Prepare for your future …
13. Work Experience and Volunteering The benefits and opportunities available
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The advice in this publication is designed to help you plan your strategy. Think about what you have read, turn it into action points and implement them. Good luck!
If you require a copy of this publication in large print or another format, please enquire at Careers Reception.
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UCLan Careers Foster Entrance Foyer
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© Copyright licensed to the University of Central Lancashire
Careers Team University of Central Lancashire Revised 2014/Version 1
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To request permission to reproduce any text from this booklet for commercial purposes contact: careers@uclan.ac.uk
Contents Learning from Work: The importance of work and voluntary work experience
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Do employers really want work experience? Isn’t a degree enough?
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What can I gain from work experience?
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What skills, knowledge and experiences are employers looking for?
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What counts as work experience?
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Examples of Work Experience Opportunities
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Part-time Work
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UCLan Free Choice Electives
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Voluntary Work
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Speculative Applications and Networking
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Don’t Just Do It – Record It !
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Other Useful Resources
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Learning from Work: The importance of work and voluntary work experience Do employers really want work experience? Isn’t a degree enough? These days being a graduate is no longer enough to secure a good job. With around 350,000 students graduating in 2013 there is a lot of competition for jobs and employers can afford to be choosy. Employers are looking for a wide variety of skills, often alongside related work experience.
What can I gain from work experience? You can: •
Develop the skills and experiences employers are looking for and show that academic achievements can be repeated in the work place;
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Experience the real world of work: know what it means to complete a job, to work under supervision and to relate to other employees;
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Show commitment and energy in finding and keeping work;
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Judge for yourself the type of work you do or do not enjoy doing and assess what you are good at;
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Take an opportunity to test out jobs and work environments to define and confirm career choices;
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Learn how to handle the transition from university to work;
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Make new contacts and develop networks;
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Make friends and have fun!
What skills, knowledge and experiences are employers looking for? The Graduate Prospects Website: www.prospects.ac.uk lists the most often sought after skills as:
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Communication: electronic means;
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Team work: Working well with others in order to achieve a common objective;
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Leadership: lead;
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Initiative: Ability to see opportunities and to set and achieve goals;
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Problem solving: Thinking things through in a logical way in order to determine key issues. Creative thinking is useful;
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Flexibility/Adaptability: Ability to handle change and adapt to new situations;
Ability to communicate orally, in writing or via computer /
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Being able to motivate and encourage others, whilst taking the
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Self-awareness: Knowing your strengths and skills and having the confidence to put these across;
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Commitment/Motivation: Having energy and enthusiasm in pursuing projects;
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Interpersonal skills: working relationships;
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Numeracy: graphs.
Ability to relate well to others and to establish good
Competence and understanding of numerical data, statistics and
Prospects also states that, in addition to the skills listed above: ‘… employers like to see that applicants have some business awareness – having an insight into what is happening in industry or commerce and the impact this could have on the organisation.’ To follow are just a few examples of the types of questions you can expect to find on the application forms of Graduate Recruiters: •
In terms of experience and/or ability, what strengths are you bringing to this career?
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What was your most beneficial period of work experience?
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Please describe an occasion where you implemented an improvement to make a job or a project more effective.
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Please describe a situation where you successfully communicated with and influenced others in order to reach a successful conclusion.
What counts as work experience? Lots of things! There are many ways of gaining experience of work but the most obvious are the following: paid work (part-time/temporary/casual jobs, in term time or vacations);
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vacation placements (usually in the summer);
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placements/projects/electives as part of your course;
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voluntary work (either in the community or with an employer);
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international placements (e.g. teaching/coaching at summer camps);
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short taster visits or courses (usually 3 - 5 days);
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work shadowing;
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work done for student societies and the Students Union.
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•
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Examples of Work Experience Opportunities
Placement Schemes – make sure to check entry criteria and deadlines
1. UCLan Schemes • Work Experience Unit www.uclan.ac.uk/careers
The Careers and Work Experience Team finds work experience and placement opportunities for students and graduates. They also organise careers events and on-campus employer workshops and presentations. ‘Unite with Business’ provides North West based graduates, postgraduates and final year undergraduates with paid opportunities to work on a meaningful project within small to medium sized businesses. For more information visit http://www.unitewithbusiness.co.uk/ , email unitewithbusiness@uclan.ac.uk or ring 01772 895958. For information about placements or internships, ask at the UCLan Careers reception desk, ring 01772 895858, or email careers@uclan.ac.uk . • Schools/courses across the university may organise work placements, eg. Computing, Technology, Fashion etc. Check with your Personal Tutor or Course Leader to see what is available. These may be core or optional modules and some may well count towards your final degree marks.
2. Some External Schemes • Graduate Talent Pool: http://graduatetalentpool.direct.gov.uk is a service set up by the government that matches graduates with internship opportunities. On this site you can search and apply for lots of internship vacancies posted by employers in the North West as well as other parts of the UK. • National Council for Work Experience: www.work-experience.org promotes work experience opportunities for the benefit of students and organisations. Check out the website for industrial placements and internships.
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Shell Technology Enterprise Programme (STEP): offers high quality project-based placements and is open to students (except first year) and recent graduates. This is a nationwide scheme, so you can specify where you want to do your project and the type of work you want (business, charity, environmental, manufacturing, IT, etc.). For students, projects typically take place over eight weeks during July and August. Entry is very competitive, but many UCLan students are successful: www.shellstep.org.uk .
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• www.fledglings.net : offers industrial placements and graduate careers.
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International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience (IAESTE): provides science, engineering and applied arts undergraduates with training experience abroad relevant to their studies. There may be a small administration fee: www.iaeste.org.uk .
