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| Mark Yates (left), Careers Coordinator |
Now
that half of the academic year has passed, it’s a good time to reflect on what
you are learning, how this will help with your future career, and what will
make you stand out from the crowd. There are several things to take into
consideration...
How could you use your
knowledge and skills relating to your course?
You will have picked up a lot of knowledge and skills on
your course that you may want to use in a future career. If you haven’t started already, it’s probably
a good time to start building links with possible employers that you might
consider working for in the future. Find out about any work experience or
internships that will be available in the coming summer, and ensure you swap contact
details.
It’s not just about
knowing facts and figures, but about your transferable skills and motivation
too!
Employers tend to recruit staff that are motivated and keen
to learn. They are also looking out for
key transferable skills; communication, team work, problem solving and showing
initiative, alongside some commercial awareness – how can your current studies
and experience demonstrate these? If you need help with identifying what skills
you have, ask!
Do you want to use
your course in a related career?
Having now had some experience of studying the course, do
you want to use it to find a directly related career? Or is it just a stepping
stone to go in a different direction? If
you want to talk this through, you can make an appointment with the careers
department who will be happy to help: careers@writtle.ac.uk
Are you planning on
studying another course after your current course?
Have you enjoyed studying?
Are there parts of the course that you would like to develop more in-depth
knowledge about? After your current
studies there are several progression options for you to consider. You could
look at another college course, a degree course or even postgraduate
study! All the skills and knowledge you
have gained will help you in the next level of study.
What work experience
or commercial awareness have you developed?
Regardless of the qualification you are studying, employers
really like to see that you’ve got some relevant work experience – so now would
be a great time to start looking for a work placement for the summer break. It
will be a good chance to put into practise what you’ve learnt at College, and
also give you something else that employers really value – commercial
awareness. What’s commercial
awareness? It’s about understanding how
businesses work, and how your role in the organisation will help it run as best
as possible. By gaining some experience
you can also start to build up your awareness of labour market information,
i.e. what opportunities are out there that you might be interested in,
and how to access them!
Next steps…..
After some thinking about your course and how you might want
to use it in the future, now comes the ‘planning’ part, regardless of whether
you have a definite goal in mind or not. Make sure your CV and social media profiles
are up to date and professional looking. If you would like support
and guidance in writing a CV, developing your social media profiles or you would
like to discuss work experience options and/or further study options, please
email the Careers department on careers@writtle.ac.uk. It’s never too early to start planning, and
never too late to actually do something about your future – it’s just a case of
developing the ‘career planning’ skills to make the most of your
opportunities.
Written by Mark Yates
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