About me!

I have a keen interest in Further Education, Higher Education and young people. Being a young person myself, I understand the dilemma of trying to decide what to do with your future. I attended WSFC and I found the careers department very helpful in giving guidance and organising work experience, so that I could try and decide what I wanted to do. While at university, I gained a keen interest in careers through voluntary and paid positions at The University of Worcester. I was employed by the careers department to create the jobs bulletin. This involved speaking to local businesses to find out about vacancies, creating the document, distributing it, advertising it on social media, and analysing uptake. I have found that students are very keen to take advice from a person who has first-hand knowledge and experience.




I undertook the Worcester Award to boost my employability, at the University of Worcester. I thoroughly enjoyed the award and I wrote a piece about the award as The Worcester Award Ambassador. I have attended events, at the university, to engage with students and promote the benefits of the award. I wrote a careers blog, for the careers department, about how to write a good CV, how to development relevant skills and how to apply for jobs (http://lifeofanundergrad.blogspot.co.uk/). This has now moved to my own personal blog.  My employability articles have also been posted by The Guardian and Targetjobs. (http://www.theguardian.com/education/mortarboard/2013/nov/29/students-employability-league-tables).



I have also been developing 'career videos' and info-graphics, which will assist first year students in understanding all of the employability options available to them at The University of Worcester. (http://www.powtoon.com/p/e607kIPvxtF/).

I currently work for Archway Academy, as an Education Mentor. The school is for young people who have been excluded from PRU and have SEN. I teach on a 1:1 basis, functional skills and SETPD. From starting with my pupil, she has gone from having no qualifications to gaining qualifications in English and Math.

I am a member of the CDI, studying towards a PG Cert in Coaching and Mentoring and NVQ L4 IAG.
In my spare time, I am a Youth Ambassador for YEUK. YEUK is an organisation that help young people action change. I have received funding from O2 Think Big, to organise an employability event. This event had ten different organisations, in attendance, and multiple elements, including: a panel, team work exercise, and employer presentations. I received positive feedback from the young people and organisations. From this, I have been nominated for a BVSC award and the Queen’s Young Leader Award. I am now putting in a bid for the second tier of funding.

I am passionate about employability and helping young people find the right careers guidance. In the future, I would like to be a careers advisor, in higher education, and have my own employability workshop business.

YEUK Midlands Event

I decided to hold a follow-up event, to the Youth Friendly MP Campaign, in Worcester on the 10^th October, at the University of Worcester. The aim of the event was to bring together organisations, and young people together, to discuss 'issues' in Worcestershire. The event was varied and contained lots of different elements. I did this, so that the young people had lots of different options. There was something for everyone!

 

The event started with a presentation, by myself, about YEUK. This was followed by a presentation from HSBC UK about their graduate programmes. This was targeted at the graduates, in the room. A panel element followed, so that young people could ask a variety of panellists questions. The panel included: Robin Walker MP, Alex Quang from O2 Think Big, Craig Bateman from Worcestershire Youth Council, Matt....from Worcestershire Hub, Tom...from the YMCA, Andreea...a linguistic consultant, and Alex from HSBC UK. I tried to make the panel as varied as possible, so the young people could ask a variety of questions on issues such as: volunteering, project funding, politics, minimum wage etc. The young people were a little reluctant to ask questions, but I had a few prepared! A team building exercise followed. The aim of this activity was to promote teamwork and to develop presentation skills. The young people had five minutes to make an animal out of materials and to come up with a one minute pitch. They then pitched to the panel, to decide on prize winners. The evening ended with free-networking, free food and drink and music.

 

With the help of Sylvia, I applied to O2 Think Big funding of £300. If you think creatively, then this is more than enough money. I got the venue for free (as it is my university). I spent £80 on prizes and materials for the team building exercise. I also spent £65 on food and £65 on advertising materials. I am not very good at creating advertising materials, so this is why I paid for materials, but I would like to develop this skill for future events. I would also advise on ordering less food than people that sign up for the event. 65 people signed up, 45 attended, and I ordered food for 35 people.

 

I thought the event went really well. I was nervous about attendance, but it was good! I got positive feedback, from the panellists, and some pointers that I could work on. Some of these included: explaining the relevance of each event element better and possibly making the networking more structured.

 

In the future, I would like to be able to apply for the next tier of O2 Think Big funding. With this, I would like to set up CV workshops.

 

My advice would be to just go for it! Try to partner with student societies and ask if you can have things for free in return for doing something. Make your event varied and free food will always get young people there!!

 

This month's A.C.E Magazine

YEUK - My O2 Think Big Event- Week Countdown

With just over a week to go, the event is coming together nicely. All stall holders and panel members have been confirmed. It is just about the marketing now, to get as many young people as possible to the event.

Here is one form of marketing, that I have used.

http://www.yeuk.org.uk/yeuk-ambassadors-lead-tackling-youth-unemployment/

Of course social media has been fundamental. I have also used the student newspaper, created relationships with other societies and contacted the local press.