{"id":1815,"date":"2020-12-09T10:57:31","date_gmt":"2020-12-09T10:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/?p=1815"},"modified":"2025-07-16T14:14:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T13:14:10","slug":"employability-events-and-town-hall-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/2020\/12\/09\/employability-events-and-town-hall-meetings\/","title":{"rendered":"Employability Events and Town Hall meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris Napier, Teaching Assistant <\/strong><\/h4>\n

School of Computing<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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\"Screenshot<\/h4>\n

What did you do?<\/h4>\n

As the academic lead for employability, I organised a\u00a0weeks\u2019 worth\u00a0of\u00a0sessions with employers from industry\u00a0for\u00a0both\u00a0graduate placement positions and\u00a0to\u00a0give students the opportunity to learn more about a specific sector, organisation and kind of the opportunities that they have for employment.<\/p>\n

All students in the School of Computing were invited. This includes Undergraduate, Postgraduate Taught and Postgraduate Research courses. It wasn’t tailored to any specific one.<\/p>\n

Attendees: over 400 students attend the events in total.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

\n

Who is involved?<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

Chris Napier,\u00a0Teaching Assistant, Computing.<\/p>\n

Ravandeep\u00a0Virdee,\u00a0final year\u00a0undergraduate student.<\/p>\n

\n

How did you do it?<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

Using available data on where students are going for placements and graduate positions, we could identify the kind of the key sectors within computer science as well as the organisations where students typically go to.<\/p>\n

Being in contact with students who have graduated, I was able to approach them if they were willing to get involved by giving a talk on how they felt the transition from being a student at Newcastle to being in employment had been. How that worked, how it helped and then maybe come back and give an overview of their experiences and the opportunities available.<\/p>\n

Current\u00a0students can\u00a0then see the connection between what they are learning and the working environment.<\/p>\n

Due to\u00a0students being in different time zones, they were scheduled sessions so all the sessions were recorded and students who\u00a0were not\u00a0able to attend could view them as well afterwards.<\/p>\n

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Why did you do it?<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

To improve the employability prospects of our students as well as give them some confidence. Due to covid a lot of students believe there aren’t many opportunities out there. There are opportunities. It’s just a bit more difficult to get them. It’s very much getting employers to come in and increase their confidence more than anything and saying \u201cwe are still recruiting\u201d. They are just doing it slightly earlier, but it’s still going on.<\/p>\n

Another reason for it was to give students an opportunity to make contacts themselves. A few of those students are now contacting our graduates and asking for help with it that side.<\/p>\n

Bringing our\u00a0alumni and\u00a0current\u00a0students together.<\/p>\n

Students who are currently on placement and students who have just recently graduated are going to be coming back next year, so students can see a direction they could go in.<\/p>\n

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Does it work and Student\u00a0<\/span>Voice<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

Around\u00a080 to 90 students attend\u00a0the majority of\u00a0the events, so we had quite a lot of students attend them.<\/p>\n

The employers who came\u00a0into\u00a0the\u00a0sessions were\u00a0also\u00a0very happy. Especially\u00a0with the\u00a0types of\u00a0questions they were\u00a0being\u00a0asked. They have received applications from our students now for placement and graduate roles. Which was\u00a0the main priority\u00a0of the session,\u00a0to try and help students see that there\u00a0are\u00a0opportunities out there.<\/p>\n

Quotes from students:<\/p>\n

\u201cChris thank you for the great talks. Microsoft was the best industry talk that I’ve ever had it was\u00a0<\/span>really good<\/span>\u00a0and useful. You’re the best!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cEmployability week was good quality and good advice was given for stage 2\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cStage 1 students have reported good feedback on the Q and A sessions\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe CV sessions were good very well received by students, lots of positive feedback.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Graduate Framework<\/h4>\n

This approach develops the following attributes:<\/p>\n