ANNUAL REPORT
2014-15
CONTENTS
1. A Strategi c Co mmitme nt to Employability 4-5
2 . Career L earn i n g & Pr ofe s s io nal Skills Suppor t 6-7
3. En g ag ing Employe r s 8-9
4 . In tern sh i p s, Work Expe r ie nc e & Entr e pr e ne ur s hip 10 - 11
5. Career Coac hing for Indiv iduals 12 - 13
6 . Caree r s in the Dig ital Ag e 14 - 15
7. King ’ s Graduate s 16 - 17
8. Th at’s what they s aid... 18 - 19
INTRODUCTION
K
ing’s Careers & Employability exists to support students and recent graduates to maximise their early career success and to forge strong links between the university and graduate employers across all sectors, both in the UK and internationally. We work in partnership with students, employers and a range of university departments to enable: •
Individual students and recent graduates to develop effective career management skills and attain career success
•
Employers to connect with King’s students and recruit King’s graduates
•
The University to deliver high quality employability support to students across all disciplines
This Annual Report for 2014-15 outlines our activities to achieve these aims. It has been a particularly busy year with some notable innovations and new developments including the launch of the following: •
•
• • • •
The King’s Internships Summer Programme, offering students more opportunities to do paid work experience during their summer vacation working with a range of employers on some really exciting projects The King’s Student Research Consultancy, offering doctoral students the opportunity to use their expertise to contribute to commercial projects whilst developing their consultancy and other transferable skills King’s Internships International – brokering opportunities for students to take an internship outside the UK The King’s Recruiters’ Club – our new network for employer partners to help build even closer relationships with key graduate recruiters Our online learning module to support international students to develop their employability A suite of careers resources hosted on the LibGuides platform for each subject area
We are, as always, grateful to all our employer partners for their contributions to our annual events programme which includes recruitment fairs, networking fora and skills development workshops. We are also grateful to the many university colleagues who support the work that we do to promote career development learning as an integral part of the King’s Experience.
Laura Mackenzie Head of Careers & Employability
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A STRATEGIC COMMITMENT TO EMPLOYABILITY / CREATING WORLD CLASS CAREERS SUPPORT / King’s is one of the world’s top university’s with a truly global impact. As part of this impact we recognise the importance of preparing all of our students for an increasingly global, competitive and constantly evolving career landscape. Key to this is ensuring that career preparation is an integral part of a student’s time at King’s through the provision of tailored events, access to work-based learning opportunities, skills development programmes and individual support.
T
he Careers & Employability team are committed to providing world class careers support for all students and recent graduates, supporting the delivery of the following objectives within the Employability Strategy: • Access to employability and career focussed learning as part of programmes of study in partnership with academic departments • Increased numbers of students engaging with internships or placements, and with other co-curricula opportunities • Higher profile and reach with employers and our alumni community globally • Integrated and higher profile support for the development of innovation and enterprise skills • Active College support for student-led career enhancement activities
Working in partnership with academic departments
Extending our reach with employers
At the heart of the Strategy is the idea of active partnership with academic departments and professional service units to develop provision that students recognise as tailored to their discipline, readily available and integrated into their programmes of study. Examples of innovation in this area this year included the development of the King’s Student Research Consultancy for postgraduate research students in partnership with the Graduate School and KISS-DTC; and the introduction of the new Public Policy Series in collaboration with the Faculty of Social Sciences & Public Policy.
This year we have continued to extend our reach with the Times Top 100 employers, which has seen us move up two places in the High Fliers league table of universities through increased targetting of employers on campus. We have also increased our reach with SMEs, predominantly through King’s Internships. The launch of our Recruiters Club has allowed us to develop more in depth relations with some of our key employers, particularly in the area of Law.
Increased work-based opportunities The King’s Internship brand continues to grow, with the addition of our dedicated Summer programme to encourage more King’s students to take an internships during their long vacation, the launch of King’s Internships International to broker opportunities outside the UK, and King’s Internships On Campus which offers department-based internships at King’s.
