Starter Activity What makes you unique Which one

Starter Activity: What makes you unique? Which one are you?

Employability. . What is it all about? • Session Aim: To support you to develop and enhance your employability skills and career development ideas • Session Outcomes: • Define the term employability • Undertake self-evaluation – skills (hard and soft), attributes and behaviours; Identify areas for development • Know about potential career pathway opportunities • Create 2 or more action points for further career development Vicky Crossland HE careers consultant victoria. crossland @Hartpury. ac. uk/ HEcareers@Hartpury . ac. uk

Employability…. • Different contexts and meanings • In higher education is defined as…. “a set of achievements – skills, understandings and personal attributes – that makes graduates more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations, which benefits themselves, the workforce, the community and the economy. ” Yorke, M. (2004), Employability in higher education: what it is not, The Higher Education Academy/ESECT • Is not just about getting a job - it is about a broader set of skills and attributes that will enable you to be successful throughout your life

Why does (should) employability matter to you? • Being and remaining competitive • Achieving your goals / realising your ambitions • Enhancing your education • Engaging with the student experience

What makes you employable? 1. Read the list of employability skills & professional behaviours 2. Answer these 3 questions: • Which ones are you most confident you can demonstrate now? How do you know? • Which ones do you think you need to develop? How could you do this? • Which ones do you consider to be most relevant to your potential career choices? Why?

Employability is about self-management and life long learning… having a growth mind-set The personal application of changes in behaviour which can produce a desired improvement in employability or life skills A relative concept and may necessitate a small amount or wide-scale change or development Can be used to live a more efficient daily life, banish poor habits and acquire new ones, accomplish new tasks, and achieve personal goals Learning self-management skills have many advantages and benefits to the individual over both the short and long-term Watch some of these quality TED talks around the subject… what can you learn from them? How can you use this information?

Career Pathways Career pathways used to be linear, 20 years ago the saying ‘A job for life’ was true but today, most people undertake multiple roles in numerous businesses, sometime a sideways move rather than a promotion, in order to gain the required experiences, skills, attributes or knowledge, to support their career progression.

Hard skills and soft skills… There are many personal attributes valued by employers but, they also want to know that a candidate knows what the difference is between hard and soft skills

Mostly soft, not hard skills demanded in the work place include… • Communication • Flexible • Interpersonal skills • Adaptable • Team work • Professional • Work with minimal supervision • Resilient • Initiative and problem solving • Good customer service • Positive attitude to change • Commercial awareness • Willingness to grow and learn • Caring • Patient • Diligent • Confident • Hard working • Reliable & flexible

Teamwork The following adjectives describe some of the qualities that are required in order to be a successful team player Highlight the adjectives that could best be used to describe you Choose three of the qualities you highlighted and write a short paragraph explaining why you chose these qualities https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=wuo 13 Fr. NX 6 g

Stages of Career Development Planning Develop self awareness Gain occupational awareness Review And Reflection Take Action

Developing your career ideas Step 1: Self-Awareness • Interests • Skills • Personality • Values • Lifestyle • Decision-making style Step 2: Occupational Awareness • Websites • Job sites • Books/journal/publications • Professional bodies • Social media • Careers service Step 3: Experience • Work placement • Volunteering • Job shadowing • Internship • Summer job • PT work Step 4: Job search/work • Opportunity research • CV/cover letter writing • Applications • Further study • Interviews /assessment centres

Personal Reflection and Developing Self-Awareness • Helps to build emotional self-awareness. By taking the time to ask yourself the important questions, you gain a better understanding of your emotions, strengths, weaknesses and driving factors. Once you understand important aspects of the self, you become better able to adapt to changing situations and tough circumstances. You are also likely to make better plans for your future and better decisions • Integrity increases when you take time to reflect on core values. Having a clear understanding of what values you deem most important puts them at the forefront of your mind and strengthens your decisions. This can be important when you start to think about what jobs may satisfy your needs and values best • Our lives often become a cycle of doing/producing where we try to maximise productivity and minimise time spent. When we are always acting and moving from one thing to the next we sometimes forget to stop and think. Taking time to think allows for new ideas to emerge and counters the risk of becoming stagnant. New ideas and continuous change, not matter what your situation, is necessary. Life is about continual learning. • Helps you to think about yourself, your experiences and your own view of the world and your place in it, learning from experiences and wanting to improve some area or aspect of your life • Empowerment –putting yourself in control of making changes and decisions

Activity 1: Consider yourself questions such as these: • What are you good at? • Why are you good at it? • How do you know you are good at it? • How could you use this in your career planning / job searching? • When do you feel most like yourself? • What make you happy and why? • How could you apply this self-awareness to a job / career search? • What aspects of your degree have you: a. Most enjoyed? Why? b. Been most inspired by? Why?

Activity 2: A skills wheel audit • Using the three skills wheels below (academic, personal and employment skills) map your current competency level for the eight areas by: • • Firstly placing a dot on the appropriate scale line (1 = low/ 10 = high – it is helpful to think about how many bits of evidence you can give for each skill area, e. g. 1 piece of evidence = 1, 2 bits =2 and so on…). • Secondly join the dots to create a visual picture of your current skills set; you can shade in the shape so it gives you a clear pattern. From here you can identify those areas you are strongest in and those areas where development is required. You can then start to look for opportunities and experiences, which will allow you to develop your skills in the areas of most need.

Skills wheels Self-Analysis Tool: Employability

Goal setting: what you can do… • Complete a skills audit • Research your options • Set your goals • Create SMART targets • Identify sources of support • Create an action plan • Regularly review your progress and update your plan

Post Degree Options • Broad range of transferable skills leading to multiple opportunities • BSc gives you access to STEM careers • Multiple careers opportunities open to you once you graduate • Identify what your values are. What your employability skills are. What are you looking for from a job? Where can your values and wish list be best satisfied? • Research opportunities and undertake CPD in order to make yourself employable - qualification ladder and career lattice

Careers Readiness Grid: Where are you?

Where are you now? Answer these questions: • What are your work preferences? What sort of work environment, people, routines are important to you? • What are your strengths and talents? • List the skills that you enjoy using • When you are at your happiest, what are you doing? • If you knew you couldn’t fail, what would you do? • What potential barriers exist to prevent you from achieving your goals? • What solutions can you identify to remove these barriers? • Who can help you?

How to grow your employability skills Get help and advice with CVs and cover letters Arrange mock interviews with employers / lecturers / others Complete a skills audit to address gaps Participate in confidence building activities Spend time in a business or organisation on placement Shadow a professional person in their job Researching the jobs market Practise presentation skills Look for opportunities and network as much as possible

Things you can do to develop your employability skills include: Student Union Student Committee / forum Work Placement Student Society Academic Staff Internships volunteering Student Ambassador Part time job Sport Team LRC/ASC Join networks, e. g. Linked. In Careers Events ICE Additional vocational quals Student member of professional body

General career planning websites

Thank you for listening. Any questions? For Careers advice please make an appointment via Grofar