The competition between employers for graduates is hotter than ever and that’s good news for those keen to work in the booming energy sector. So what’s the bad news? Unusually, there isn’t any, according to Joe Rothwell, the operations manager for oil and gas at EPCglobal, an engineering staffing firm – as long as school-leavers and undergraduates are canny about the university courses they chose.

“Look at the universities’ employment records,” he says. “Where do their graduates go? Where have they been placed before? Are they accredited?

“If the university has a mechanical engineering course, for example, is it accredited by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers? If it is not accredited, it is not valued as highly by employers.”

School-leavers should have the courage to try something new at university if they have an interest, says Ian Main, a professor of seismology at the University of Edinburgh. “The subjects in demand are not those taught in schools,” he says, and universities are becoming increasingly aware that first-year students may enrol with no knowledge of subjects such as geology.

“It is a bit of a leap,” Main says, but if you have an interest in earth sciences it could be worth your while. “The employment prospects are good. They are not restricted to the oil and gas industry, although that is a big pull at the moment.”

Employers such as Amec, the international engineering and project management firm, have forged close links with a few handpicked universities. What and where you studied is important but it’s not the whole picture, says William Serle, the HR director of Amec Natural Resources, a division of Amec that has plans to hire 50 graduates this year. The firm has already received 1,200 applications.

“You’re looking at the individual as a package, not purely at what they have achieved academically.” Serle says that he is just as interested in what prospective graduate hires have done in a gap year.

Besides actively pursuing interests outside the lab or lecture theatre, students should be practising their networking skills on academic staff, who could be asked by companies to recommend students. As well as offering internships, some universities invite employers to give lectures and to mentor projects to give students links with and an insight into industry.

While most graduates will find interesting work after their degree, a few remain unmoved by the temptation of a salary and go on to postgraduate study. Newcastle University is one of many offering specialist postgraduate degrees relevant to the oil and gas sector.

Many of those studying for an MSc in pipeline engineering are international students, according to Julia Race, the degree programme director. But, she says, a few UK maths and physics teachers have enrolled to kick-start new careers.

“There is a long career to be had in oil and gas,” Race says. “The first thing to do is to dispel the myth of oil and gas as a sunset industry. It’s an attractive industry with lots of opportunities.”

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