KENT EMPLOYABILITYNEWSLETTEROCTOBER 2012

While your academic results are important, they areonly the first hurdle – it takes more than a degree,however good, to make you ‘employable’.

The CBI defines employability as ‘a broad range ofnon-academic or softer skills and abilities which areof value in the workplace’. These include the abilityto work in a team; initiative and original thought; self-discipline in completing tasks to deadlines;communication and problem-solving.

Graduate recruiters look for evidence of these skillsthrough your vacation and part-time work and extra-curricular activities as well as through your studies.

This applies just as much to internships andplacements as to graduate programmes –employers use these short-term opportunities toselect their graduate talent of the future.

The University offers many opportunities forstudents to get involved in activities outside theirstudies. These activities may relate to your futurecareer plans (such as involvement in student media,or volunteering in a local school), but any sport,society, employment or volunteering activities willhelp you to improve your employability skills.

Your paid work is also valuable – even casual part-time work in retail or hospitality says somethingabout you to employers. A recruiter in a majorLondon law firm says: “If you have been employedscrubbing pots in a hot sticky kitchen we can seethat you have resilience,” while HSBC Bank looks fora minimum of two months customer-related workexperience in its graduate recruits.

Employers know that the best, most organised andmost motivated applicants for graduate trainingschemes, year-in-industry placements andinternships tend to apply early. Major companiesmay have very early closing dates for theseprogrammes (sometimes even in October orNovember) so don’t miss out! Use our vacancydatabase http://kent.prospects.ac.uk/ to search forthese opportunities.

+44 (0)1227 823164 www.kent.ac.uk/employability 1

MAKE YOURSELF EMPLOYABLE Welcome to the first Employability Newsletter of the new academic year.

How to become a StudentAmbassador The University of Kent Student AmbassadorScheme offers paid opportunities to work withschool students from local primary andsecondary schools in Kent and Medway. Asidefrom the financial benefits, the scheme providesa range of skills necessary to succeed in theworld of employment. Additionally, thoseinvolved in the scheme in recent years havepraised the rewarding nature of the role andexpressed satisfaction in their employment.

Applications for the Student AmbassadorScheme are processed in September andJanuary and include completing an applicationform and interview. Forms and a detailed jobdescription are available upon request.Interviews and training occur in two phases withapplicants being invited to the nearestapplicable session. Applications are welcomedfrom students on both the Canterbury andMedway campuses.

For further information, or to request anapplication form for either campus, pleasecontact the Partnership Development Office onoutreach@kent.ac.uk, or call 01227 824149 tospeak to one of the team.

It comprises a number of quizzes and assignmentson: • Identifying your employability skills, learning how

to develop these and to ‘sell’ them to employers• Learning to identify your interests, values and

personal styles and finding out which careersthese relate to

• Finding out about a particular career• Preparing a quality CV and learning how to

perform well at interview

Open to all Kent students it gives a head startwith your career planning. It can be taken at anystage of the academic year and takes about 12hours to complete.

On completion, students get a certificate and 40University of Kent employability points.

“I have enjoyed learning how to sell myself, tappinginto my skills I previously was unaware were so

important to future employers. Also, developing agreater understanding of what the employers wantto see and hear on a CV and during an interview hasgiven me confidence. The relaxed nature of thiscourse to do assignments and quizzes at your ownleisure makes this module very appealing as botha learning process and personal development.”

“The researching and choosing career assignmentswere nothing short of fantastic. For ages I have beenworrying about the options I have with this degreeand fell into the trap of thinking I was limited toteaching. However those two modules helped meestablish what skill sets I have and how these canbe utilised for different jobs. My goal now is tobecome an Advertising Copywriter and I knowexactly how to approach getting a job like this.I would recommend anyone do this module.”

For more information seewww.kent.ac.uk/careers/moodle.htm

DEVELOP YOUR SKILLS WITH THECAREERS EMPLOYABILITY AWARD The University of Kent Careers Employability Award is an online careersprogramme developed by the Careers and Employability Service on Moodle.

EMPLOYABILITYAT KENT With so much going on, follow us onTwitter and ‘like’ our Facebook pageto keep up-to-date with the latestadvice, industry developments andevents on- and off- campus.

Stay tuned for dates of talks hosted by adviserson interviews, CVs and options with your subject;employer presentations and top tips andopportunities to help you land that dream job.

