Career Ahead - Careers and Employability Fair

This is advance notice of the University of Cumbria's first ever all-inclusive Careers Fair will take place at Fusehill Street campus on Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 January 2013. 
Students from all year groups and faculties and recent graduates from the University will get the chance to research job, voluntary, postgraduate and self-employment opportunities as well as the new Career Ahead Employability Award currently being piloted by Learning and Student Services.


The Learning Gateway at Fusehill Street

On the Tuesday, students will be able to attend workshops to help them make the most of their chance to meet employers the following day. Workshops will include The Art of Networking and Successful CVs and will be run by members of the careers team.

From 10.00am – 3.00pm on the Wednesday, around thirty local and national organisations will be available to offer advice and information to students in the ground and first floors of the Learning Gateway.

More information will follow in January on how to register for the event, but in the meantime contact Joanne Watson  if you would like to know more or have employers you would like us to invite. This event is part funded by the European Social Fund.

There are still opportunities for employers to take part on the 30th and any firms interested can register at https://www.survey.bris.ac.uk/cumbria/careersfair2013

A Career in E-Health?

The increasing use of new technology in the provision of healthcare is starting to lead to some new career opportunities.

Key agencies are NHS Direct  which recruits staff into ICT-related roles as well as qualified nurses and  NHS Connecting for Health  whose remit includes developing systems of health provision such as e-prescribing and the "choose and book" system for patients.

Similar opportunities are staring to occur on the NHS Jobs website but as job titles are not yet well-established, they are best found by trying search terms such as "telehealth", "remote", "mobile device", etc*. on the advanced search ('search by skills') section of the site. Precise qualifications required are likely to vary.

There are also likely to be commercial software companies who are developing health-related programmes and applications.

Source: Abridged from a message received from via AGCAS ServiceLink

* Other search expressions that I have tried and work are "electronic", "choose and book", "e-prescribing" and "informatics".

Get Sick At Home? Fascinating Facts About Childhood Illnesses

Many present and future University of Cumbria students express an interest in eventually working with children, but a recent article in the Scottish Daily Mail (01/12/12) suggests some alarming trends in childhood habits they might want to heed.

Based on an NHS Scotland report by Frank Furedi, the author of the book Paranoid Parenting, it shows big differences in the numbers of hospital referrals of children as a result of incidents in the home as opposed to outdoors.

Seemingly, there has been a big slump in numbers of children falling out of trees or off skateboards, while they are twice as likely to end up in casualty with repetitive strain injury after excessive computer gaming sessions.  Other injuries on the increase included falling out of bed, falling downstairs and injuries from using electrical appliances - mainly hair straighteners.

Meanwhile the number injured by fireworks has fallen by 41%, with further drops in injuries caused by ice skates, skis, roller skates and car accidents. The Mail also reports a survey showing that a third of children had never climbed a tree and one in ten cannot ride a bike, while the majority said they would rather play on a computer or watch TV than go outside.

This would seem to be vital information for our Health students, so that they know what injuries they are likely to be treating as well as for Trainee Teachers considering what new risk assessments they need to introduce. And perhaps the University of Cumbria can congratulate itself on its success in tempting so many away from the couch and the computer screen for long enough to sign up for our Sport and PE related courses!

I wonder though how the career choices of this "indoor generation" are being affected...