The Birmingham Award: Showcase your skills and gain recognition

The Birmingham Award is the University of Birmingham's recognised free employability skills award for students. Endorsed by graduate employers, the award supports you to develop and recognise the skills you gain through extra-curricular activities and how to articulate these skills in preparation for real world recruitment process.  

The Birmingham Award offers you the opportunity to get involved in a wide-variety of opportunities outside of your course. We recognise the diverse range of experiences students get involved in so the award has been designed to be flexible and recognise a broad spectrum of activities.

There are over 200 activities recognised through The Birmingham Award, on and off campus, such as: part-time work, fundraising, volunteering, sports, content creating, caring or being part of a society committee.

The online award is completely flexible and so you can shape it around you in any year of study. Find out more below and if you have any questions not answered on this page, get in touch with us at thebirminghamaward@contacts.bham.ac.uk.

2nd year BSc Environmental Science student

“A fantastic opportunity to develop employability skills, and push yourself to try new experiences.”

The Birmingham Award team run supportive events througout the year. Visit The Birmingham Award Events page for more details.

 

How to complete The Birmingham Award

You can complete The Birmingham Award through the MyAttributes section on Careers Connect.

Complete four attribute reflections on extra-curricular activities you feel have helped you to develop one or more of the graduate attributes and be rewarded by gaining The Birmingham Award on your graduation transcript. Further guidance can be found on our MyAttributes guidance pages.

Once you have gained The Birmingham Award you will be well placed to complete The Birmingham Award with Distinction or Post-graduate Professional Development Award which will allow you to demonstrate further committment to developing your skills, attributes and overall employability.

How to complete The Birmingham Award with Distinction

The Birmingham Award with Distinction is coming soon. Further details will appear here by September 2024.

Undergraduate students who have completed The Birmingham Award will have an opportunity to complete The Birmingham Award with Distinction in order to demonstrate an advanced level of reflection and commitment to the development of skills.

Postgraduate Taught students can access the university's Postgraduate Professional Development Award

 

Employer supporters

The Birmingham Award is proud to be endorsed by our employer supporters. The employers who support The Birmingham Award have been selected to reflect the diverse range of students who participate in the award.

Key dates and deadlines


Students can complete the award in any year. If you are in your final year (or undertaking a one year programme) the deadline has now passed for 2023/24.

Benefits of The Birmingham Award

  • Gain support and feedback in articulating your skills to graduate recruiters
  • Develop your transferable employability skills in a completely flexible way, aligned to your own interests 
  • Find out what you can get involved in on campus outside of your degree
  • Improve your confidence by gaining new skills and meeting new people
  • Gain formal recognition of activities you already undertake outside of your degree
  • The Birmingham Award is a certificated award that appears on your final degree transcript and can enhance your CV and LinkedIn profile
  • Network with employer supporters and find out what attributes they look for in students and graduates when recruiting
  • Gain personalised feedback on your application form or interview answer as part of our flexible and authentic assessment process
  • Access an enriched programme of practical hints and tips on how to be successful in a recruitment process 
  • Receive a digital certificate upon completion of The Birmingham Award

The Birmingham Award Student of the Year

Students who complete The Birmingham Award with Distinction will have the opportunity to submit a video to nominate themselves as The Birmingham Award Student of the Year.

Students can nominate themselves in categories which will be aligned to The Birmingham Graduate Attributes. 

The Birmingham Award Team will create a shortlist for each category and winners for each category will be selected by a panel of The Birmingham Award Team and our employer supporters.

A winner will be selected for each category and they will each receive: 

  • A £100 voucher
  • A Student of the Year digital certificate  
  • A personal LinkedIn recommendation from a member of the judging panel 
  • Personal feedback from the employer supporters 

The deadline to submit your Student of the Year video has now passed for 2023/24. Details and submission information will be available through The Birmingham Award with Distinction Pathway in 2024/25.