According to the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services website a recent survey of Heads of University Careers Services showed some optimistic results on graduate job prospects. The vast majority (90%) of careers bosses surveyed in the last quarter of 2012 felt that the graduate labour market was either becoming more buoyant or at least getting no worse. 80% felt that the position was better or about the same as in the same quarter of 2011.
Finance, construction and engineering were all quoted as areas that were recruiting graduates heavily. Notably some IT and engineering firms starting to have difficulty filling vacancies, and smaller businesses were finding it hard to compete with the salaries and prospects offered by larger companies.
While this all fits in with the overall reduction in unemployment reported in the papers, less good news is that opportunities for graduates in the public sector, on which many University of Cumbria students are largely dependent, have continued to decline, while full-time vacancies are being replaced by part-time jobs and internships.
Any improvement in the graduate labour market must of course be good news but the sad truth is that it probably doesn't make a great deal of difference to many graduates from Cumbria, who are basically faced with the "Shall I stay or shall I go?" question. Either they pursue attractive job adverts elsewhere, or put up with the more limited prospects available in their home area.
Showing posts with label part-time. Show all posts
Showing posts with label part-time. Show all posts
Wednesday, 27 February 2013
Friday, 28 September 2012
How We Can Help New Students
Following last week's Freshers' Fayre, it seems like a good time to highlight some of the things we can provide for students joining the University of Cumbria for the first time.
It would probably fair to say that most students are not likely to be making major career decisions in the first week of term. Apart from having fun, any serious thoughts they have are likely to be on the lines of:-
Many part-time applications will be by CV, and you can find some more help with compiling a CV via the Get a Job section of the Jobs&Careers tab on Blackboard (best viewed in Internet Explorer). You can also ask us to check your CV by requesting an appointment through LiSS staff or via email
We wish all new students a happy and successful time with us but if you decide you may have made the wrong choice of course, we can help you look at what the alternatives might be.
For more information about us see www.cumbria.ac.uk/careers
It would probably fair to say that most students are not likely to be making major career decisions in the first week of term. Apart from having fun, any serious thoughts they have are likely to be on the lines of:-
- How will I manage for money?
- Can I cope with the course?
- Will I make friends?
- Will I be homesick?
Many part-time applications will be by CV, and you can find some more help with compiling a CV via the Get a Job section of the Jobs&Careers tab on Blackboard (best viewed in Internet Explorer). You can also ask us to check your CV by requesting an appointment through LiSS staff or via email
We wish all new students a happy and successful time with us but if you decide you may have made the wrong choice of course, we can help you look at what the alternatives might be.
For more information about us see www.cumbria.ac.uk/careers
Thursday, 20 September 2012
Come and Meet Us at Freshers' Fayre...
This is a notice for University of Cumbria Students!
Careers Advisers will be at both Freshers' Welcome Fayre events for new students next week at both Lancaster and Fusehill Street campuses next week.
Dates and locations are as follows:
Careers Advisers will be at both Freshers' Welcome Fayre events for new students next week at both Lancaster and Fusehill Street campuses next week.
Dates and locations are as follows:
- Fusehill Street Learning Gateway, Tuesday 25th September (from 10.00 a.m.)
- Lancaster Campus Old Dining Room, Wednesday 26th September (also from 10.00 a.m.)
- Find out about sources of possible part-time jobs
- Learn about 'Career Ahead', the University's newly-introduced Employability Award
- Try our cryptic careers competition and possibly win a £20 voucher
- grab any freebies we manage to put together on the day
 |
| Joanne Watson, Linda Powell, Sandra Baron, Colin Taylor, Libby Davies |
Friday, 11 November 2011
Youth Unemployment: A Student’s Perspective
an article provided by Sam Curran, an Education Student at our Lancaster Campus
If you have wandered round a nondescript town centre dispensing as many CVs as you possibly can (for no reward) or looked on the Job Centre Plus site every day or even been forced to claim benefits then you will know all about the effects of recession. Whilst media coverage tends to focus on redundancy and lack of jobs for middle aged people it is actually the younger generation, those who are in-between the ages of 18-25 that are suffering the most.
Youth unemployment is at a record high and the number of people claiming Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) has risen by an incredible 100 per cent in some areas of the country. According to recent statistics the worst hit area is the North East (where I’m originally from) where the benefits claims of 18-25 year olds has risen a staggering 43 percent in the last year. Interestingly in the more affluent South East benefit applications have dropped 5.9 per cent. The situation is further compounded by the obvious fact that the government has to make cuts to try and stimulate economic growth and many benefits claims will either be rejected or reduced. How on earth will this benefit people of my generation?
However the effect of youth unemployment cannot just be gauged by simple statistics (although on average benefits applications have increased by 8 % across the UK in the last year), the effects seem even more pronounced when you look at each individual case. Take my situation for my example:
I’m an 18 year old student studying secondary teaching with maths at the Lancaster Campus at the University of Cumbria. In three years’ time I will graduate from my degree and have £25,000 debt to contend with. Will I have any kind of savings to fall back on whilst paying this debt? Not in the current economic climate I won’t. For the past two months I have been searching (fruitlessly) for a part-time job to boost my savings. I have put in over 200 job applications, given out so many CVs I must have covered every shop in the town centre twice and searched on the net for job vacancies and what do I have for my efforts…….. absolutely nothing! Most firms can’t even be bothered to reply and the ones that do trot out the vague phrase: “good candidate, but not enough retail experience”. How much experience do they want?!? For the record, I have had a proper temp job in the past and gone in every Saturday religiously to volunteer at Oxfam in my home town of Darlington. The fact is there is very little chance to get retail experience these days.
