Career Ahead - University of Cumbria's Employability Award

Career Ahead is now coming to the end of its first year and it is with great pride that I have seen the accomplishments of our students developing their employability skills through an amazing array of activities. From bar jobs and shop work to volunteering with St. John's ambulance, student ambassador work and student mentoring while successfully continuing with their academic studies.

The Award has provided students who participate in extra-curricular activity the opportunity to pull all their experience together, providing evidence of attending workshops, coaching, voluntary and paid work to develop an e-portfolio which show-cases their skills to prospective employers.

The Award enables students to make the most of their university experience, to increase their employability skills and provide a method of evidencing their activities outside their university course. Consequently, students are not only developing their skills but also they are learning how to promote themselves through practical experiences such as paid/volunteer work, training, workshops and sports etc.

Elements of the Award consist of personal development - reflecting on what skills you have and what skills you need to develop further in order to get the job you want. Developing 4 key employability skills while taking part in 100+ hours of extra curricular activity throughout your time at university. Job searching, completing a job application form, developing a CV and attending a mock interview are all elements of the Award that develop skills helping students find their ideal job when they graduate.

We now have students that have completed the Award and it really is inspiring to see the dedication and effort that these students have put in to developing their e-portfolios. These students are the ones's that will be ready when they graduate to tackle the jobmarket, they will have all the skills that you need to get the jobs, they will stand out from the crowd because they put that extra bit of effort in while they were at university. I therefore want to applaud those students and congratulate them for completing the Award and hope that other students realise not only the importance of developing their employability skills but also realise their own potential to achieve their career goals and realise their dreams.

Well done and congratualtions!

For students interested in knowing more about career Ahead taking please email me, Libby, at careerahead@cumbria.ac.uk