EMLT Bulletin 12 (February) - EN

PROJECT

www.emlt.eu

FEBRUARY, 2016

12

AN E D MP SE THE LO YA R C UN V AR BI I C LI W IV E E ES ER A ER TY TM SI T T S’ IN TY HE ST OF ER

EMPLOYABILITY AND THE CAREERS’ SERVICE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER February is Employability month at the University of Westminster so it offers an opportunity to reflect on what we do to prepare our students for the labour market. Our mission as a university is to help shape the future of professional life and prepare our students to be “global citizens, professional leaders and lifelong learners” (Westminster 2020). This year, the University of Westminster’s Career Development Centre has been shortlisted for the category of Most Improved Commitment to Employability’ in the National Undergraduate Employability (NUE) Awards.

Interview with Employability Manager, Frances Gow, in May 2015 We were fortunate to interview Frances Gow, the University of Westminster’s Employability Manager about changes in the graduate labour market and how the university has responded to better prepare students for employment.

What changes have you seen in the graduate labour market in the last few years?

Frances: “Graduate employment was badly affected by the economic recession and led to students carrying on with their part-time jobs which they had used to fund their university studies. Of course many jobs were lost across all sectors. Graduate employment schemes were cut back but are now beginning to return although not to pre-recession levels. In social science related careers, employers and organisations are requiring alumni to have gained previous experience before they will be accepted onto graduate training schemes or into employment. There are also higher expectations about what qualifications and grades are required.

How is the University of Westminster responding to the challenges of the graduate labour market?

Frances: “The university has developed its own 2020 vision which puts more emphasis on employability and especially on providing students with work placement opportunities.

The careers’ Centre is working with faculties to support work placements as part of the degree course and each faculty will have a work placement officer to support the academic staff and bring the service to the students rather than expecting them to come to the Careers’ Centre.

Also, to encourage students to become more forward-thinking in their career development, a new platform called ‘Engage’ is being introduced to bring together a whole range of resources and information for students in one place online.

There are lots of events such as Careers’ fairs where employers visit the university to recruit undergraduates and there are jobs advertised in the university and outside as well as volunteering opportunities. However, whilst the careers’ service has been organised so that students can access it at different points according to their needs, in fact it is still underused as final year students are very focused on getting their academic grades and so do not devote time to their career-planning and although they can still access the careers’ service after they leave, they tend to think they have outgrown university by then.

The challenge is to get students more focused on graduate employment much earlier in their degree so that they can benefit from all the resources, schemes and services”.

The Careers’ Development Centre co-ordinates the employability strategy and every student has access to comprehensive information, guidance and advice on careers. Additionally, job vacancies are advertised both within and outside the university for current students and alumni and there are mentoring schemes, work placements and volunteering opportunities.

This year it is expanding volunteering opportunities in recognition that our students want to give something back to the community and they need to have additional skills and interests to put on their CVs. Below are some of the brilliant initiatives available to students.

Engage This year for the first time, the Careers’ Development Centre has launched ‘Engage’, which offers a new way to interact with students on employability issues.

It is “a one-stop-shop of key resources to empower our students to engage with their future care

oming employer events, careers fairs and skills development sessions.

• Easy-to-follow downloadable careers advice and information.

• A jobs board for part time, placement, volunteering and graduate opportunities”.

Employability Month This year the University’s Career Development Centre, Alumni team and your Students’ Union have come together to create Employability Month, a month of presentations, workshops, guest speakers and fairs, to help students to kick start their career! Dr Umit Cetin is presenting his experience at an alumni event, as an alumni of Westminster’s BA (Honours) Sociology degree. He is now a full-time lecturer in Sociology here with a PhD and publications and he is working on the EMLT project. Another inspiring University of Westminster alumni is Joanna Orland, a pop culture addict whose love of computer games and music has led to her winning a top spot with Sony as their Senior Sound Designer. A graduate of the Audio Production MA, Joanna began her career in EA Criterion and her impressive back-catalogue includes the award-winning Wonderbook: Book of Spells, Diggs Nightcrawler, God of War 3 and demos for Project Morpheus.

She has now had her contribution to the gaming world recognised after being named as one of the Top 100 Women in Games by MCV, the international video game industry’s leading magazine. Joanna tells us how passion is at the heart of everything she does, about moonlighting as a pop-culture journalist and what women can bring to the table in the gaming industry. (https://engage.westminster.ac.uk/students/news/detail/30/university-of-westminster-alum)

Skills Academy Week “At the end of the academic year, a week of careers’ events are held for students to increase their employability skills. These featured 27 different seminars covering topics such as, Innovation, Commercial Awareness, Mock Assessment, Starting a Business, Self-Awareness, Public Speaking, Online Testing, Networking Skills, Job Hunting with Social Media, Mindfulness, CVs and Interviews. These topics are similar to the EMLT distance education modules that the EMLT project is preparing for students to enhance their chances of getting a job when they leave university”.

Associates in Schools Scheme “UWAS is the Employability initiative which assists students into teaching careers. Students having the potential to complete teacher’s training are selected, trained and provided with DBS checks before volunteering as a teaching assistant in a London school. In 2014-15, 94 students were recruited and trained, 89 students were placed in 40 schools. This is the largest cohort of UWAS volunteers since the scheme launched four years ago. As a result of this success, we are now expanding into the Primary School sector. 89 students were placed in 40 schools”.

What our students really appreciate about this scheme is that it gives them a taste of life in the classroom if they are thinking about a career in teaching and it is something different to put on their CVs when they apply for teacher-training.

Mentoring for Business “The 283 students matched to business mentors across three schemes, designed to widen the aspirations and enhance the personal effectiveness of students. With the help of their mentors as role models, students will build a solid foundation of skills from which to launch a variety of successful careers”. Students can also access the Career Development Centre scheme, which matched 135 students to mentors in a range of professions last year.

National Mentoring Consortium Undergraduate Ethnic Minority Scheme This is for undergraduate students who come from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic background. As positive action under the Equalities Act (2010), it aims to promote equality and diversity in graduate recruitment. 55 students were matched to mentors in industry (Careers Development Centre Annual Report, 2014-15).

Talent Bank “Talent Bank is our dedicated recruitment agency, giving students the opportunity to apply for paid temporary and part time vacancies across all university campuses as well as with external local employers. In 2014–15, we had 830 applications, 364 students attended the assessment day, 164 internal opportunities and 50 external opportunities were filled by students. In addition, we ran nine sessions for unsuccessful applicants on ‘Amazing applications and winning CV’s’, and provided feedback to every unsuccessful student via email on the quality of their application or CV, giving them top tips and referring them back to the Centre’s services”.

Employability_month poster

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