Kent Employability Newsletter May 2012

KENT EMPLOYABILITY NEWSLETTER MAY 2012

WELCOME…

Welcome to our new Employability Newsletter! The University of Kent provides many initiatives to help our students develop their employability skills and succeed in the graduate labour market. This newsletter is designed to give you information and updates on these schemes, as well as bringing you other employability-related news.

So what is employability?

“A set of attributes, skills and knowledge that all labour market participants should possess to ensure they have the capability of being effective in the workplace – to the benefit of themselves, their employer and the wider economy.”

(CBI, March 2009) Graduate employers across all industries want more than just a degree; they want graduates who can demonstrate a wide range of other skills, attributes and knowledge, often called ‘employability skills’.

Examples include communication skills, planning, team-work, enterprise skills, problem solving, reflection, numeracy skills, IT skills, leadership skills and commercial awareness.

vacancy. Applicants are required to provide evidence of their employability skills on application forms and then demonstrate their skills at assessment events. If you only start thinking about this in your final year, this puts you at a disadvantage compared to other students!

How can you develop and prove your employability skills?

Why are employability skills so important?

In a competitive and fast-moving global economy, graduates need to stand out to get the jobs they want. Graduate selection procedures are tough and there are large numbers of applicants for each

Your courses are already helping you to develop a wide range of employability skills, from report writing to presentation skills. In addition, the University and Kent Union provide many

extracurricular schemes to help you to develop your skills further. You can volunteer, take part in clubs and societies, work part-time, become a student ambassador or mentor, learn a language and complete a Careers Employability Award on Moodle. You can also gain Employability Points for your efforts and record and reflect on your employability skills in MyFolio and the Employability Toolkit.

You can find information on Kent’s employability initiatives in this newsletter, as well as on our employability webpages www.kent.ac.uk/employability

INTRODUCING THE NEW EMPLOYABILITY ADVISERS

“Hello, we are the new Employability Advisers: Kathryn Segal, Nicola Urquhart and Natalie Smith.”

“We’ve recently joined the Careers and Employability Service to offer support and guidance to University staff and students on the different employability initiatives at Kent and how everyone can get involved. Please get in touch if you would like more information. We look forward to working with you!”

Contacting us and keeping up to date With so many great employability initiatives happening on campus, why not keep up-to-date with events, web-links, awards and opportunities online: Twitter: @UniKentEmploy Facebook page: University of Kent Student Employability Website: www.kent.ac.uk/employability/ Email: employability@kent.ac.uk

1

+44 (0)1227 823164

www.kent.ac.uk/employability

KENT EMPLOYABILITY NEWSLETTER MYFOLIO: A PERSONAL RECORD OF YOUR DEVELOPMENT

EMPLOYER FOCUS The Careers and Employability Service hosts a Careers Fair in November each year in Eliot College. It’s a great opportunity to discuss how to get into certain careers and discover the employability skills that well-known companies like IBM, Abercrombie and Fitch and Coca-Cola Enterprise want from graduate employees.

MyFolio is Kent’s new e-portfolio, designed to support students’ personal development planning and employability. The software, introduced campuswide this academic year, will help you build a holistic picture of your unique experience at university.

MyFolio is a space to gather evidence of your achievements, experiences and skills, for reflection and personal development planning. Everyone providing students with development opportunities – from stakeholders to academic schools and student services – has had an input. This helps you to see the links between experiences on your academic programmes, student union activities or volunteering.

Employers who have confirmed so far this year are: Fidessa, Frontier, Capita, Teach First and the Institute of Chartered Accountants for England and Wales. For Medway students, free transport will be available. Watch this space for further details…

CAREERS AND EMPLOYABILITY SERVICE The Careers Advisory Service has changed its name to the Careers and Employability Service (CES). This name change emphasises the importance of helping students develop employability skills to prepare them for life after university and coincides with the recruitment of three new Employability Advisers. Now, as well as offering careers advice and guidance, we will help you understand what employers are looking for, and to develop the skills and experience needed for your chosen career.

We are doing this in a number of ways: • Talks and workshops (some delivered with academic schools) • Our Moodle Careers Employability Award www.kent.ac.uk/careers/moodle.htm • One-to-one advice on making applications.

Future plans include an increased focus on helping students gain placements and internships and a relaunch of the Alumni Careers Network – www.kent.ac.uk/ careers/careersnetwork.htm – to put you in touch with Kent graduates for advice and work experience opportunities.

For more about CES and our activities, see our website www.kent.ac.uk/ces and follow us on Twitter @UniKentEmploy

2

+44 (0)1227 823164

MAY 2012

Last term, the Unit for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching held an event to promote the use of MyFolio in curricular and extracurricular activities.

