Employment prospects after postgraduate study are, of course, influenced by what the person joins the postgraduate course with. There is no established career route for such a new field as might be the case for, say Clinical Psychology. But it must be borne in mind that there are very few graduates a year in Investigative Psychology from Liverpool and none from anywhere else in the world. So, for some time to come there are likely to be more opportunities than people to take them. So far graduates have had a choice of possibilities. These include the following areas:-

· Further postgraduate study at Liverpool or elsewhere;

· Joining research teams as research associates in many areas of Applied Psychology, Criminology etc;

· Becoming members of police forces as 'civilians' involved in intelligence work or as police officers;

· Working in prisons or with clinical forensic populations

· Lecturing posts (increasingly posts are being advertised for 'Criminal' or 'Forensic' Psychologists).

· Working in commercial or industrial research and development units.

The field research skills central to the course are highly marketable and find their value in many areas of study, as varied as market research, or Home Office crime analysis commercial fraud investigation or industrial intelligence gathering. The general interest by potential employers in the course should not be underestimated. This opens doors and provides the possibility of being interviewed for many different types of job in a way that more conventional postgraduate courses do not. Indeed, our course is one of only three in the UK that has both ESRC 1 + 3 recognition and recognition by the British Psychological Society's Division of Forensic Psychology as providing a comprehensive research training and a course that satisfies BPS requirements. Moreover, as outlined above the Police Skills and Standards Organisation recognise and wish to implement increased civilianisation into police work so there are exciting times ahead. As far as we can tell the overwhelming majority of graduates of our course have found jobs in their chosen area within six months of completing the course. Those who go off to complete a PhD with us invariably have a selection of job offers to choose from.

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