Careers Network Welcome Video - College of Social Sciences - video transcript

Hi welcome to the Careers Network, my name is Gagan Dosanjh I'm one of the Careers Advisors at the University and I'm going to be introducing you to the CoSS Careers Team.

So we've got three key messages for you today. First is who we are, the second is how we can help you, and the third is how you can get in touch with us. So this is your College Team. Every College within the University has its own Careers Team and this is yours. So we've got Alex Carroll there he's a Careers Consultant, myself Gagan, Careers Adviser, and we've got Taran Sanghera, who's a Careers Adviser and works with the Business School. Between us what we do is offer one-to-one appointments and workshops and webinars all around planning your career, exploring options, and thinking about what you can do with your degree. So if you're at the stage where you have no idea what to do with your degree you can come and speak to us and we can talk through some ideas. Equally if you've got some ideas and you just want to think about your next steps then we can support with that as well. We've then got Helen Hobson who's our Internship Officer and Helen helps with all things work experience and internships. If you're looking for a placement or an internship or you are thinking about bursaries or finance or internships or making the application then Helen can support with that, and similarly to the Advisors, she offers one-to-one appointments and webinars and workshops as well.

We've then got our Professional Development Module Team. I'll tell you a little bit more about this module in a moment but just to give you an idea of who the team is, we've got Sarah Tasker who's the Placements Team Leader. We've got Mairead Mallon, who's the Placement Officer and Louise Munday who's the Placements Administrator. I'll tell you a little bit more about this module and how you can get involved but that's the team that's in charge of that module. So these are just some of the things that we can support with.

We are here from the moment you start with us till after you graduate and we support with everything from thinking about career ideas, as I said in those one-to-one appointments or workshops, all the way through to things like supporting with mentoring schemes, supporting with applications. If you're thinking about starting your own business we offer support with that as well. It's all through our webinars and our face-to-face support that we can give all of these things and more in terms of support for you.

So with application support then we've got some brilliant Applications Advisers that can offer face-to-face support as well as online support, and these are through appointments and workshops as well. So anything from CVs and cover letters all the way through to video interviews and psychometric tests and assessment centres, we offer lots and lots of support on that so keep an eye out on the website on the slide there [text: https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/as/employability/careers/cvs-applications-interviews-assessment-centres.aspx]. We also have some really good resources for CVs and interviews as well, so we've got the CV checker which is an online platform where you can put your CV through and it will give you immediate instant feedback. We've also got ShortlistMe which is a video interview platform where you can practice your video interviews, get feedback on it as well and just make sure that you are putting the best foot forward.

So some of the things that we offer are resources on Canvas and our website and I'll give you that website address shortly. We also offer with experiences that are going to help you with your CV, so whether that's on campus, whether that's off campus, whether it's virtual internships or any extracurricular activities, we give you lots and lots of opportunities to boost your CV and your employability as well. Then we give you the opportunity to get work experience as well and I'll tell you a little bit more about our work experience opportunities in a moment.

We've got a mentoring scheme where you can gain real insight into a career area that you're interested in pursuing through one-to-one relationships with a mentor. Within the Careers Network, we provide the opportunity for students and recent graduates to meet with industry professionals to think about and gain clarity around your career direction so whatever year you're in you are eligible to apply for this and you will get more information about this in your inboxes over the coming weeks.

I also talked about work experience so we've got internships programs that are exclusive to University of Birmingham students. We've got the link there if you do want to know more about the different programs that we offer [www.birmingham.ac.uk/internships].This year a lot of them have been virtual but they've been really really good opportunities to get that experience that we know that employers really value. We also offer work experience bursaries as well so we always advise that any experience that you take is paid but we understand that with some sectors sometimes it will be unpaid or low paid work, but still a really really good opportunity, and if that's the case then we can offer work experience bursaries for up to a thousand pounds, depending on the scheme that you're applying for. So we've got all the information on the slide there [text: www.birmingham.ac.uk/internships/funding]. The deadline for applications for those is 28 April but you can look at the link and go to the link on the slide to find out more about those.

So earlier on I introduced you to the Professional Development Module Team. This is a final year optional module that you would take. You'd apply for it in the same way that you'd apply for any modules or choose any of your modules and it's a great way of getting employability built into your degree. The placements will take place during the summer vacation of 2022 and we ask that there are minimum of 40 hours and what you can do is you can use your own internship towards this module or you can get support from the team to find a placement for this. It also includes two 2000 word assignments as well and 18 contact hours which are between lectures and workshops. The advice we give is to start looking for work experience now so that you can use it for the PDM next summer. As I said you'd sign up for this in the usual way in the spring term and in the same way that you choose any of your modules. If you want any more information or if you have any questions then please email the placements team at placements@contacts.bham.ac.uk.