4 | King’s Careers & Employability Annual Report 2014-15
To find out more about what we do, visit: www.kcl.ac.uk/careers or, if you are a member of staff at King’s, visit: www.kcl.ac.uk/careers/staff
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Access the Strategy via the Governance Zone at: www.kcl.ac.uk/governancezone/Students/Career-Development-and-Employability.aspx
www.kcl.ac.uk/careers | 5
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CAREER LEARNING & PROFESSIONAL SKILLS SUPPORT / DELIVERY THROUGH FACULTIES AND DEPARTMENTS / At the heart of the university’s Strategy for Student Employability is the delivery of careerfocussed support through faculties and departments, so that employability is seen as an integrated part of a student’s programme of study and time at King’s. Careers & Employability work with academic departments to plan and deliver tailored programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate level, working in partnership with employers and alumni to bring in expertise and experience from relevant industry sectors.
O
ur career learning programmes cover a wide range of themes within three broad areas: CAREER EXPLORATION
RECRUITMENT SELECTION & PREPARATION
PROFESSIONAL SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
Students are invited to explore their options through meeting with alumni and other professionals who can provide insights into current career realities as well as find out about recruitment and selection processes from graduate recruiters. YEAR IN NUMBERS
NUMBER OF SESSIONS
NUMBER OF EMPLOYERS
STUDENT ATTENDANCE
CAREERS FAIRS
7
201
3853
EMPLOYERS’ PROMOTIONAL EVENTS ON CAMPUS
30
24
2433
OFF CAMPUS EVENTS
313
-
-
CEP GENERIC
53
33
1723
CEP DEPARTMENTAL
238
110
9437
KLPSA
34
37
901
6 | King’s Careers & Employability Annual Report 2014-15
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Case studies / Informatics Professional Skills Programme / The Informatics Professional Skills Programme is offered to students by the Department of Informatics in collaboration with Careers & Employability. Key to the success of the programme is appropriate timetabling and the support of the department in highlighting the value of the programme to students. This comes in many forms from academic endorsement in lectures to KEATS modules to access to department facebook pages. This year the Programme included 11 sessions co-delivered by employers interested in connecting with Informatics students, covering topics as diverse as Introduction to start-ups and Assessment Centres for Technical subjects.
Bioscience Professional Skills Programme / The programme consists of seven sessions some co-delivered with a range of employers and covering topics including: What can I do with a Bioscience Degree, Further Study, Commercial Awareness and Finding Internships and Work Experience, CV writing and Preparing for Interviews. Students who attend four or more of the seven sessions receive a certificate of attendance. The programme is supported by the annual Bioscience & Pharmacy Careers Fair at Guy’s which creates opportunities for students to connect with employers in the science sector specifically. Students wanting to explore other sectors where they can use their science degree are encouraged to develop an understanding of their transferable skills through the programme and encouraged to make links with King’s Bioscience Alumni through the Careers Insight events which follow the programme in the spring semester.
Public Policy Series / Public policy is a hot topic at King’s and students from a wide range of departments tell us that they are interested in exploring the related career paths. In response to this we have created the Public Policy Series, open to students across the college. The programme consists of ten events bringing together panels of speakers representing policy environments. Speakers share their experiences of working in policy and pass on tips and advice to our current students. Sectors covered include Local and National Government, Charities and NGOs, Think Tanks, International Policy and the UN.
Nursing & Midwifery Careers Support Programme / The Nursing and Midwifery careers support programme is embedded in the curriculum for all undergraduate and postgraduate students studying for a preregistration qualification. Students are invited to attend timetabled sessions at each level of their course which focus on career learning around three themes; exploring options, employability skills development and recruitment training. The sessions are interactive and offer students the chance to engage with career development themes each year. The programme is also linked to the Nursing and Midwifery Recruitment Fair, which takes place each Spring. www.kcl.ac.uk/careers | 7
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ENGAGING EMPLOYERS / MAKING CONNECTIONS / Careers & Employability acts as the central point of contact for graduate recruiters who want to connect with King’s students and recent graduates. We continue to increase both the number, and diversity, of employers who engage with King’s, building on the existing bredth of our network.
