The latest from the Careers and Employabililty T

1. NEWSLETTER
February 2012
Are you using LinkedIn for jobhunting?
You probably use Facebook almost every day, even several times a day.
But have you developed your LinkedIn presence yet? LinkedIn is
considered to be the professional social networking website with more
than 6 million registered users in the UK and as such it allows you to
connect to employers and gain insights into their businesses. It is the
place to network in 2012.
A recent employers’ survey in the USA showed that 89% of the employers
questioned will use social networking for recruiting (Jobvite Social
Recruiting Survey 2011). Of these 86.6% use LinkedIn and 55.3% use
Facebook.
So why don’t you start by creating your LinkedIn Profile. Make sure it is
effective and corresponds to your objectives:
 is it for jobhunting?
 is it for networking?
 is it to attract more clients to your freelance services?
We have created a simple LinkedIn profile checklist for you to refer to and
you can also look at the fictional student profile of Sam Routledge,
created by the University of Manchester.
Once you have your profile ready, connect to as many of your family,
friends, classmates, colleague as possible. This will increase the visibility
of your LinkedIn presence.
Search and join groups. These might be local groups (Gloucestershire) or
our Alumni group - University of Gloucestershire Alumni Network group
which has more than 450 active members. You can also join sector
groups - our team belongs to UK HE Careers Professionals and others
related to careers guidance and information.
Seek recommendations – if recommendations from your tutor or employer
appear in your LinkedIn profile, then others will know that you are a useful
contact.
If you want to learn more, log into LinkedIn and see their tutorials:
http://learn.linkedin.com/students/step-1/
Your options....
EGGS
Employability Fair and
Workshops – coming soon
IT jobs on GSW
Starting with LinkedIn
Teaching Fair - feedback
Did you miss our
EGGS introductory
workshop on 26
January? You can
book for our next one:
27 February in TC102,
Park Campus. This will
give you a chance to
find out more about the
scheme:
www.bookwhen.com/ca
reers

2. Employability Fair
Don’t miss the unmissable UniversityEmployability Fair!
Multi-purpose hall at Park Campus on Wednesday 22nd
February
from 10.30 a.m. – 2.30 p.m.
If you are looking for a part-time job, a volunteering opportunity, an
internship, a placement or a graduate job – you mustn’t miss the
Employability Fair! Representatives from a wide range of organisations
will be joining us to talk to students about the opportunities they have to
offer. If you are in Level 4 or 5, come along to investigate how you can
develop your employability and acquire invaluable experience to add to
your CV. And if this is your final year, make a head-start with your
networking and meet local and national employers of graduates who can
give you useful advice – and up-to-the-minute information on upcoming
vacancies and how to apply.
Companies large and small, from GCHQ to County Community Projects
are looking forward to meeting you, so set aside an hour of your time to
join in and find out what you could do to enhance your employability!
Buzzing Atmosphere at the Teaching Fair
More than 250 students from our student teachers (BEd Primary, PGCE
Primary and PGCE Secondary) attended the annual Teaching Fair. The
event, jointly organised by the Careers and Employability team together
with the Education Department, provided a unique opportunity to students
to meet employers within the sector and to start exploring positively their
career options.
Those who attended the fair were able to discuss issues like housing,
supply work, the involvement of agencies in the recruitment process, the
challenges of the current labour market and of course have a friendly chat
to our Careers Consultants who were giving advice on applications. The
week following the fair many students arranged individual career
meetings to discuss further their job applications.
Students’ comments about the fair:
‘Very good timing! Just before placement but not in the midst of
assignments!’
‘Lovely people who were happy to answer questions’
Look out for future employability events by staying in touch with us on our
website or on Facebook.
Workshops
Due to popular demand our
Careers Consultants will be
running the following workshops:
 Interview Preparation
Wednesday 8 February
from 1.15 -2.45pm at
Park, TC105B.
 CV
Wednesday 15
February, 1.15 -
2.45pm at FCH,
HC203A
 CV
Thursday 16 February,
1.15 - 2.45pm at
Oxstalls, LC203A
To book your place, go to
www.bookwhen.com/careers -
and hurry up the places are
limited.
JobShop CV
competitions
The JobShop is running two CV
competitions to find the best paper
or video CV. They are open for
entries now, and closing on
Monday 6 February.
The first prize for both
competitions is £100 and a week's
work experience with a top local
employer! For your chance to win,
all you need to do is submit either
your paper CV or a short (2-3
minutes long) video CV to the
JobShop.
For full details on entry conditions
and tips for what the judges will be
looking for, please visit the
JobShop website.
Don't forget, for help or tips on
tweaking your CV you can contact
us!
Coming SOON!

