Education programmes are designed to equip young populations with the qualifications required to assume responsible roles in specific professions and in society generally. In this paper, the focus of the analysis is on the significance of a number of higher education programme characteristics in allocating young higher education graduates across the labour market and how these graduates perform in their jobs. Graduate performance is analysed in terms of both monetary and non-monetary pay-offs. The findings show that education programmes in which learning is linked to acquisition of work experience result in better paid employment, although an appropriate balance between theoretical and practical-oriented curricula is important.