W
e offer a range of recruitment and promotion services to employers who want to meet King’s students on campus or advertise their opportunities directly, including: • Careers Fairs • Advice on campus engagement strategies • On campus promotion, recruitment and information events, including bespoke profile raising activities • Internship brokering • Vacancy handling using our online vacancy database, JobOnline.
Recruitment statistics at a glance
We advertised 25,066 vacancies, of which 3558 were internships and 2161 were International
Engagement with over 339 unique employers throughout the year representing 33 professional sectors
86 students and recent graduates placed into paid internship opportunities
On Campus events programme
We held 7 different careers fairs this year of which five were sector specific
4 themed weeks/ series: assessment centre series, public policy series, legal week and media week
Overall attendance at careers events; 18,537
429 employer attendances on campus
We hosted 273 unique employers on campus
We promoted 313 off-campus employer events
• Engagement with departmental specific programmes • Support to build links with academic departments Each year the team engage with new and existing employers to develop and maintain relationships and ensure we are up to speed with developments in their areas. Our engagement team work with employers across all sectors from large multi-nationals to SMEs and start-ups.
www.kcl.ac.uk/ careers/events
8 | King’s Careers & Employability Annual Report 2014-15
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King’s Careers & Employability has been brilliant to work alongside. Regular catch ups with the team make planning for our year’s events easy and manageable. We very much look forward to continue working with Kings Career Service in the future. Deloitte
We’ve recruited a number of students from King’s on to our graduate programmes. We’re interested in talented students applying to us with strong academics but just as important are their employability skills. Applicants who stand out are those who’ve done research and are well prepared. As a leading employer of graduates, we recognise the important role played in producing high-calibre, motivated individuals who are ready to enter the world of professional services. PwC
We have been so delighted with the calibre of King’s students over the years that we devote many hours to workshops, presentations and drop-in sessions in an effort to recruit the very best vacation students and trainees. Weil, Gotshal & Manges
www.kcl.ac.uk/careers | 9
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INTERNSHIPS, WORK EXPERIENCE AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP / THE WORK ADVANTAGE/ Recognition of the importance of work-based experiences to developing a successful graduate career is not new, but trends in graduate recruitment indicate the increasing importance of work relevant experience to securing initial graduate roles.
C
areers & Employability work with employers to offer internships to students and recent graduates through a range of channels: • Offering a brokering service to employers to match students to opportunities • Developing internships that are suitable for accredited internship modules in a range of disciplines as part of the Internship Programme
The service sources and promotes paid internships for students and recent graduates in SMEs across all sectors. Internships can be full or part-time and normally last between 8 and 26 weeks. During this year 86 interns were placed through King’s Internships, an increase of 27 placements following the Internships pilot programme in 2013 – 14.
• Advertising internship opportunities on JobOnline In addition to direct employer engagement, the team work with students to help them to research and apply for opportunities as well as develop useful contacts through appropriate networking at on and off campus events and online. ▲King’s Clinical Pharmacology Research team hired an intern through King’s Internships On Campus
10 | King’s Careers & Employability Annual Report 2014-15
It is such a pleasure working with the King’s Internships team, as they have been so helpful throughout the entire recruitment process to ensure we find the right students that will give and receive value from working with us at Enterprise Nation. We have recruited two students and both have stepped up to become quality members of the team. Kings College London should be proud of the commitment levels of their students. We are very impressed. Employer quote My experience as an intern at King’s was fantastic – I had two excellent managers and was given the opportunity to shape the experience and given real responsibility. I learnt an enormous amount from the internship and gained the skills and experience to pursue a career within communications. Student quote
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The Internship Programme
T
he Internship Programme was set up in 2009 to facilitate opportunities for King’s students to undertake accredited internship modules within their curriculum as part of a longer-term career development strategy. The focus of the programme is on learning how to effectively research, secure, complete, monitor and evaluate quality-assured internship placements which allow application of academic knowledge and skills into a professional, practical setting. Internships can be completed at either undergraduate or postgraduate level and are assessed as part of a degree programme. Registered students are supported by the Internship Programme team within Careers & Employability, academic departments/Institutes, and their host organisation, and are given direct access to a variety of resources, organisational contacts, opportunities, events, seminars, guest lectures and key speaker sessions to help boost employability and assist professional development.