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BBC Placements: offer Work Experience across the UK. Centrally coordinated scheme with wide range of placements offered in all areas of the BBC. Placements are unpaid, and can last from a few days to 4 weeks. Applicants are advised to focus their application on a particular department and demonstrate a keen interest in the placement. Apply for placements up to 6 months in advance. Competition for a placement is fierce with over 20,000 applicants each year. The website lists where placements are available.
For students with disabilities there is a BBC paid work experience scheme called EXTEND – for details visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/jobs/extend/ . •
Civil Service: http://faststream.civilservice.gov.uk/ - you can apply for paid or unpaid work experience in a government department or agency. This will give you an insight into their work and way of working that will be invaluable when you come to make your long-term career decisions.
In addition, there are schemes through the Civil Service Fast Stream for students with disabilities and students from ethnic minority groups.
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Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry: provides information on a wide variety of companies that can offer part-time, full-time and work experience opportunities. See: http://careers.abpi.org.uk.
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BT: offers a variety of undergraduate placements in Business Management, Commerce, Engineering and Technology. See:
www.btplc.com/careercentre/.
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Relevant Professional Bodies can also sometimes provide details of opportunities, including vacancies and placements.
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Regional Placement Sites The following regional websites include graduate vacancies and work experience placements: Ireland
http://gradireland.com/graduate-jobs www.agcasscotland.org.uk/site.php?content_id=20 www.graduatejobsouth.co.uk www.gowales.co.uk/
Scotland South England Wales
www.graduateadvantage.co.uk/
West Midlands
www.graduatesyorkshire.co.uk/
Yorkshire
www.graduatesforgrowth.co.uk
Edinburgh and the Lothians
Part-time Work The Bridge: The University’s student job shop is based in the Student’s Union building on Fylde Road. Its role is to help students find part-time employment and it has proved highly successful. Opportunities are usually local and often there is a wide range. www.uclan.ac.uk/thebridge
UCLan Free Choice Electives Those listed below are just some that are available. Find out more about them and others in the Free Choice Electives catalogue at : http://www.uclan.ac.uk/information/services/sss/free_choice_electives/elec tives.php
Volunteering is an ideal way of developing skills, learning something new, making new friends and contacts and proving to an employer that you have the motivation and enthusiasm to do something worthwhile for free.
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Voluntary Work
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The UCLan Centre for Volunteering and Community Leadership can help you plan and design your own volunteering project. Visit their office in Livesey House Room 312, ring 01772 893669 or email Riz Gurjee:
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RGurjee@uclan.ac.uk http://www.uclan.ac.uk/schools/education_social_sciences/the_centre _for_volunteering/index.php.
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Lancashire County Council has Volunteer Hub which offers a wide variety of opportunities. For more information visit the website or email: lccvolunteering@lancashire.gov.uk. www.lancashire.gov.uk/corporate/web/view.asp?Volunteer/20253.
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Volunteer Bureaux provide information on local volunteering opportunities. For example: Preston CVS, Unit 23/25, Guildhall Arcade, Lancaster Road, Preston, PR1 1HR. Tel: 01772 251108, or e-mail: pcvs@voluntarysectorpreston.freeserve.co.uk For details of other offices visit the National Association for Voluntary and Community Action website www.navca.org.uk.
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www.do-it.org – a database of local volunteering opportunities.
Speculative Applications and Networking It should be noted that you may also need to consider alternative approaches to developing work experience; making speculative applications and networking are two useful techniques. The most common way of making a speculative application is through a CV and Covering Letter. Top tips: Less is more! Focus on specific areas/employers; Tailor your application; Use a named person;
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Follow up – telephone a couple of weeks later.
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Networking is the ability to make and use contacts to help and advise you and is another excellent way to develop work experience opportunities; tutors for example, can potentially provide insights and advice. For further information please see the UCLan Careers brochure: ‘12. Networking’.
Don’t Just Do It – Record It! Preparation
Prior to applying for work experience, consider what you really want to achieve: •
Skills development;
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Technical knowledge;
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Variety of experiences;
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Responsibility;
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Training;
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Finding out about other careers.
Set yourself some goals that will help you. These goals should be specific, measurable, action based, realistic and set within a sensible time scale.
Work Experience
To help you prepare for completing those daunting graduate application forms and CVs and to help you out-perform others at interview, make sure that you record all your experiences, the skills developed, the responsibilities undertaken and with whom. It is so easy to undersell yourself because you have forgotten some vital examples from previous work experience. One way of capturing this information is to build a portfolio and include a record sheet of experiences. The Portfolio Your portfolio should contain examples of work that you have done, eg. articles you have written for fundraising events or local newspapers, references from employers, or certificates from training days. You should have a section that contains the contact details of all the employers/voluntary organisations you’ve worked for, including the names of relevant individuals. The Record Sheet
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A simple record sheet can help you capture your experiences, the skills you used and the outcomes you achieved. Remember, a skill is not an activity - it is what you need to do to successfully carry out an activity; for example, successfully delivering presentations requires the skills of research, information handling, creativity, IT skills, oral and written communication and interpersonal skills. It may also have included team work and leadership skills.
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Other Useful Resources The following web links have useful information including details of international opportunities: www.uclan.ac.uk/myfutures www.goinglobal.com www.prospects.ac.uk The UCLan Careers website contains a range of careers booklets, offering advice and tips to help you, at www.uclan.ac.uk/careersbooklets. You can also find information on the site about relevant events, workshops and elective modules. You might also want to check out the recorded online events, covering a number of topics at www.uclan.ac.uk/futuresondemand.
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If you would like further help or want to speak to a careers adviser please call at Careers Reception, ring us or use our e-guidance system on the Careers website to email us with queries.
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