Graduates seeking ways to make the most of their skills could do worse than consider riding out the economic downturn by investing in a further two years of education.

That is the advice from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), which reports an upsurge in graduates applying for marketing courses in a bid to make their CV more attractive to employers.

Career uncertainty in traditional industries such as banking means that many graduates are reassessing their futures and considering investing any redundancy payments in further studies.

Oxford College of Marketing has seen a 25% increase in graduates applying for Chartered Institute Professional marketing courses.

Its principal, Rosie Phipps, said: "Vocational qualifications that easily transfer into the workplace are the differentiator that prospective employers are looking for, and the Chartered Institute of Marketing qualifications are designed to make people effective in the workplace."

Recent research for the CIM shows that qualified marketers can earn more than their unqualified or part-qualified counterparts. Professionally qualified marketing directors earn an average of £10,000 more than part-qualified marketers, while professionally qualified marketing officers can expect to earn around £4,000 more than those who are part-qualified.