English Subject Centre
BROADENING CAREER HORIZONS – A CAREERS EVENT FOR
ENGLISH STUDENTS
Melanie Billingham
University of Birmingham
April 2007
The English Subject Centre
Royal Holloway, University of London
Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX
Tel 01784 443221 Fax 01784 470684
Email esc@rhul.ac.uk
www.english.heacademy.ac.uk
Enhancing Careers Services to English Students
It is a widespread view that English graduates are not good at ‘selling’ themselves to
employers. This is not to say that they lack the skills, attributes and enthusiasm that
employers seek: research conducted by the English Subject Centre shows that
English graduates are doing as well as, if not better than, most other graduates three
to four years after graduation.
Employers value the skills in critical thinking, communication and analysis that English
graduates usually possess, but our students tend to underestimate the relevance of
these skills to the workplace. (The ‘student profiles’ project undertaken by the Subject
Centre produced a template which helps students link the skills listed in the English
Benchmark Statement to those typically sought by employers.) English students need
assistance and encouragement in articulating, in a way that is interesting and relevant
to employers, the skills and attributes they have developed whilst studying and
engaging in extra-curricular activity.
For this reason, the English Subject Centre has sponsored small projects in Careers
Services which tailor materials or events specifically to the needs of English students.
About ten projects were undertaken, covering such activities as interview technique
workshops, alumni presentations, web-based resources and careers open-days.
Details of all the projects can be found on our website at:
http://www.english.heacademy.ac.uk/explore/projects/archive/careers/careers6.php .
This document is a report on one of these projects.
The English Subject Centre
Royal Holloway, University of London
Egham, Surrey TW20 OEX
T. 01784 443221
esc@rhul.ac.uk
www.english.heacademy.ac.uk
BROADENING CAREER HORIZONS – A CAREERS EVENT FOR
ENGLISH STUDENTS
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Working closely with the English department we ran an alumni event, focussed mainly
on first and second year undergraduates, featuring speakers from a range of
occupational areas. The theme of the event was ‘broadening career horizons’.
BENEFITS TO ENGLISH STUDENTS
The event benefited English students in a number of ways. Through listening to and
having the opportunity to talk to English graduates, students:
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Were encouraged to consider their career options at an earlier stage (our key
target audience being first and second years)
Had the opportunity to hear about areas they may previously not have
considered (a prime example being the finance industry, where some students
thought they were not eligible to apply due to having a non-numerical
background)
Were encouraged to think about developing skills to aid their employability
throughout their degree course
Realised that the skills and knowledge they are gaining from their English
studies can be applied in a variety of working environments
OUTLINE PLAN OF ACTIVITES
The event took place in the second week of March 2007. We were joined by 5
speakers, each of whom gave a short presentation about their roles, how they got
there and how they were using the skills gained from their English degree. This was
followed by a question and answer session to the panel of speakers. In the final
session, speakers were given their own space in the room and students were able to
chat to them informally whether individually or in small groups.
PROJECT REPORT
The report on this project is attached
CONTACT DETAILS
Melanie Billingham
Careers Adviser
University of Birmingham
m.billingham@bham.ac.uk
PROJECT REPORT
BROADENING CAREER HORIZONS
CAREERS EVENT FOR ENGLISH STUDENTS
INTRODUCTION
Broadening Career Horizons was an afternoon event specifically for students of
English which included:
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five speakers from different occupational areas (all English graduates)
a panel question and answer session
the opportunity to speak to representatives on an informal basis individually or
in small groups
Our main aim was to encourage English students to consider career ideas not
immediately related to their subject area by showing how previous English graduates
were building successful careers and how the skills they developed throughout their
degree were helping them.
The speakers were:
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HR Manager, Marks & Spencer
Forensic Accountant, KPMG
Grants Officer, The Big Lottery Fund
Solicitor, Baker & McKenzie
Trainee Tax Consultant, Deloitte
PREPARATION FOR THE EVENT
Following a planning meeting with our contact in the English Department in
September, initial actions were agreed and practical arrangements, such as room and
catering bookings, were made.