Canterbury Campus

Medway Campus

Remember also to check out the employabilitywebsite www.kent.ac.uk/employability

www.facebook.com/ukces

www.twitter.com/unikentemploy

www.facebook.com/ukmemployability

www.twitter.com/ukmemploy

KENT EMPLOYABILITY NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2012

+44 (0)1227 823164 www.kent.ac.uk/employability2

HAVE YOUCONSIDEREDSPENDINGAYEAR ABROAD? The University of Kent has manyprestigious partners around theworld. As a Kent student, why nottap into this global network?

Going abroad as part of a Kent degree isan amazing opportunity. The fact that you’vespent time abroad gives you a distinctadvantage when you leave Kent and lookfor a job. You will develop many skills andattributes to enhance your CV and makeyou stand out in the job market.

Employers seek graduates with globalemployability skills to help them succeed inan increasingly competitive internationalmarketplace. There is also evidence thatstudents who have studied or worked abroadachieve better degrees and earn higher salaries.

In a recent survey by ThirdYearAbroad.com,66% of respondents believed their year abroadhad been “a significant factor in getting theirfirst and subsequent jobs.”

Kent students and graduates agree:

“I would wholeheartedly recommendstudying or working abroad. It’ssomething different to put on your CV, itbroadens your practical skill set and it’sa great talking point.”

Emily PerkinsExchange year at the University of Vienna

“I truly believe exchange years givestudents international exposure whichso many firms are looking for.”

Rheanne LaybournExchange year at the University of Hong Kong

“In my current role I work in a trulyinternational team. My appreciation ofdifferent cultures and countries allowedme to understand how to work withdifferent clients in different ways.”

Christopher FradinKent graduate now Regional Director for a luxury hotel group.

Many Kent degrees offer an option to goabroad, either on a work placement or bystudying at another university. Even if youhaven’t registered on one of those degrees, aplacement abroad may still be possible.

Help and support is available to help you findthe right place. For more information pleasesee our website: www.kent.ac.uk/goabroad oremail us: goabroad@kent.ac.uk

In 2011/12, 176 postgraduate studentssuccessfully completed the GlobalSkills Award (GSA) which culminatedin a reward ceremony in Woolf Collegeon 18 June 2012.

To achieve the award, students had to complete anonline skills assessment and attend a series oflectures delivered by leading academics, businessexperts and current affairs specialists. Lecturescovered a wide variety of topics ranging fromeconomics to the Middle East, international adoptionand humanitarian issues. Students also attended aseries of workshops covering key employability skillsincluding: presentation and communication skills;understanding leadership, careers management,team-working and networking and specific guidanceon CV writing and interview techniques.

Feedback from students who completed the GlobalSkills Award has been very positive.

Aderonke Adeyanju from the School of Psychologyexplains how “the workshops have been all-encompassing and have touched on most (if not all)areas that I need to improve on.”

Students also felt that the GSA had helped informtheir future career decisions. Linda Oloo from KentLaw School explains how: “The Global Skills Awardhas helped me see the different doors my coursehas opened for me. I am now clearly informed interms of where to look for jobs and when.”

The GSA programmeruns from Novemberto April and is open toall postgraduatestudents registeredon taughtprogrammes of study.All new Master’sstudents will becontacted when theGSA is openfor registration.

SCHOOL FOCUS – SCHOOL OFEUROPEAN CULTURE AND LANGUAGES Last year, the School of European Culture and Languages successfully ran a series of Careers andEmployability events. Up to 80 students attended each of these events which covered topics such as CVwriting, application forms, careers in the EU and the benefits of learning a language. This year we areorganising even more including: sessions on the Student Ambassador and Student Guide schemes,Employability Points, and our new Peer Mentoring scheme. We are also planning events with our Alumni sothey can offer advice and guidance to current students on employability related issues. For more informationabout the events planned for this term, see www.kent.ac.uk/secl

MyFolio – PLAN FOR YOUR FUTUREMyFolio is Kent’s online ePortfolio and Personal Development Planning tool. You can use MyFolio to createjournals for reflection and pages for presentation and assessment. Your tutors will let you know how theyplan to use MyFolio, but you can use it yourself however you like. For example, you can use the PersonalDevelopment Planner to help you to define and explore your career goals and map out ways to turn theminto reality. It will also enable you to articulate the skills you are developing now in order to open upopportunities in the future. Find out more at myfolio.kent.ac.uk

GLOBAL SKILLS AWARD FORPOSTGRADUATE STUDENTS

KENT EMPLOYABILITY NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2012

BENEFITS OFA YEAR ININDUSTRYMany courses at Kent have theoption of doing a year in industry,also known as a sandwich orplacement year. You’ll spend up to12 months employed in a subject-related role and it counts as part ofyour degree. Besides earning asalary, the benefits of a year-longplacement are huge. You get thechance to practise your applicationskills, gain commercial experience,improve your transferrable skills,build industry contacts and returnwith greater motivation towardsyour degree. All of this makes youmore employable!

