EMPLOYER LED WORKSHOPS Peter Ireland Head of Careers Service University of Salford

Foundations Creative Writing undergraduate students – option within English degree History of heavy use of careers guidance services, especially 45 minute careers interviews Ad hoc careers input to the degree – typically Your degree – what next

Project Outline Idea was to get professional speakers in to provide talks for students Added twist was to support the students to organise these events themselves Partnership between Careers Service, students and academic colleagues

Project Activity Meeting with Creative Writing tutors Agreed roles and responsibilities Meeting to sell project to students Students recruited to organise events April – novelist Zahid Hussain (The Curry Mile) presented on how he got published, how he writes and his career – Q&A plus reading from his book Follow up with Careers Adviser to assess benefits

Issues Student engagement – only ran one event as students dropped out of the activity (one dropped out of the University!) Most speakers will charge – especially if they are writers Monitoring students progress and helping them through University systems eg room bookings

Benefits 40+ staff and students heard an inspirational speaker talk about his career Students reported that they enjoyed mixing with teaching staff informally and that they benefited from hearing about their experiences as writers Partnership between academic staff and Careers Service enhanced – this is an experience that we are building on Skill development for organisers

What Would We Do Differently? Start earlier in the academic year Recruit teams of students rather than individuals More explicitly link to PDP/curriculum Provide more ongoing support to students