Employability Booster

Each Employability Booster programme is tailored to the needs of the individual university in terms of:

• Dates and duration
• Level of facilitation by Learning Dynamics
• Collection of feedback on skills and competences developed

The programme is designed to be used by Careers and Employability teams to boost the employability of both Undergraduate and Masters level students across faculties.  The programme is used for first-year students to get them to focus on building employability at the start of their university life as well as final year students needing to add something extra to their CV in order to secure a future career role.

The programme is designed to be used by Careers and Employability teams to boost the employability of both Undergraduate and Masters level students across faculties.  The programme is used for first-year students to get them to focus on building employability at the start of their university life as well as final year students needing to add something extra to their CV in order to secure a future career role.

Spotting opportunities

Creativity

Vision

Valuing ideas

Ethical and sustainable thinking

Self-awareness and self-efficacy

Motivation & perseverance

Mobilising resources

Financial & economic literacy

Mobilising others

Learning through experience

Working with others

Coping with ambiguity, uncertainty and risk

Planning and management/time management

Taking the initiative

The ability to start up, initiate, execute and close down projects in the corporate, public and third sector and to contribute knowledge and know-how when working in project teams.

The ability to come up with an idea for an enterprise and to create a business model that demonstrates the viability and sustainability of the enterprise.

The ability to make operational decisions for a start-up enterprise and to read operational and financial statements that reflect decisions and performance.

The ability to pitch a start-up enterprise concept to potential investors.

The ability to work in, sometimes virtual, teams and to contribute to team performance.

Students are encouraged to keep a learning review throughout the programme.  A scoring system is built into all four phases of each of the simulations so that it can be run competitively, where appropriate, with teams working together to produce the best scores for each individual phase and best combined score.

Bristol University One-Day Freshers Week Event – Exploring Enterprise

This one-day event was designed to inspire students to consider setting up their own business and to ensure that those who do are more likely to build a sustainable business.

Working in teams, students were asked to:

• Come up with creative and innovative ideas for business start-ups.
• Turn these ideas into workable business models.
• Run a start-up business for its first 3 months
• Pitch their business concept to potential investors.

Dundee University Four-Day Project Management Experience

This four-day event was first launched in 2020 when students were unable to go out on placements.  It was designed to give students the know-how and experience of running a major business project. Using PRINCE2 frameworks and tools in order to build their employability skills.

Working in teams, students were asked to:

Start-up a complex project

Initiate (create a detailed plan) for the project

Experience running the project

Close down and apply the learning from the project

Westminster BAME Summer Employability Booster University

This programme used both the Project Management Experience and the Exploring Enterprise Experience to boost the employability of BAME students at the University of Westminster.  The programme was funded by the Quentin Hogg Foundation.