Some companies use your time with them as anextended interview and if you perform well, mayoffer you a permanent job after you graduate.There is even evidence to suggest that if you doa year in industry you often get a better-paid jobafter you graduate. Take Computer Sciencestudents for example. In 2010, graduates fromthe four-year placement degree course had astarting salary of £26,461 compared to non-placement graduates who began on £20,754 –that’s a difference of 27%.

It can be hard to know where to start whenlooking for a placement. So let us share with youhow one School helps their students. The Schoolof Computing has an established year inindustry programme and a dedicated PlacementOffice that works with students at bothCanterbury and Medway.

The search for a great role starts in earnest atthe very beginning of Stage 2. Support withCVs, applications and interview/assessmentcentre preparation is available from thePlacement Office. Employers are also invited into give presentations about placementopportunities. Some students are fortunateenough to get the first job they apply for, butoften you need to be persistent and show thenext employer that you have what they arelooking for. It’s competitive, but if you work hardduring the application process it really can payoff; computing students have recently been onplacement with the police, Disney, HSBC inHong Kong and Cisco in California!

If you are on a course with a year in industryand want help with searching for yourplacement, contact your School PlacementOffice. The Careers and Employability Servicecan also help with job searching and applicationadvice www.kent.ac.uk/ces

+44 (0)1227 823164 www.kent.ac.uk/employability 3

PROMOTING EMPLOYABILITY INKENTBUSINESS SCHOOL Employability and the career development of our students are at the heart ofwhat we do at the Kent Business School (KBS). Our professionally accreditedundergraduate and postgraduate courses are connected to the real world ofbusiness via guest speakers from industry, case study activities and projectwork often based on live business problems.

You may be one of many students who have enrolled on an undergraduate degree with a ‘year in industry’option. This includes a 12 month placement and like previous students you may secure a position in well-known companies such as: BAE Systems, Barclays, Cummins, Experian, Fujitsu, General Motors, GlaxoSmith Kline, Goldman Sachs, Hewlett Packard, IBM and Morgan Stanley.

We also support students who are interested in setting up their own business through entrepreneurshipmodules and the very successful Network 612 which is a business network run in conjunction with KentEnterprise Hub.

If you are a student on the MSc in Value Chain Management, you can take part in the Student ImplantScheme and work for real organisations while studying. This includes the completion of an organisation-based project which can also form the basis of your dissertation. If you are on the MBA programmeinternship, the Kent Connects MBA Cohort Programme enables you to gain experience of the public sectoroperational and management environment. In addition, a Consultancy Week has been running since 2010,giving you the chance to complete consultancy projects for small and medium-sized enterprises.

In November 2012, the Business School will launch the KBS Employability Week for undergraduate studentswhich will focus on developing employability skills. This year, Candice Howe who graduated from KBS in2008 with a first-class honours degree in Employment Relations and Human Resource Management willreturn to KBS to work with Stage 1 and Stage 3 undergraduate students. Candice now runs her own gym –Reebok Crossfit LifeSpark Dubai – working with companies and individuals to promote total life fitness witha focus on career development. For more information on the Employability Week please contact Dr PatriciaLewis p.m.j.lewis@kent.ac.uk. Further details are available on the School website www.kent.ac.uk/kbs

GET INVOLVED – GET REWARDED! Sign up now for Kent’s Employability Points Scheme (EPS) if you are activelyinvolved in a student society, workshop, learning a foreign language, fundraisingor volunteering. You can earn points for activities like these and, at the end ofthe year, students with the highest points can apply for rewards, such asinternships, work experience, training or vouchers. All prizes are sponsored byemployers ranging from global corporate companies to small local businesses.

During 2011/12, the scheme was taken upby almost 2000 under- and post-graduatesand 86 sponsor companies including:Tesco, Enterprise, Penguin Books, NationalTrust, Kent County Council, CanterburyCathedral Trust, and Coca-ColaEnterprises. At the end-of-year rewardsceremony on 7 June, attended by over 300students, staff and employers, studentswere presented with their prestigiousrewards, and spoke about their experienceon the scheme and how it has helped themdevelop vital employability skills.

Subashini Simparanathan, a 2nd year law student, describes how taking part in the Employability PointsScheme has benefited her: “It (the scheme) gives you confidence, it boosts your CV, and it enables you totalk more about what you have done and what you have achieved during your time at university.” Employers,including Jon Sale from EPS sponsor, Tesco, describe how “EPS provide(s) students with a much morerounded experience and…transferrable skills that we really value.”