Perhaps I’m one of the lucky ones though. I have a loan to cover my living and tuition fee costs but what about when I leave Uni? £25,000 worth of debt and nothing to fall back on. What do I do then? Withdraw from the bank of Mum and Dad? Take out an overdraft? None of the options are desirable, especially when it is even harder to get a foot on the property market these days so it would seem I will be consigned to renting a house for the next decade with no realistic hope of actually ever owning my own house.
Some might say that I’ll be fine: I’ll be earning more than enough as a teacher and they are “paid far too much” anyway. Realistically though the starting wage of a teacher is £20,000 which sounds a lot but looks a lot less impressive when you take away bills and paying off my student loan. The fact is not getting a job now will harm me in the long term.
Some suggestions have been mooted by the government: they plan to make anyone unemployed carry out a six month “community work programme” for 30 hours each week. It is compulsory: anyone who refuses will have their benefits taken away. This would not solve the problem though: in fact it could exacerbate it if some people refuse to carry out these work placements.
So it seems I and a number of people of similar age are consigned to a period of unemployment and no chance of earning some extra cash. I’ve now got to the point where I’m doing surveys online to try and earn a little bit of money (although the most I can make is £40 per month). I’m also considering volunteering again at a charity shop although will that even look good on my CV to employers? In short, youth unemployment is a big problem and it doesn’t look like it is going away any time soon.
If you have wandered round a nondescript town centre dispensing as many CVs as you possibly can (for no reward) or looked on the Job Centre Plus site every day or even been forced to claim benefits then you will know all about the effects of recession. Whilst media coverage tends to focus on redundancy and lack of jobs for middle aged people it is actually the younger generation, those who are in-between the ages of 18-25 that are suffering the most.
Youth unemployment is at a record high and the number of people claiming Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) has risen by an incredible 100 per cent in some areas of the country. According to recent statistics the worst hit area is the North East (where I’m originally from) where the benefits claims of 18-25 year olds has risen a staggering 43 percent in the last year. Interestingly in the more affluent South East benefit applications have dropped 5.9 per cent. The situation is further compounded by the obvious fact that the government has to make cuts to try and stimulate economic growth and many benefits claims will either be rejected or reduced. How on earth will this benefit people of my generation?
However the effect of youth unemployment cannot just be gauged by simple statistics (although on average benefits applications have increased by 8 % across the UK in the last year), the effects seem even more pronounced when you look at each individual case. Take my situation for my example:
I’m an 18 year old student studying secondary teaching with maths at the Lancaster Campus at the University of Cumbria. In three years’ time I will graduate from my degree and have £25,000 debt to contend with. Will I have any kind of savings to fall back on whilst paying this debt? Not in the current economic climate I won’t. For the past two months I have been searching (fruitlessly) for a part-time job to boost my savings. I have put in over 200 job applications, given out so many CVs I must have covered every shop in the town centre twice and searched on the net for job vacancies and what do I have for my efforts…….. absolutely nothing! Most firms can’t even be bothered to reply and the ones that do trot out the vague phrase: “good candidate, but not enough retail experience”. How much experience do they want?!? For the record, I have had a proper temp job in the past and gone in every Saturday religiously to volunteer at Oxfam in my home town of Darlington. The fact is there is very little chance to get retail experience these days.
Perhaps I’m one of the lucky ones though. I have a loan to cover my living and tuition fee costs but what about when I leave Uni? £25,000 worth of debt and nothing to fall back on. What do I do then? Withdraw from the bank of Mum and Dad? Take out an overdraft? None of the options are desirable, especially when it is even harder to get a foot on the property market these days so it would seem I will be consigned to renting a house for the next decade with no realistic hope of actually ever owning my own house.
Some might say that I’ll be fine: I’ll be earning more than enough as a teacher and they are “paid far too much” anyway. Realistically though the starting wage of a teacher is £20,000 which sounds a lot but looks a lot less impressive when you take away bills and paying off my student loan. The fact is not getting a job now will harm me in the long term.
Some suggestions have been mooted by the government: they plan to make anyone unemployed carry out a six month “community work programme” for 30 hours each week. It is compulsory: anyone who refuses will have their benefits taken away. This would not solve the problem though: in fact it could exacerbate it if some people refuse to carry out these work placements.
So it seems I and a number of people of similar age are consigned to a period of unemployment and no chance of earning some extra cash. I’ve now got to the point where I’m doing surveys online to try and earn a little bit of money (although the most I can make is £40 per month). I’m also considering volunteering again at a charity shop although will that even look good on my CV to employers? In short, youth unemployment is a big problem and it doesn’t look like it is going away any time soon.
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