Managing My Future
This academic year saw the re-launch of Managing My Future – an interactive and engaging, two-hour employability session for all 2nd year students in the Faculty of Science & Engineering. Managing my Future was designed by the FSE careers team with the aim to inspire students to make the most of their second year and proactively prepare for their futures. With sessions timetabled to help students better understand employers’ selection practices, the focus was on helping students to understand their options, act to secure experience such as internships and placements and know how to better stand out. Over the past 5 weeks, more than 1300 2nd year students experienced practical activities including a lego-build group discussion and a “think like a recruiter” CV selection exercise. All sessions captured the employer voice – with over 80 visiting employers from over 50 organisations joining the programme. Visitors ranged from the Civil Service Fast Stream, Arup and BNY Mellon to AstraZeneca and Procter & Gamble. Similarly, student experience was at the heart of delivery with over 20 alumni returning to share their experiences alongside returning placement year students and current PhDs.
“MMF was an excellent team effort this year with support from right across the Careers Service and Faculty to make it happen – from those who designed and delivered the sessions to all the help behind the scenes”
Amanda Conway, Careers Manager for FSE
MMF sought to provide an authentic selection experience for students with employers providing valuable insights. As a result, over 90% of participants reported feeling more career confident following the majority of sessions. Boosts in confidence focused mainly on a better understanding of their skills and attributes, of employer recruitment and selection processes, and where to find opportunities. Almost 1000 students shared their feedback, and some stand out comments included:
“It was a fun, interactive session with a lot of informative tips and advice without being daunting. I think it was excellent”.
“It was amazing how they were able to bring in real-world job-hunting experiences into university and how we can deal with them.”
Our employers also found the event a success –
“It was a great opportunity to share our placement information, promote our organisation but also provide valuable tips and insights to support the students’ future goals. It was great fun to support the exercises too”
