Getting ready for your future career

Here at Brunel, employability and getting ready for work are at the heart of your education experience. Our award-winning Professional Development Centre offers a wealth of opportunities, resources and advice to prepare you for life after graduation. They’ll help you to unleash your potential by developing your professional skills to get you ready for work, self-employment or further study in the UK or abroad.

Find a placement brunel.ac.uk/placements

Placements give you the opportunity to gain experience and enhance your skills within a workplace environment. Students who complete a placement achieve higher degree classifications, better career outcomes and significantly higher graduate salaries. Approximately 20% of our students secure a one-year placement each year.

You’ll have access to a dedicated Placement and Careers Advisor linked to your course, and benefit from our vast range of contacts in industries of all sizes. We can support you throughout the application process, including preparing for interviews to help you secure the placement that is right for you.

Prepare for a graduate career

From the moment you arrive at Brunel, up until three years after you graduate, we’ll support you in planning for your future. Our specialist career consultants will help you develop a great CV, practise your interview techniques and coach you on your career options through self-assessment tools, meetings and workshops. Our flexible service offers a range of ways to access one-on-one advice from our consultants, from 15-minute Quick Query appointments to longer sessions where you can discuss your career plans in depth.

We’ve also got sector leading digital resources, to complement our face-to-face support, which include LinkedIn Learning – offering over 16,000 online skills focused courses, as well as a number of other platforms to help prepare you for video interviews and identify transferable skills. brunel.ac.uk/pdc/careers

Part-time jobs

If you want to earn money or gain valuable work experience whilst you’re studying, our Job Shop will help you find part-time opportunities at Brunel and beyond. You might also be interested in applying to be one of our Student Ambassadors. You can find more details at brunel.ac.uk/pdc/job-shop

Learn a new language

Brunel is one of the few UK universities to offer free foreign language courses. You can choose to study up to nine different languages, on a part-time basis, completely free, opening up a whole range of international opportunities.

You’ll be taught by experienced language teachers in a fun and stimulating environment. Language courses take place once a week over a period of 20 weeks and you can record your achievements as part of your Brunel+ award – a personal development programme that recognises the skills and experience you develop beyond your studies. brunel.ac.uk/modern-languages

Start a business or go freelance

If you have an exciting business idea our Entrepreneur Hub can help you turn your vision into reality. We provide support and advice for start-ups and freelancers, throughout every stage of the journey. You’ll receive personalised consultations with our oncampus business consultants or speak to professionals within intellectual property, marketing and finance.

You can join our growing list of outstanding entrepreneurs by networking at events, attending workshops and there’s even a chance to win up to £10,000 of funding through our Venture competition. brunel.ac.uk/pdc/entrepreneur-hub

Meet employers

Our career fairs, sector-specific events and webinars are a great way to meet informally with future employers. We have links with over 1,500 companies across all sectors who regularly engage with students, offer opportunities and provide insight into different industries.

Skills Programmes and Awards

There are a number of exciting initiatives you can take part in to complement your studies, such as; Brunel+ which recognises co-curricular activities, the READY programme which helps you develop transferable project skills, the Brunel Summer Internship Programme which helps you gain paid work experience over the summer, and our Professional Mentoring scheme which matches students with an experienced mentor. brunel.ac.uk/skills-programmes-and-awards

Become a volunteer

A rewarding way of expanding and developing your skills is to become a Brunel Volunteer. Our students have a long history of volunteering to help the community, local charities and not-for-profit organisations. There’s a huge range of schemes you can get involved with. brunel.ac.uk/pdc/volunteers

NUE Awards 2022

Best University Placement Service Student Social Mobility Awards

Professional Mentoring Programme 2022

2022 UpReach Student Social Mobility of the year Award

Professional Career Mentoring Programme (Winner)

NUE Awards

Best Widening Participation Initiative 2020 (Winner) National Graduate Recruitment Awards

Brunel graduate salaries are 18% (£4,300) higher than the sector average, ranking us in the top 30 universities nationally.

Longitudinal Employment Outcomes 2022

Over 95% of our courses offer skill-enhancing experience of an industry placement.

Best HE Careers Professional of the Year 2022