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faculties Arts & Humanities Social Science & Public Policy Law Global Institutes
Students from
27 degree programmes
Over
200 students completing
Each student completed I would recommend that any student select to do an internship module as an accredited part of their studies if they can. This experience has given me professional guidance, solidified my future career goals and helped me create my own career path. I’m pleased to say that all my expectations for the internship have become a reality! Student on the Internship Programme
10 support seminars plus bespoke department-run sessions
18 key speaker presentations
www.kcl.ac.uk/careers | 11
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CAREER COACHING FOR INDIVIDUALS / BESPOKE SUPPORT TO ENSURE CAREER SUCCESS / One of our most popular services to students and recent graduates is personal advice, guidance and coaching around career choices and decision-making, applications and assessment processes. This year our Application Advisors and Careers Consultants spent a total of 1,310 hours delivering tailored one:one advice and guidance to King’s students and recent graduates.
A
djacent is a summary of students who attended a one:one session at the careers service, broken down by faculty and type of appointment. One:one sessions include: 20 minute short guidance appointments, extended careers discussions, CV and application reviews, practice interviews, Internship Programme consultations and online careers support.
Our services
Career Guidance Appointments
2271
Extended Career Guidance Appointments
281
Online Guidance Appointments
198
Practice Interviews
184
Internship Consultations
33
Users by level
12 | King’s Careers & Employability Annual Report 2014-15
UG
1301
PG(T)
1219
PG(R)/PhD
216
Unknown
124
PostDoc
54
Graduate
34
Staff
19
5 Users by faculty and level 328
Arts & Humanities
1 1 7 1 3
Dentistry
ELC Global Institutes
262
62
82
30 19 14 254
258
Law 222
Life Sciences & Medicine
66
157
117
NMS
17 10 12
36 10 16 20 12
40 1 16 2 1
Nursing & Midwifery
272
346
SSPP Study Abroad Other
5 25
1 9 2
4 5
IoPPN
63
20 3 2
34 5 16
2 3 34 20
UG
PG(T)
PG(R)/PhD
PostDoc
Graduate
Other
We also saw 16 members of King’s College London staff, including 1 from Arts & Humanities and 2 from the IoPPN.
