For employers
Ireland is one of the most globalised and open economies in the world, a place where the brightest minds compete to expand the frontiers of human knowledge.
Collaboration
Significant investment has resulted in Ireland ascending in international rankings of research capacity, and in the doubling of the number of doctoral graduates. The quality of the doctorate awarded in Ireland is vital to the development of human and knowledge capital and Irish higher education institutions have been proactively working both together and independently to provide the highest quality research experience and outcomes for our research students.
Independent and expert
Doctoral graduates are, first and foremost, independent researchers and leading experts in their specific areas. Research degree programmes across the Irish higher education sector are designed to imbue doctoral graduates with the transferable skills necessary to advance their careers across a broad range of employment sectors and to ensure that the acquisition of discipline-specific knowledge is complemented by the development of transferable skills and thereby make significant contributions in any field.
“Professional occupations are the most common occupation type, accounting for 59.2% of postgraduate research graduates in 2024 and further 79.4% of postgraduate research graduates believe that their course is relevant to their job.”
Skills for the future
The World Economic Forum Future of Jobs report (2025), highlights the following sectors as the fastest growing up to 2030:
| AI and Big Data | Curiosity and Lifelong Learning |
| Networks and Cybersecurity | Leadership and Social Influence |
| Technological Literacy | Talent Management |
| Creative Thinking | Analytical Thinking |
| Resilience, Flexibility and Agility | Environmental Stewardship |
This represents a change in the skills employers will need to prioritise when hiring for and developing their workforce and meeting the opportunities and challenges facing society.
As the IUA Doctoral Skills Statement shows, PhD graduates are uniquely placed to deliver and continuously develop skills aligned with the vision, values and strategy of organisations today. Their commitment to critical thinking and rigorous approaches to problem-solving can, when combined with an organisation's ambition, leadership and entrepreneurial culture, result in enhanced productivity and increased impact.
Today, PhDs have no one clearly defined career pathway but are employed in a wide variety of roles across all sectors. And both the HEA Graduate Outcomes Survey and Findings from CSO Analysis of Doctoral Graduate Outcomes reports demonstrate that doctoral graduates have the highest employment rates of all levels of education.
If you are wondering how to leverage the PhD advantage for your company, you can find information on this page about all the main providers of PhD education and training in Ireland. In each case, you will be able to find a contact person who will give you further advice.
The PhD represents the highest award a university can offer in its educational provision.
A doctorate is distinct from a masters degree through the internationally recognised standard of contributing new knowledge, and doctoral education tends to attract those candidates who have already excelled in an academic setting.
The doing and completion of a PhD fosters the development of a range of discipline and non-discipline specific skills, all of which are relevant to securing employment and advancing in careers.
These are aligned with Irish and European Career Frameworks and include (but are not limited to) the following:
| Project management | Articulation of complex ideas |
| Financial management | Knowledge transfer |
| Communication skills | Career management |
| Creative / innovative problem-solving | Personal effectiveness |
| Teamworking and leadership | Ethics and social understanding |
The Irish higher education sector takes responsibility for assisting doctoral students in acquiring and developing these skills in the course of completing a doctorate, regardless of discipline. The National Framework for Doctoral Education (NFDE) is a collective agreement of how Irish higher education providers will ensure the quality of doctoral training and consistency in its valuable outputs across the Island of Ireland. It outlines the skills profiles expected of successful doctoral candidates and Irish universities have endeavoured to align doctoral education with the contribution to knowledge and a strong, recognisable suite of implicit and explicitly acquired skills. The university assists doctoral candidates in the development and articulation of these skills for professional development and employability.
When combined with the application of the highest standards to achieve independence in the research and generation of new knowledge, the result is a successful doctoral candidate who is uniquely adaptable, skills-rich, and employment-ready.
A survey of Irish employers from a range of sectors, conducted in 2022 by a working group reporting to the National Framework of Doctoral Education (NFDE) Advisory Forum, showed that employers recognise PhD graduates to be strong academically and to have excellent research and analytical skills.
In this survey, many employers referred to the intellectual flexibility that PhD graduates demonstrate. Furthermore, employers who responded referred to complex problem-solving skills, innovation and communications skills. The personal skills of resilience, patience and persistence were also referred to. This is nicely articulated by one contributor who highlighted that broadly speaking, newly recruited PhD graduates are seen to have the ability to ‘hit the ground running’ which is a huge advantage to any employer. Employers who responded reported that PhD graduates can go deeper than bachelor’s or master’s graduates into any given assignment. In addition, PhD graduates can correctly articulate a problem and formulate efficient and effective action plans through competently analysing significant volumes of data.
PhD holders are deemed to possess enhanced levels of maturity compared to those entering employment with a bachelor’s or masters degree. In the survey, it was also recognised that they have enhanced communication skills and that their confidence in public speaking & ability to engage an audience is greatly beneficial when it comes to dealing with clients. A PhD holder is noted as possessing greater team and leadership skills than their bachelor’s and master's degree counterparts.
One respondent stated that the added value of recruiting PhD graduates is that it raises the profile of the company and the standard of education-expertise within the company.
Employer testimonials
Sector: Consulting
"PhD graduates tend to be rigorous 'completers', have patience (results don't come quickly or easily..), are analytical, are a bit more mature than their bachelors colleagues, are not afraid of going deep when required…..to be clear, I don't take on PhDs for their particular domain knowledge (genetics, molecular biology , whatever). It's their transversal skills, built on the back of research discipline/rigour, that I like and works well in consulting."
Sector: Pharmaceuticals
“Stronger technical acumen and more advanced scientific knowledge which means that they get up to speed much faster than someone that has just done a bachelors or masters degree”
Sector: Public Service
"…In navigating a complex higher-education and research-funding policy landscape PhD graduates bring an added value in that they have been through the process of completing a PhD and, therefore, understand the ins and outs of the landscape to a level that would not be appreciated by bachelors and masters graduates."