If you would like to take part in the EPS, visit www.kent.ac.uk/employabilitypoints or contact the EmployabilityPoints Co-ordinator, Kasia Senyszyn on k.e.senyszyn@kent.ac.uk

An employer graduate fair is a greatway to meet with representatives fromcompanies that actively employgraduates. The Careers andEmployability Service is organising aFair on Thursday 1 November from2pm-5pm in Eliot Great Hall.(Transport will be provided from theMedway Campus.)

Among the many graduate employers attending thefair are: IBM, Majestic Wine, PriceWaterhouseCoopers,the Royal Air Force and Teach First.

It’s possible to look down the list of employersattending and think “there isn’t anything here for me”but keep an open mind. Many of the organisations

represented have an HR department, IT, finance,marketing and PR, customer support andmanagement structures.

There are some things you can do in advance,to help you get the most out of the fair. Here aresome top tips:• Be prepared – do some research about the

employers that are attending• Smile – make a good first impression when you

speak to the representatives • Bring copies of your CV – useful to hand to

employers should they show interest• Take notes – chances are you’ll speak to quite

a few people during your visit • Get contacts – it is perfectly acceptable to ask for

business cards or appropriate email addressesshould you be interested in a particular company

KENT EMPLOYABILITY NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2012

+44 (0)1227 823164 www.kent.ac.uk/employability4

FUTURE EVENTSTalks and seminars are scheduledthroughout the summer term.Sessions being organised by theCareers and Employability Serviceinclude:

Canterbury• Commercial awareness• Getting the most from Graduate Fairs

Medway• Gaining experience through volunteering,

placements and internships• Working and studying abroad

Many employer talks are also scheduled for theautumn term including:AccentureBloombergMBDA

You can find out more about theseopportunities at www.kent.ac.uk/ces/events

Kent Union will also be running ‘Stand Out’training sessions. To find out more about theseopportunities, visit www.kentunion.co.uk andfollow the links to ‘Stand Out’ Training.

VIRTUAL JOBSFAIRJobShop will be holding their annual Virtual JobsFair from 1 – 15 October 2012 on their websitewww.kentunion.co.uk/jobs. Employers fromdifferent employment sectors all over the countryand even worldwide will be invited to take part.

All you have to do is click on the sector you areinterested in working in and all the companiesadvertising as part of the fair will be displayed.Click on the company name and their page willappear with more information about thecompany and the vacancies they have available.

Make sure you are registered with JobShop inorder to get updates about the Fair and anyother employment opportunitieswww.kentunion.co.uk/jobs

Award ceremonies wereheld at Canterbury andMedway to recognisethe achievements ofKent volunteers. 82,000hours were logged thisyear, a massive increaseof 35%.

Volunteering ranged fromCourse Rep roles to working withlocal charities. Not only did thisbenefit the community, butstudents also gained valuableemployability skills. This yearsees the launch of Kent Union’snew Employability &Volunteering Toolkit which will help you findopportunities, log hours and reflect on your skills.Details can be found at www.kentunion.co.uk/eandv.

Here are the experiences ofa student volunteer:

Name?Alison Burns

Where did you volunteer?Medway Mediation, Joining Hands,University of Kent VolunteerCommittee and UMSA RAG.

What tasks did you do?Anger Management Coach for Medway MediationWorking with young people who were referred to theorganisation by their school, or Social Services as alast chance option of staying in their school or homeenvironment.

Joining HandsWorked primarily at the Communigrow part of theorganisation. This involved schools and local youthgroups working together to make an area of landprofitable by growing and selling vegetables. This wasaimed at schools with a low academic attainment.

Volunteer CommitteeThe Volunteer Committee was established tohighlight the merits of volunteering to students atthe University of Kent, promote the University’svolunteering certificate (KSCV) and to allocatemoney to funding applications for student-ledvolunteering activities.

Raise and GiveRAG is a student-run charitable fundraisingorganisation. The aim is to raise money for charitiesor non-profit organisations in an entertainingmanner, enabling the rest of the student body tobecome involved.

What employability skills did you developthrough volunteering?I developed a wide range of employability skillsincluding: communication, team working,organisation, time management, adaptability andthe ability to work under pressure.

What did you enjoy the most aboutvolunteering?Working with new people, seeing the differencethe work could make and seeing the result of thevolunteer teams’ efforts.

AWARDS FOR KENT VOLUNTEERS

CAREERS AND EMPLOYABILITY FAIR