One of the important roles of HE institutions is to train graduates who will smoothly enter the labour market. The literature review demonstrates that one effective method to facilitate this transition is to ensure students acquire professional experience. The aim was to establish the scale and characteristics of employers’ demand for work experience expressed in job adverts. The data sample consisted of 17 397 adverts posted over a period of 18 months and addressed to geography, earth and environmental sciences specialists across six European countries.