1. The UEL Professional Development Award

2. The PDA – what is it?
A flexible employability development programme offering you certification for your involvement in employability-activities. The award will:
Prepare you for the challenges of work
Help you develop the skills and attributes employers seek in addition to a degree
Help you become familiar with the recruitment process
Sell you to employers more effectively
Demonstrate your commitment to professional development.

3. Why do it? Employers increasingly want more than a degree
Grade Inflation
Good grades do not necessarily mean good employees
They want the skills to perform in the workplace
They want the right attitude
You need to stand out!
And it’s free!

4. Why an award?
Employers have recognised such awards as meaningful and desirable e.g. DofE

5. What is involved?
The award consists of four streams for which you will have to collect evidence
Skills
Experience
Networking
Self Assessment and Self Marketing

6. Skills Development
Skills can be developed formally and informally. CaSE will be running half day training sessions in November, December, March and June to assist you gain credits for skills development. Sessions include:
Communication Skills
Presentation Skills
Building Confidence
Negotiation Skills
Management and Leadership
The Likeability Factor
Networking Skills
Commercial Awareness
Handling Difficult People and Situations
Workplace Etiquette

7. Experience The most important element!
You will need to collect evidence from at least 35
hours of experience. This could include:
Part-time work
Work Placement
Internship
Volunteering
Work Shadowing
Students’ Union/Students’ Rep. activities
Working as a LAA or a LAM
Careers Champion – in development

8. Networking
You need to provide at least two examples of where you have networked with professionals. This could be:
Attending a Careers Fair
Attending a Professional Bodies/Employer Event on campus e.g. Employability Week
Having a Mentor
Creating a LinkedIn profile

9. Self Assessment and Self Marketing
Self Assessment can include:
Taking a Psychometric Test or Personality Assessment
Assessing your career preferences
Producing an up to date CV
Producing a Personal Development Plan
Completing a Competency Based Online Assessment (Gradscore – going live soon!)

10. Reflective Logs You will be provided with:
Blank Reflective Logs for each stream
Sample Reflective Logs indicating how you need to complete them

11. How much work is needed?
Certain elements of the award are compulsory accounting for 75% of mark:
5 Work Experience Logs
2 Skills Development Logs
2 Networking Logs
Production of CV
Production of Personal Development Plan
To gain the remaining 25% you need to complete another 5 activities of your choice e.g. a 3rd Skills Development activity, a Psychometric Test, create a LinkedIn profile or put forward your own suggestion!

12. Your Portfolio
You will need to collate your logs- at least 10- along with your CV, Personal Development Plan, test results, evidence of attendance at skills sessions in a portfolio. There are two options:
Download the logs from CaSE website and submit electronically once completed
Create a Portfolio either through Mahara or your own system

13. Mahara
Mahara is UEL’s chosen e-portfolio system available through Moodle under the MyPortfolio tab. It will allow you to:
Create a portfolio where you can store your evidence and more
Join the UEL PDA Group and share your experience with other users
Demonstrate to employers your creative talents!

14. What support is available?
Everyone signing up to the PDA will be assigned to the relevant Careers Consultant for support with undertaking the award including advice on activities and completing the logs
Support for those choosing to use Mahara will be available from the IT Services team who will run weekly drop in sessions to help you compile your portfolio. User manuals are also available online.
A sample portfolio with sample completed logs is available through Mahara- mine!

15. Why do it now?
CaSE has a full calendar of events for the new academic year starting now!
These include:
Skills Academy Sessions
Employer Events
Networking Opportunities
Access to experience through our work experience and volunteering teams
External careers fairs – check out
You still have time to be part of the first graduation ceremony in December!

16. Graduation Ceremony
Everyone completing their logs to a satisfactory standard will receive the award and graduate at a special ceremony which will be held twice a year – December and June
Additional awards will be offered to students completing their portfolio to a particularly high standard – 5 separate awards and one overall winner of “Most Employable Student/Graduate 2015”

17. Want to sign up?
Contact Andrea at:

18. Questions?