Trainee Solicitor Vacancies at Cartmell Shepherd, Carlisle

We understand that Cartmell Shepherd Solicitors have decided to recruit three trainee solicitors to start in work September 2013. Enquiries about these posts should be made to Monica Hendry, Cartmell Shepherd Solicitors Viaduct House, Carlisle CA3 8EZ or email mmh@cartmells.co.uk and general information about the firm is available at www.cartmells.co.uk

Please note however that Cartmells have already filled their trainee vacancies for 2011 and 2012.

Young Talent Awards - A Way into Advertising

The Action Planning Group (APG), representing the "world's leading communications strategists", run a biennial competition to award the best thinking by students in full-time education.

The deadline for this year's APG Young Talent Awards is Friday 26th August 2011. According to APG's Gareth Goodall, this is what you need to do to enter and what you stand to gain:

"In not more than 1,000 words, tell us about a brand that you would like to invent that would appeal to people your age. The brand should be invented completely from scratch. The best three entries will be given a prize at the 2011 Awards Ceremony, before an audience of leading strategists from London's top advertising agencies. This would give you a great way of securing a job in the ad industry: of last year's winners, two are now in full-time employment in advertising agencies and the third will walk into a glittering career when she graduates."

You can find the Rules of Entry and more details at http://www.apg.org.uk/?p=1163

Essential Swatting for PGCE Candidates!

The Coalition Government is undertaking a wide-ranging review of educational provision, so those applying for PGCE places this year need to be aware of the proposals contained in policy documents such as:

• The white paper on The Importance of Teaching, which includes proposals for new school structures, changes to performance tables, funding and initial teacher training, and new ideas on behaviour management. http://www.education.gov.uk/b0068570/the-importance-of-teaching

• The green paper outlining a new approach to special educational needs and disability Support and Aspiration http://www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/sen/a0075339/sengreenpaper
  

• A matched funding scheme to help primary schools teach systematic synthetic phonics – see press release http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a0076456
  

• The Wolf Report on changes to vocational education http://www.education.gov.uk/16to19/qualificationsandlearning/a0074953/review-of-vocational-education-the-wolf-report

Source: AGCAS Teaching and Related Professions Task Group Bulletin

Become a Careers Adviser?

Places are still available for the September 2011 intake of the Postgraduate Diploma in Career Guidance and Development at the University of the West of Scotland (Paisley Campus) and Edinburgh Napier University (Sighthill Campus).

Both centres are Institute of Careers Guidance (ICG) approved and successful completion leads to the additional award of the ICG’s “Qualification in Career Guidance and Development”. Both courses attract SAAS Postgraduate Awards and encourage applications from ethnic minorities as well as those living outside of the central belt of Scotland.

Our understanding is that there is a shortage of applicants for Careers Adviser posts from applicants who hold the postgraduate qualification.

Back To Nature

Col's Blog is again undergoing a short period of inactivity as I have been away birdwatching in East Anglia. Key targets were some of the exotics that are extremely or somewhat unlikely to appear up here on the Solway coast e.g. bearded tit, reed warbler, bittern, spoonbill, marsh harrier, hobby, avocet, spotted redshank.

However, to put a bit of a careers gloss on this, my successes have been partly down to advice I received from RSPB volunteers and an Education Officer (or I assume that's what she was) with Natural England.

I didn't need use my binoculars to observe that both these agencies are actively looking for volunteers in various capacities, so for those who may be interested, here are the appropriate web references:

www.rspb.org.uk/volunteering

www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/enjoying/gettinginvolved/volunteering/default.aspx

Make It Happen

Make It Happen is a national mentoring service for students and graduates thinking of starting up their own business. The service is an online website href="http://www.mihmentoring.com/" www.mihmentoring.com and the service is very student focused. Everything has been designed in response to students’ feedback in forums and questionnaires.

For example Make It Happen run twice weekly webinars on Mondays and Wednesdays at 6pm on a variety of topics about starting your own business. Many of the speakers are from well-known companies e.g. HSBC.

Currently 2% of graduates decide to go into business for themselves after completing their studies.

Note: This information was provided by Sarah Fox, Senior LISS Adviser Careers and Employability, University of Cumbria

Making The Most of Your Time in Higher Education

This report from the CBI/NUS is available at http://ow.ly/58zac and contains lots of wise words on how to improve your value in the employment market after you get your degree.

It covers areas like:

• thinking about what you want from your time at University
• the value of early careers advice and career decision making
• the key skills employers say they want and how satisfied they actually are with the skills of new recruits
• how to use your course to improve your workplace skills
• the value of work placements and voluntary work
• getting the most from life at University
• the importance of reflecting on and recording your progress...

...plus lots of more detailed advice on what to do to maximise your potential in all of the above areas. Overall a good, common sense read for everyone who wants a successful career after University and a bit of an antidote to the more cynical view of employability I posted on a couple of months ago.