch has a tremendous advantage!

As substantial number of our graduates use their language skills in a variety of contexts such as banking, insurance, public relations (often for multinational companies of which plenty have Dutch origins) and cultural institutions, or in teaching and translating. Some graduates go on to MA or PhD programmes.

See where it can take you

Have a look at the student testimonials by graduates from previous years.

Student testimonials

General advice on careers is available throughout the programme and seminars are held in the department by advisers from the UCL Careers Service. Openings for graduates in Dutch are regularly brought to the department’s notice and communicated to students by the Careers Service.

Graduate destinations

The following examples are drawn from data collected on behalf of the Higher Education Statistics Agency for the 2007–2009 graduating cohorts as part of a survey of first career destinations of UK/EU graduates six months after graduation:

  • Policy Officer, Department of Press and Cultural Affairs, Royal Netherlands Embassy, London (2009),
  • Researcher, Reed Business Information (2008),
  • Business Development Analyst, Imation (2008)
  • Trainee Bank Clerk, UBS Bloomberg (2008).

Page last modified on 01 jul 11 11:05 by Ulrich Tiedau