1. Philip Sewell
School of Computing Year 2
Employability Team
Employability Project -
External Employability/Careers Research
Overview
My research project was to look into and analyse the
university’s internal and external employability resources.
This includes:
Internal/STARS
External Resources
Case Study
Conclusion & Recommendations
Examples of external
websites include
RateMyPlacement,
GradCracker and
TargetJobs.
There is often a wider
range of vacancies
advertised and is more
community based -
users are able to talk
about their
experiences and make
reviews.
External sites often
provide extra informa-
tion about employers
that you may not find
via the careers service
I have interviewed a student from the University of
Birmingham in order to understand the opinions of
other student’s from their internal careers service:
 Website aesthetics matter
 Regular updates of sites improve
usability
 Both internal and external
resources have their advantages
and disadvantages
The internal resources used by students has approximately 4400 employers and
1000 advertised vacancies. The STARS website is being supported by around 7
full-time equivalents and offers employer integration (accessibility to post
vacancies etc). As a result, students benefit from regular email updates.
(Above) STARS: www.stars.leeds.ac.uk
(Above) UoB “CareersConnect”
(Above) Current
Android App
 Slick user interface
 Used a combination of internal and external
resources
 Many did not use external resources to find
placements, but rather review and rate
 Review and analysis of the STARS website
 External research of resources
 Website popularity analysis
I can then conduct a recommendation on behalf of
students as to what improvements can be made.
 Changes to STARS - better
filtering, more regular updates,
integration of other services
 Encapsulate VLE into STARS for a
“one place for everything”
 Integration of social media
 Improved mobile compatibility
Advantages/Disadvantages:
 Easy access for students, vast collection of employability information
 Clunky filters, not aesthetically pleasing, no collaboration with VLE