www.kcl.ac.uk/careers | 13
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CAREERS IN THE DIGITAL AGE / FUTUREPROOFING OUR SERVICE / King’s Careers & Employability have diversified the marketing and resources provided by the service during 2014-15. This has focused on creating a large online presence by using social media, blogs and various websites. We also provide students with support and advice when creating online profiles and contacting employers through social media. 01001011 01101001 01101110 01100111 11100010 10000000 10011001 01110011 00100000 01000011 01100001 01110010 01100101 01100101 01110010 01110011 1 departmental blogs 00100000 00100110 00100000 01000101 01101101 01110000 01101100 01101111 01111001 01100001 01100010 01101001 01101100 01101001 01110100 01111001 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01100100 01101001 01110110 01100101 01110010 01110011 01101001 01100110 01101001 01100101 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101101 01100001 01110010 01101011 01100101 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 Twitter account with primary Facebook 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110010 01100101 01110011 01101111 01110101 page with 01110010 01100011 01100101 01110011 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 01110110 01101001 01100100 followers 01100101 01100100 00100000 01100010 01111001 00100000 01110100 01101000 likes 01100101 00100000 01110011 01100101 01110010 01110110 01101001 01100011 01100101 00100000 01100100 01110101 01110010 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 00110010 00110000 00110001 00110100 00101101 00110001 00110101 00101110 00100000 01010100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110011 00100000 01100110 01101111 01100011 01110101 01110011 01100101 01100100 00100000 01101111 01101110 00100000 01100011 01110010 01100101 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100001 00100000 01101100 01100001 01110010 01100111 01100101 00100000 01101111 01101110 01101100 01101001 01101110 01100101 00100000 01110000 01110010 working day target to 01101110 01100011 departmental 01100101 01110011 01100101 01100101 00100000 respond to email Facebook pages 01100010 01111001 00100000 01110101 01110011 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110011 01101111 01100011 01101001 01100001 01101100 00100000 01101101 01100101 01100100 01101001 01100001 00101100 00100000 01100010 01101100 01101111
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1
1
4615
4400
3
T
hrough our work with The Careers Group, we are able to contribute to all of the blogs on The Careers Group Wiki. This includes: REACH, Careers in the City, International Futures and Starting Your Own Business. Students can look for jobs using JobOnline, our web-based job
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board. Using defined search criteria, they can find positions in many sectors and with a variety of working hours and durations. The job board is constantly updated by both King’s Careers & Employability staff, and The Careers Group, resulting in around 2,700 live jobs at any given moment.
14 | King’s Careers & Employability Annual Report 2014-15
We direct our students to use Careers Tagged (www. careerstagged.co.uk) which is an online Careers resource, maintained and updated by the Information Officers at King’s. Careers Tagged provides information on job sectors and professions, networking, CV writing, interviews and job hunting. Within the Careers Library we
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stock hard copies of the majority of our online resources, including industry specific hand outs tailored for King’s students. The King’s app provides a mobile platform for JobOnline, our oncampus events listing, access to our internships website and up-to-date information on our core services. 1
Including Law, Arts & Humanities, Life Sciences, ‘Peace, Politics and Policy’, Graduate School and ‘Develop Your Career’
Be sociable at /kingscareers
kingscareers
@kingscareers
King’s Careers
“King’s students: Sort your summer out with the King’s Internships Summer Scheme http://ow.ly/ NAtTm” 15 likes
3 comments
“16 EXCLUSIVE internships. Why? Because we’re #KCL that’s why http://ow.ly/UBiPS” 3 retweets
2 likes
www.kcl.ac.uk/careers | 15
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KING’S GRADUATES / EMPLOYMENT DESTINATIONS / Every year we survey King’s graduates from all programmes of study to find out what they are doing in terms of employment or further study approximately six months’ after graduating, as part of a national HESA-led graduate survey.
T
he data we collect offers a rich insight into the initial employment outcomes of our graduates, and we make available the data to various departments to help inform and inspire current students as well as track performance.
THE SURVEY DATA /
A snapshot of graduate activity six months postgraduation
The data captures where graduates are working or studying and what they are doing, wherever they are in the world
16 | King’s Careers & Employability Annual Report 2014-15
We track the proportion of our graduates who are working and what percentage of these roles are considered to be at ‘graduate’ level
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UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMMES1
95%
of graduates in work or further study
91%
of these graduates in full-time work were in graduate positions
£25k median salary of those in full-time work
1 in 4
undergraduates goes on to further study
MASTERS & OTHER POSTGRADUATE PROGRAMMES2
92%
91%
of graduates in work or further study
95%
DOCTORAL PROGRAMMES3
of graduates in work or further study
of these graduates in full-time work were in graduate positions
99%
£28k median salary of those in full-time work
of these graduates in full-time work were in graduate positions
£34k median salary of those in full-time work
GradStats Find your department’s GradStats page online at: www.kcl.ac.uk/careers/departments Cant find what you’re looking for?
