Services to Staff

The Careers Service is able to provide information to any member of University staff about supporting students in their career plans. In particular, we provide a range of services to academic departments.

Developing students’ employability

Graduate-level employability is developed through a variety of experiences. In addition to subject-specific knowledge, and higher level thinking and communication skills gained on their courses, students need to have developed effective career management skills. They need to understand how the attributes they are developing at University and elsewhere can be applied to the career opportunities available, and how and when to make effective applications in a competitive jobs market.

To help with this, Careers Advisers are available to run sessions for students in academic departments, while staff from the Student Jobs team can provide sessions on developing employability skills through work experience.

Typical sessions include:

• An introduction to the Careers Service.
• Career options with your degree.
• Planning your career and gaining relevant work experience.
• Writing an effective CV and covering letter and preparing for interviews.

A number of departments also work in partnership with the Careers Service to design and deliver specialist sessions, for example:

• An annual careers day - combining employer presentations, talks on career skills and postgraduate study, tutorials to discuss career plans with students and a CV clinic.
• Departmental open days for prospective students and parents - the Careers Service and the department provide information on the course, the support and services available to students and career prospects for graduates.
• Input to work-based learning or careers modules - as part of assessed undergraduate modules, staff have provided sessions on topics such as CV Writing, Interview Preparation, and Developing Commercial Awareness.
• Specialist Careers Fairs covering careers related to degrees in specific departments.

If you are interested in developing sessions for your department, please contact your department’s link Careers Adviser who will be pleased to assist.

Careers information to enhance your provision

The Careers Service can also help academic departments with:

• Information for use with prospective students, covering the career benefits of Higher Education and opportunities after a degree.
• Advice about skills development, work based learning, career planning and the graduate labour market.
• Support for the use of graduate first destination statistics in departments.
• Developing Graduate Case Studies of alumni, including those available on our website.
• Links to organisations that can provide opportunities to students or inputs to the curriculum.
• Developing careers information for current and prospective students, e.g. for inclusion on departmental websites and in student handbooks.

You can help the Careers Service and your students by:

• Nominating a member of staff to act as the Careers Liaison Officer. The CLO will act as the main contact between the Careers Service and the department.
• Promoting careers input as an integral part of the timetable; ideally as part of an established module.
• Letting the Careers Service know when your students are not available, e.g. reading weeks, placements etc.
• Promoting the Careers Service website to students and encouraging them to use it.
• Maintaining a Careers Service noticeboard in the department advertising the events and services we offer.
• Promoting the Careers Service ‘What's On’ careers events programme to students.

Your support is essential in helping the Careers Service deliver the best possible service to students. We welcome the opportunity to work collaboratively within your department and are always pleased to discuss your needs and ideas.