I also want to introduce you to the Personal Skills Award which is the PSA. So it focuses on extracurricular activity that you might be taking part in outside of your degree, so this could be part-time work, student society roles, any sporting achievements, careers workshops and anything else you can think of that really builds on some of those experiences. We understand that by getting involved in these activities, you're developing a range of transferable skills like communication and leadership and teamwork and resilience and what the PSA can do is it can help you to articulate these skills that you're developing to employers when you go to look for graduate roles. By completing the Awards you have the opportunity to gain personalised feedback on how you're demonstrating your skills on application forms and interviews as well. We've got an online induction course that you can take part in and sign up for and if you are interested in that then please go to the website link on the slide there and find out more about it and how to apply [text: www.intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/psa].

If you're a first-year student thinking what can I take part in at the moment? All of the things that I mentioned are going to be great for you but there's also something called the Birmingham Project which is exclusively for first-year students. It's a really good way of building up some of those skills and meeting employers and meeting other people from courses that you may not have met otherwise. So this takes place in June but you can take a look at what the Birmingham Project is find out a little bit more about it again by just going on to our website. We've got the link there on the slide [text: www.birmingham.ac.uk/Birmingham-project] and like I said, it's a really good way of meeting people, developing some of those networks that are so important, but also developing your skills as well.

You'll get a chance to meet lots of employers on campus and virtually as well. We've got our virtual Careers Fairs starting from this Autumn and you can see the dates there. So the Autumn Careers Fair takes place on the 6 and 7 October. We've got the Engineering, Science and Technology Fair taking place 20 October and then we've got our Law Careers Fair taking place on 10 November. It's a great way of meeting employers, seeing what opportunities are available, whether that's internships and work experience or whether it's graduate level opportunities. You also get the opportunity because it is virtual to book one-to-one appointments with the recruiters as well. The link for that is on the slide there. We also do a range of different types of programs that helps you to get to know employers as well. So this series provides you with the opportunity to get to know graduate recruiters from a range of industry sessions via different formats. Previous employers that we've worked with are on the slide there, as you can see some really big names, but also across a lot of different sectors as well. It's a really good way again just to find out about what different sectors there are out there and seeing what kind of things you might be suited to as well. So to find out more we've got the link on the slide.

Then in terms of employer presentations, we've also got our Insight Into series - we've got the dates on the slide there, so whatever industry that you're thinking about at the moment and it's fine if you don't have a solid idea of what you want to go into, but whatever areas that you think you might have an interest in, we have a range of Insight Into events which invite panellists from those sectors to come and talk about their career, how they got where they did what they do, aspects of their job that they enjoy, and how you could maybe get into a career like that as well. It's a really good way of getting an insight into different types of sectors that maybe you wouldn't have considered before. The dates for those are on the slide there. So if you're thinking about where you would find out about these opportunities, we would say keep up to date by these three methods.

So you'll be hearing from me and the rest of the team on Canvas. Whenever we have an exciting event coming up we will put it on Canvas and we'll put it out there and you'll get an email. We also have a website called Careers Connect with all our opportunities on there and I'll tell you how you can sign up to that in a moment. Keep an eye on our social media as well, again any exciting things we've got going on will go on there immediately. And it's not on here but actually look out for our newsletters as well, we have a range of newsletters, work experience opportunities, and what's happening on and around campus, that come out every month so do keep an eye on those as well.

I talked about Careers Connect, basically everything that I've mentioned today from employer activity, to booking appointments, is on Careers Connect. So if you can register using the link that is on the slide at the moment then you have access to all of these things including work experience opportunities and graduate jobs as well. If you have certain things that you're interested in you can sign up for email notifications so that you'll get an email whenever that sort of role or that sort of activity comes up as well. So I would strongly recommend that you register with the Careers Connect account. So that is us and that is in a nutshell what we can support you with.

We're really looking forward to working with you this year - so you can get in touch with us by emailing us at the email address on the slide which is careersenquiries@contacts.bham.ac.uk or, as I mentioned book an appointment or come to one of our events, but we are really looking forward to welcoming you this year.

Thank you.

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