1
Based on 2861 respondents (response rate 76%)
For even more data, email us at: careers@kcl.ac.uk
2
Based on 2920 respondents (response rate 62%) 3
Based on 326 respondents (response rate 72%)
www.kcl.ac.uk/careers | 17
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Thank you for your helpful advice and the information. I have retweaked the CV again as advised and am much happier with it now, so feel more confident to start looking for some exciting new jobs to apply for.
Thanks so much for your help with my interview preparations. I had my interview on Friday, which went really well.
Just to say thanks very much for the helpful feedback and advice you gave me following our mock interview last month. [They] offered me a training place for September! I'm very pleased. And I'm sure the advice you gave contributed to that outcome, so thanks once again.
Once again, thank you for meeting with me and for being so helpful. I am again most pleasantly astounded by the support and efficiency of the careers service. Thank you so much for all your efforts. The information is very interesting, and I will definitely follow-up on your suggestions.
I just wanted to say a huge thank you to the careers service for helping me with my application at such short notice - I really appreciate it and took all of the advice on board!
I would like express my gratitude for the fantastic service that your team provides. I had an interview practice session with [an advisor] last week and I was amazed at not only how well she was prepared but also the breadth of her questions which covered all the aspects of the values and role profile. Her feedback after the session was also excellent.
THAT’S WHAT
Thank you so much for the practice interview on Tuesday last week. Thanks to your help, I did well during the Assessment Centre and was offered the job. I am excited about the job and would like to share the news with you. Once again, thank you so much. I thought the careers service was very helpful.
I am writing to let you know how much I appreciate the outstanding in-person and online services that your staff has provided so far to me.
Thank you so much for the help, the changes to the CV were incredibly helpful!
18 | King’s Careers & Employability Annual Report 2014-15
As a result of this session I went into my interview the next day very confident of my ability to articulate my story and career choices so far. This has resulted in me being offered the role, so I am grateful to her and the wider support team for your fantastic service. I got the job!!! I received a confirmation email from today and I'll start on the 18th of October! I still can't believe it. Thanks so so much once more for supporting me and for introducing me to this 'new world' in such a delicate but professional way.
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I want to thank you with all my heart because I would have never made it without you! You told me about this position, you gave me confidence by helping me build a solid and attractive application, by listening to me carefully, and by making yourself very available and attentive. You have been great and I am infinitely thankful!!!
Thank you for all your support since the beginning of my course lectures, CV help, application advice and the interview help, I'm so, so grateful.
Thank you for the workshop last week, I found it very useful and was impressed that you were able to make the subject of CVs and cover letters as engaging as you did!
THEY SAID...
I just wanted to say thank you so much for your help in writing my application and preparing for my assessment centre - I've been offered a vac scheme and definitely could not have done it without your advice!
A big thumbs up to you all at King's Careers & Employability once again! What a great facility!
I have just received a job offer! All the case studies on the City Course and your pieces of advice definitely helped me a lot. I believe the mock interview was essential as well.
Thank you so much for your input into this workshop.
The feedback shows that your contribution was highly valued, and the whole afternoon received a good rating – no-one said it was a waste of time, most said it was very useful/helpful
TO SUM UP...
Thank you again for the very helpful practice interview last week (Thursday 1st, for the internship at King's). I'm very happy to let you know I got the job, so thank you for helping me get it!
Would you recommend us to a friend? From individual feedback: YES - 95%
NO - 5%
From group session feedback: I am very pleased to share that I have received an offer for a role with an orchestra back in the US, and I am still interviewing for several other roles in London!
YES - 92%
NO - 8%
www.kcl.ac.uk/careers | 19
King’s Careers & Employability King’s College London Level 1, Macadam Building Strand Campus London WC2R 2LS www.kcl.ac.uk/careers