‘Embedding E-portfolios for Employability’ showcased staff and students’ work with MyFolio, including: • A learning journal to reflect on required reading in Social Sciences • Record of professional competencies in Pharmacy • Online sketchbook in Architecture • Employability skills record in Classics The full potential of MyFolio is well illustrated in the students’ pages – for example, Rosie Mockett’s folio details her academic development, volunteering activity and political commitments, as well as her entrepreneurial side as a cake decorator!

To use MyFolio, follow this link https://myfolio.kent.ac.uk/myfolio/ To join the MyFolio Community of Practice, login to MyFolio and search for it under ‘groups’. For further information, contact Louise Frith L.J.Frith@kent.ac.uk

KEEP IN TOUCH

All former Kent students automatically become a part of our vibrant alumni community, with over 120,000 members spanning more than 200 countries.

By staying in touch with us after you leave, you’ll not only keep up-to-date with the latest developments at the University, but also have the opportunity to join your fellow alumni for networking opportunities and reunions, alongside access to careers advice and support.

We have a regular programme of networking events catering for alumni working in law, business and the creative industries, as well as informal pub nights and reunions, which alumni are welcome to attend.

If you move overseas after graduation, you could have the chance to join us at a Kent event near you – we have official alumni groups across Asia and the USA, and our international team regularly host alumni events when they are travelling around the world. If we don’t have a group near you, we’d be delighted to help you start one.

As a Kent alumnus, you are also welcome to access the Alumni Careers Network, which is made up of Kent alumni happy to speak to current and former students, and offer valuable advice and insight into working in a particular role or field.

In order to make the most of the opportunities available to you as a Kent alumnus, it’s important that we have your most recent contact details. When you graduate, register on our website to update your details, so we can keep you up-to-date with all the latest news.

For more information about the Kent alumni community see www.kent.ac.uk/alumni

www.kent.ac.uk/employability

KENT EMPLOYABILITY NEWSLETTER STUDENTS COLLECT POINTS TO WIN WORK

MAY 2012

KENT UNION

A prestigious rewards ceremony at the University next month (June) will celebrate some of our most highly employable students. The event is sponsored by the Chaucer Group who last year offered two internships to two Kent graduates as part of the Employability Points scheme. Both graduates have since secured full-time jobs within the global consulting firm and Chaucer are delighted with their recruits.

Based on a clubcard style model, the Employability Points scheme rewards students for engaging in activities which are not part of their degree, but enhance the individual’s transferable skills to stand out to a potential employer.

You can receive points for activities such as fundraising, charity work, being involved in a society, part-time work, volunteering, participating in a business competition or learning a foreign language. Students collecting the most points are rewarded with prizes that increase their employability even further.

Graduate employers want more than a good degree – they want to know that you’ve got the skills to get on, work effectively and be an asset to the organisation. What skills have you got to offer?

Since 2003, when the KSCV awards scheme (Kent Student Certificate for Volunteering) started, Kent Union has been aware of the clear link between volunteering and developing students’ employability skills.

Prizes are sponsored by companies who offer internships, work experience placements, training courses and vouchers. The impressive list of 80 sponsor companies includes well- known brands such as Tesco, The National Trust, Skanska, Penguin Books and Coca-Cola Enterprises. Together, the sponsors are giving out 265 rewards which will go to the most engaged students at Kent. Many local and regional employers are involved in the scheme which has so far encouraged over 2,000 students to take part.

The online Employability Toolkit not only makes the link between volunteering and employability more obvious, but it also pulls together other aspects of the Union’s extracurricular activities in one place. The toolkit is an ideal way of reflecting on any employment, volunteering and training you have undertaken and the skills you have demonstrated as a result.

Stephanie Barwick, Business Engagement Manager at Kent, who launched the scheme last year said: ‘We have so many fantastic students at this university who really do put themselves out and deserve these opportunities. The scheme is a ‘win-win’ for both students and employers. Students who can demonstrate an impressive CV, not only in terms of qualifications, but also in terms of the softer ‘life’ skills that employers are looking for, are being rewarded with work opportunities. Employers can access the best students without a costly and lengthy recruitment process.’

By using the Employability Toolkit, you are encouraged to consider not just what you have done, but how you did it and the associated skills developed. It also encourages you to consider any gaps in your skill-set and identify ways of filling the gaps.

