By Dr Eleni Koutsogeorgou, Diya Ganguly
Monday, August 1, 2022
The London campus has held the first of its kind Health and Social Care Student's Employability Day. We celebrated the day with various events in Winchester House, London Campus to connect our CertHE Health and Social Care (HSC) and BSc Health and Social Care students with the local employers and professional trainers who could assist them on their journeys toward employment.
The key purpose behind arranging this employability day was to support students studying the health and social care course to find, sustain, and progress in work. Different trainings and workshops were delivered throughout the day, including workshops on compelling CV writing, working with homeless and vulnerable people, and the importance of creating a supportive working environment for mental healthcare practitioners.
The event also included stands offering career support and advice from employers, apprenticeship providers, charities, special education social entrepreneurs and from our in-house Careers Service, Students Union and London Admissions departments.
The students were welcomed with a gift bag. Throughout the day students had the opportunity to meet guest speakers, human resource professionals and recruitment agencies to find out how they can support with either finding suitable employment opportunities or getting back into work with appropriate skills.
The day started with training sessions. In the first half of the day, Ashaka Marshall, who has over ten years of experience working as a Human Resources and Employee Relations Manager, delivered a workshop on how to present compelling CVs. Ashaka discussed his professional journey, and his current employment situation with Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust and facilitated insightful training on how to create powerful digital CVs.
We also had a session running parallel by Gabriella Russo, who currently has her training agency and has worked in the recruitment industry, bringing a wealth of public, private, voluntary and community sector experience. Gabriella’s session focused on helping students to understand the different interview techniques (e.g. STAR-Situation, Task, Action, Result techniques), mock-interview role-plays and the strategies to showcase skills, knowledge and experience to employers.
Around lunchtime, students had the opportunity to meet and greet employers at stands, offering career support and advice.
During the post-lunch session students had the opportunity to attend more subject-specific workshops. We had trainers from different works of life.
For instance, we had Maria Chatzikou, who works as a Housing Officer for the Brighton and Hove City Council. Maria’s session-focused on explaining the existing systems and processes in place for working with homeless and vulnerable people in the UK, as well as sharing her professional journey and tips for finding a job in the field after graduation.
Simultaneously, a session on the life of a mental health practitioner was delivered by Marcia Rice. Marcia is a Mental Health Trainer and consultant for Change4life and AT & S consultancy Services. Her session focused on safeguarding measures for working with vulnerable people and in the mental health or forensic sectors. She also listed the risks and potential challenges a mental health practitioner encounters on a day-to-day basis and the legal policies and systems available in the UK for creating a supportive work environment.
Overall, the level of engagement and participation from CertHE HSC and BSc HSC students was remarkable. The students benefitted from this excellent opportunity to speak to representatives from various industries, supporting them with their career aspirations.
Feedback on the event from students and staff:
In total, 134 students of the CertHE HSC and BSc HSC programmes attended on 12th July 2022 the event of the Health and Social Care Students’ Employability Day. Students and teaching staff that attended the event provided feedback in writing on a feedback form distributed during the workshops, which included both fixed and open-ended questions.
Students scored their overall satisfaction with their experience from the Health and Social Care Students’ Employability Day with an average score of 7.3 out of 10 (with 10 being the highest score).
Students appeared to have enjoyed all sessions organised, including the workshops and discussion with employers and services.
Comments from students:
“The workshops were well organised” (BSc HSC L5 T2 student)
“I most enjoyed about how to present myself on compelling CV – it was great to be a part of this workshop, learned a lot” (BSc HSC L5 T1 student)
“I think that the event was very informative and gives a better direction in what area students can go with this degree” (BSc HSC L6 T3 student)
“Very interesting for students who can confuse and do not know how to choose a profession/job” (BSc HSC L6 T3 student)
“Live of a mental health – really interesting and helpful and the lecturer was very good (CertHE HSC T3GH2 student)
“The programme was well-organised” (CertHE HSC T1GH2 student)
“Very educative, beneficial” (BSc HSC L6 T2 student)
“It was very inspiring” (CertHE HSC T2GH2 student)
“Overall everything was well-present and find out more information related to HSC. Everything was good” (CertHE HSC T1GH2 student)
“It was very informative, I learned a lot” (CertHE HSC T2GH2 student).
Comments from teaching staff:
Lecturers who attended the event enjoyed the most:
“Talking to students about their future employability goals / area of working” (Lecturer-UWTSD London campus)
“The knowledge of presenters and different teaching styles (one more student-centred and the other more teacher-centred)” (Lecturer-UWTSD London campus)
“Schedule of the workshops to cater different groups with different start times” (Lecturer-UWTSD London campus).
Concluding remarks:
We appreciate the comments and suggestions for improvements from students’ and staff on the event, which the HSC Programme Managers have recorded and taken into consideration for the organisation of future similar events.
It was exciting to see high level of participation from students when meeting employers and professionals and discussing their future career goals and aspirations.
We look forward to organise more similar employability and career events for helping students become career-ready. We wish to sincerely express our gratitude to the Careers Service and all the London campus team members for making this event a success.
Note: This initiative was part of the UWTSD's Students' Experience Enhancement Fund (SEEF).
If you would like to discuss further your careers options, please contact Maristela Parfitt, Careers Advisor.
E-mail: Maristela.Parfitt@uwtsd.ac.uk