3. `
Your options.....
If you are still wondering what your career options are and what you are
going to do after Uni, why not start by exploring your values, interests and
aspirations. Our Destinations® resource is exclusively available to
students at the University of Gloucestershire and it can help you with this.
(Please note to access Destinations you will need your student number
and password). There are also three freely available online resources :
Prospects Planner , Target Careers Report, Windmills Interactive and the
recently launched Career Test
Generate ideas by reading what options are open to you with your
degree.
The Prospects website contains over 450 Occupational Profiles — which
you can read online or in our Information room and which will tell you
more about what specific jobs entail, what the entry requirements are and
even what salary you could expect to earn.
EGGS
The Employable Gloucestershire Graduate Scheme – familiarly known as
EGGS is open to all students of the University and is designed to give
formal recognition to all your many and varied achievements outside your
academic programme. Such achievements are valued by graduate
employers because they show that you are someone who is keen to
explore your potential, develop your skills, take on responsibility,
contribute to your community and reach your personal goals. Participation
in the EGG scheme will enable you gather evidence of your achievements
and reflect upon the skills you have gained through them – then have
your achievements verified by the University.
You will then be able to include information about your EGG certificate in
your CV and in application forms for postgraduate study or employment
and talk persuasively about what you have done in interviews. If the
activity you have been involved in has been University-based, you will
also be able to include your EGG in your Higher Education Achievement
Report – your formal record of all that you have achieved through your
university career.
The EGG scheme is designed to be very flexible, enabling you to decide
which EGG best matches with your activities and achievements. You can
start working towards an EGG whenever you like and you can work
towards more than one if you are keen! Detailed information about how
the scheme works is included on our Moodle site, but we also recommend
that you attend a workshop to talk to a member of the Careers and
Employability team, to ask questions, to find out what other students are
doing and to plan your EGG strategy!
Popular resources
 Destinations® -
contains all the
resources you need to
plan your career,
including videos,
interactive tools,
downloads and
answers to frequently
asked careers
questions.
 Useful Downloads
– here you can
download our useful
guides on job hunting
and applications,
vacancies websites
by sectorand watch
videos
 Gradsouthwest –
for the latest jobs and
opportunities,notified
to us.
 Prospects - the
officialgraduate
careers website
packed with
information about
jobs, sectors,
postgraduate study
and more

4. IT Jobs on Gradsouthwest
There is currently a vast number of IT related vacancies across the South
West. A small selection of these great opportunities are listed below:
 Graduate Software Engineer - Gresham Computing Plc – Bristol
 Customer Support Engineer - EPA Cloud – Plymouth
 IT & Change Management Graduate Programme - Nationwide
Building Society – Swindon
 Graduate Software Engineers - True Clarity Ltd – Bristol
To view any of the jobs above and more just click on the link and login or
register.
Career Meetings
Book your individual career meeting on:
FCH– Monday, Tuesday and Friday mornings, every afternoon, apart
from Friday
Park – Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning
Oxstalls – Thursday afternoon
To book:
 Call 01242 714795
 Chat to us
Come in to FCH and see us
Short Poem
Competition
Sheldrake Press, a publish
company based in London, are
running a competition for a
short poem in a Ruthless
Rhyme style (for more
information see this link
http://ruthlessrhymes.com/).
The winner will have their work
published online in their soon-
to-be –launched blog and if
you are a graduate or a final
year student, you might be
offered an opportunity of six-
month internships with
Sheldrake Press in 2012. To
take part you must submit your
poem and a current CV (if you
would like to be considered for
the internship) by Sunday 4
March 2012.
To find out more about the
style of the poem and the
terms of the competition,
please visit Sheldrake Press
website.
People’sPlayAwardWritingCompetition
Have you considered writing for theatre?
The People’s Theatre are looking for new writers for theatre in their
biannual completion and giving a £2000 awards to the winner.
The winning writer will also have a play produced by the People’s
Theatre. The deadline for submission is 31 May 2012 and you will need
to download the brief.