Chancellor of the University, Sir Robert Worcester, will open the Employability Points Rewards Ceremony in the Gulbenkian Theatre, Canterbury campus on 7 June 2012. To find out more about the ceremony and/or the scheme, contact Stephanie Barwick, S.R.Barwick@kent.ac.uk

This term, Kent Union will be running focus groups to collate your opinions on the toolkit.

Improvements will be made over the summer when the toolkit will also be merged with the existing volunteering database.

APPLYING FOR WORK OPPORTUNITIES

Having a last-minute panic about what to do after graduation? The Careers and Employability Service has a vacancy database which advertises over 300 vacancies including graduate jobs, sandwich placements, vacation work and internships. Some employers are particularly looking for Kent students and many are located in Kent and the South East.

Using the improved system, you will also be able to: • Identify a range of volunteering opportunities • Log your volunteering hours • Complete your KSCV review and submit a written reflection • Book ‘Stand Out’ training To join the focus groups, go to www.kentunion.co.uk/employability/home or email Suzanne Payne, S.Payne@kent.ac.uk

Learning about employability skills

You can view these vacancies at http://kent.prospects.ac.uk. All you need to do is register and search for the vacancies that you are interested in. You can also set up email alerts of new vacancies and search the careers events calendar.

Second-year students from the School of Maths, Statistics and Actuarial Science (SMSAS) attended an employability session as part of their Value Plus programme. The session highlighted the importance of gaining employability skills and information on how to do this. The Careers and Employability Service, in collaboration with SMSAS, arranged for eight speakers from various employability initiatives around the University to attend the event.

According to SMSAS, the session was a success and several students have already expressed an interest in signing up for various initiatives. The Careers and Employability Service is hoping to run similar sessions next academic year.

If you are looking for part-time casual work while studying remember to register with Kent Union Jobshop which advertises a variety of opportunities.

For more information, go to www.kentunion.co.uk/jobs

+44 (0)1227 823164

www.kent.ac.uk/employability

3

KENT EMPLOYABILITY NEWSLETTER STUDENT AMBASSADOR SCHEME

MAY 2012

FUTURE DATES

Talks and seminars about developing your employability skills are scheduled throughout the summer term. They include: Canterbury • Tour of the Careers and Employability Service • Career planning for your final year Medway • Effective CVs and covering letters • Job hunting – get strategic!

Find out more at www.kent.ac.uk/employability/calendar.html

Every year, a number of our undergraduate and postgraduate students are recruited and trained as Student Ambassadors.

Ambassadors work with the University’s Partnership Development Office, Academic Schools and other Professional Service Departments on projects aimed at raising aspirations within a wide range of primary and secondary schools throughout Kent and Medway. Up to 200 paid student ambassadors support events both on and off-campus.

Employment opportunities range from working on ‘Stepping Up’ modules (designed to guide students through the decision-making process and application to higher education) to residential summer schools and mentoring (both subject specific and general).

As an Ambassador, you will develop a substantial range of skills to support future employment applications. The role gives you enhanced levels of confidence and initiative, enabling you to interact with a broad range of social groups. It also helps build independence through working in a professional environment. Importantly, being an ambassador is a rewarding experience – making a difference to young lives while developing your own employability skills.

For further information, or to make an application, contact the Outreach Team at outreach@kent.ac.uk or by calling 01227 824149. Applications are welcome between September and January.

LANGUAGES AT KENT

Learning another language, from Arabic to Mandarin, can enhance your employability prospects. It is also a fun way to broaden your horizons and experience the world from an alternative perspective. Language study options available at Kent will help you to: • • • • • • • • •

Improve your communication skills both in a new language and in your mother tongue Develop intercultural awareness Better understand the international community that you live and work in Consider different standpoints and perspectives Appreciate different approaches to learning and working Make connections with a wider group of people both for employability and social reasons Prepare for the global marketplace that you are likely to be competing in after graduation Enhance your CV Extend the possibilities of your job search

For further information on languages available, see www.kent.ac.uk/languages

4

+44 (0)1227 823164

www.kent.ac.uk/employability

Kent Union will also be running ‘Stand Out’ training sessions including: • Working with young adults in theatre and education • Introduction to the print industry • Chairing meetings Find out more at www.kentunion.co.uk For IT skills workshops please see: http://www.kent.ac.uk/student/skills/itskills/index.html For language courses please see: http://www.kent.ac.uk/languages/ Remember to also check your Academic School website for events and sessions.

To suggest future employability-related events, email employability@kent.ac.uk

COMING UP IN THE AUTUMN TERM EMPLOYABILITY NEWSLETTER Global Skills Award for postgraduate students Approaches to employability – Academic Schools Real life experiences of Kent students