During the Autumn term, the main task was securing speakers for the event. Despite
having strong relationships with most large graduate recruiters and a proactive Alumni
Office, this was not as easy as we had hoped. Whilst we had a ‘wish list’ of the type of
sectors we wanted represented and the criteria that speakers should meet, it quickly
became clear that an element of flexibility would be required. Once speakers had
agreed to take part, we kept in regular contact with them to ensure that any initial
enthusiasm didn’t wear off! Two speakers did pull out quite close to the event;
however we had over-booked in anticipation of this happening, and were still left with
five high-calibre speakers from a good range of occupational sectors.
Publicity materials which required professional design and printing services were also
arranged in the Autumn term.
Activities in the Spring term focussed mainly on raising awareness of the event with
the English student population, and preparing materials for the day itself.
MARKETING OF THE EVENT
The event was advertised widely to students in the English department through a
variety of media, including:
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Newsletters sent via e-mail by the English department to individual students
Lecture shouts by tutors
Careers Centre website
On the English Careers section of WebCT (our web learning environment)
Plasma screen messages in the Arts building
A sandwich board at the entrance to the building, and posters on notice boards
Professionally produced bookmarks, distributed to all students via the School
Office
Some of the above promotion was focussed solely on the Broadening Career
Horizons event (for example, the bookmarks). Other materials advised students of this
event and other activities which may be of particular interest to them, such as the
Media & Communications Careers Day which took place shortly before. By doing this,
we were able to present Broadening Career Horizons as part of a programme of
events specifically geared towards English students’ needs, and improve awareness
of careers activities generally.
EVALUATION
A total of 47 students attended the event, and 23 completed and returned evaluation
forms. It is important to bear in mind the event was targeted at non-traditional career
areas for English students, and would not have appealed to those who were already
set on pursuing other career paths. Therefore, although we would have liked a larger
audience, it was a respectable turnout for this type of event.
The students found some speakers more useful/informative than others, depending
upon their own individual interests. Overall, however, the feedback was positive with
the majority of presentations being rated as ‘very useful/informative’ or ‘fairly
useful/informative’ by over 80% of respondents.
Comments, where students felt improvements could be made, included:
‘Include a broader range of businesses’
‘More publicity on which speakers are coming’
‘I just wasn’t particularly interested in any of the jobs’
‘Hold it at the start of the academic year’
In response to some of these comments:
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It would have been great to include more speakers from different areas.
However, to some extent, we were restricted by who was willing and available
to take part on the day. Gaining speakers’ commitment is no easy task!
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Speakers’ profiles were published on the Careers Centre website as soon as
details were available. For all speakers, with the exception of one, details of
their background, employer and current role were available at least two weeks
in advance of the event.
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Timing is key and worth bearing in mind for future events. Spring term is
probably more appropriate for first and second years, but possibly too late in
the year for final years (who accounted for 34% of attendees)
Anecdotal evidence was positive; a number of students spoke to their English tutor
after the event and said how much they had enjoyed it.
In addition, we found out that one PhD student managed to secure some work
shadowing experience with the HR manager at Marks & Spencer. A notoriously hard
area to gain experience in, we were delighted that someone took the initiative and
used networking to its best advantage.
SUMMARY
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Finding speakers can be a bigger task than expected. We found the most
successful way of securing speakers was through our employer contacts and
through personal relationships. Flexibility in terms of which sectors we wanted
represented was vital.
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Timing of the event is important; not just in terms of when in the academic year
but when in the week. We selected a day and time when most English students
were available, however, there were still some clashes with seminar groups
which were booked subsequently.
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Buy-in from academic staff is key, particularly in relation to encouraging
students to attend. Our students stated that e-mails from the English
department were the main way they found out about the event.
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Costs for the event were not excessive. However, if we were to do the same
again with no funding available, we would need to seek another form of
funding/sponsorship to cover costs
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In order to gain more lasting value, speakers’ presentations and a summary of
students’ feedback has been made available to all English students via WebCT.
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Holding the event alongside other events aimed specifically at Humanities and
English students significantly raised the profile of the Careers Centre amongst
the students
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From the Careers Centre point of view, we made some valuable contacts for
the future. All of the speakers expressed an interest in helping out at other
events, and many are still in touch with graduates from their course which could
widen our networks even further.
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All in all, a successful event!