Skills Enhancement Programme

Posted on: 4 January 2021 in Connections in action

With many students unable to take internships & placements during 2020, due to the onset of the global Covid-19 pandemic, it was important for Careers & Employability to devise & support new ways for students to gain valuable real-world insights & experiences.

Background

The spring and summer periods would usually see large numbers of students take short-term internships and begin year-long placements, respectively, but the sudden shift of many businesses to home-working, as well as the economic pressures, led to many of the usual opportunities being cancelled and – in some extreme cases – some offers even being withdrawn.  In response to this, a cross-departmental working group set about creating the new Skills Enhancement Programme during the summer. 

Overview

Initially offered to all previously placement-eligible students – and later to all final-years – the Skills Enhancement Programme launched in the autumn.  It offered students the opportunity to embark on a series of Careers & Employability-guided group sessions, workshops, and reflective activities, both alongside & either side of a six-week group project provided by a third-party organisations.  The Employer Connections Team were tasked with promoting the Programme to organisations, inviting project proposals and supporting their development where required.  The Team worked closely with approximately 100 high-profile recruiters, local SMEs and charitable organisations.  Following scoping discussions with a range of interested parties, the Employer Connections Team successful secured the participation of 12 organisations for the first Skills Enhancement Programme. 

Projects

With some of the organisations offering scalable projects that could accommodate multiple student groups, the Skills Enhancement Programme was ultimately able to provide valuable experiences to approximately 60 students.  These students came from all three of the University’s academic faculties, and from a wide range of degree disciplines.  The projects themselves were also varied – some were comprehensive research projects looking to solve problems or propose new ideas, whilst others required the development of marketing strategies or challenged students to come up fundraising activities.  The unusual circumstances of 2020 meant that all students would be working on projects remotely as part of their groups (and reporting to both Careers  & Employability and organisational contacts), necessitating the harness & development of excellent communications skills alongside adaptability, commercial-awareness, and project-specific attributes. 

Feedback

On competition of the Skills Enhancement Programme, students expressed appreciation at the opportunity to gain the valuable insights & experiences that their projects offered them, and their reflective logs demonstrated that they recognised enhancements in terms of knowledge, skills, and confidence – all will serve them well as they search & apply for graduate opportunities during their final years of study.  Feedback from participating organisations was similarly positive, with all survey respondents indicating that the Skills Enhancement Projects exceeded their expectations and that they’d be interested in participating in future editions.  Amongst the comments that demonstrated that they’d found participating to be enjoyable, interesting, and valuable, were the following: 

• “the students [we] had were extremely talented and did a tremendous job on the project that was set”
• “The group were great – really engaged, interested, motivated, and a pleasure to work with”
• “It was very well organised and I was kept informed prior and throughout”
• “It has been such a boost to our charity to have the students spread awareness as well as raise an incredible amount of money”.

Join us!

The Skills Enhancement Programme is just one of the many ways in which organisations have already been able to engage with the University and its students & graduates so far during a highly unusual 2020-21 academic year.  If your organisation is interested in discussing or promoting authentic experiences & project proposals, short-term internships, year-long placements, graduate opportunities, or any other ways in which you feel we could help, please do get in touch with the Employer Connections Team.

Find out more

Read about two projects that were part of the Skills Enhancement Programme on our blogs on Kidscan and Santander Universities. 

Hear from our students!

Benaiah- My Experience on the Skills Enhancement Programme

Sophie- My Experience on the Skills Enhancement Programme