I have spent most of today auditing the library and updating leaflets that are available to any student about specific careers. From a student point of view, I didn’t realise that the Careers Centre has its own library containing a wealth of useful information on work experience, voluntary work and any career your thinking of pursuing. You don’t even need to book an appointment, all you have to do is sign yourself in on the front desk and you are free to look around!

Angela Corbett, Humanities Student, Glyndwr University

The afteroon saw the Work Experience Officers, Lucy Jones and Sam Forde, taking the groups through the best ways to approach Application Forms and Job Searching.

There were probably a lot of tired students after a packed day yesterday, but we hope they have at least started to think about what they need to do to succeed out there in the graduate market. Good luck and well done everyone on your hard work!

Andrea Hilditch, Careers Adviser

 Glyndŵr Careers Centre hosted the first Glynspired Volunteering and Employability Fair on 24^th February in the Edward Llwyd Centre as part of National Student Volunteering and National Student Employment Week. With over 20 organisations in attendance all looking for volunteers, and a drop-in Careers Clinic by the Glyndŵr Careers Advisers, the event organisers Gareth Williams (Volunteering Officer) and Lucy Jones (Work Experience Officer) were thrilled with the response from over 250 students who attended.

“We had organisations such as National Trust, Wales Probation Trust, WCVA, North East Wales Wildlife AVOW, DW Sports, Dynamic, Oxfam, RNLI, Red Cross and many more.

We know that these organisations love to work with our students and the main point of hosting such an event was to highlight to our students the importance of volunteering and work experience and to really inspire them to get involved in events with the local community and also to see the benefit when it comes to making graduate applications. We were very happy with the students’ participation and we even had some of our own Glyndŵr Volunteers – Alan Whitfield, Walter Snowdon, Karolina Mackoviak, Juliata Jau, Rohit Gupta – helping out with the running of the event, so we’d like to thank them especially.”

Karen Lennox, Head of Careers, said,

“This event clearly showed that our students really have the enthusiasm for volunteering and for adding to their student experience. The Careers Centre has been able to make connections for many students by collaborating with such organisations, and this success is something that we will continue to build on.”

“This year the emphasis was on “Managing Change” so it was really useful to speak to companies about how we can help them manage change by potentially using the expertise of students or graduates as part of the GO Wales programme by employing them in placements, or even by applying for GO Wales Graduate Training and Development Funding to help them to train or upskill and therefore retain existing graduate staff.”

We’re also proud to say that one of our placements is currently working with employer Momentwm Cyf to help organise and produce the Spotlight North Wales event, so we were really pleased to see that the event was very successful!

For further information about the GO Wales programme, please contact the Careers team on 01978 293240.

Alice Murray, Gareth Williams and Sir David Attenborough

Glyndwr Volunteers were invited to part in the BioBlitz Communicate Conference 2010, organised by Bristol Natural History Consortium, which saw delegates from the natural history world come together to share knowledge and best practice about global issues.

Alice Murray, 2^nd year FdA Business (Festival and Events Management) student, was one of the students who has previously helped to organise and plan the Flintshire Bioblitz event this year, which was a significant volunteering 1-day project. She subsequently attended the Communicate Conference, along with Gareth Williams, Glyndwr Careers Centre Volunteering Officer, and is testament to how volunteering can add to your skills and experience. Gareth said,

“I was asked by BNHC to facilitate a group discussion on ‘The University Perspective – what role do universities assume? What are the limitations and benefits to linking up with external organisations?’  This was a great opportunity for us to meet other university volunteers and we were even lucky enough to meet BBC wildlife expert Sir David Attenborough after his live TV interview. So it just shows that even by volunteering, you don’t know who you’re going to meet next!”

Glyndwr Volunteers have now been invited by BNHC to stage a student BioBlitz in Wrexham, either on campus or partnering with local/national organisation in 2011. For further information (for staff or students) about getting involved in volunteering projects at Glyndwr, please contact Gareth at g.a.williams@glyndwr.ac.uk

NASES (National Association of Student Employment Services) have asked Sam Forde, Glyndwr Careers Centre Work Experience Officer, to represent them at the National Student Employment Association conference held in Cincinnati, Ohio on 18-21 October. Sam will be attending along with a representative from Wolverhampton University Jobshop as both are members of NASES Executive Committee. In addition to the conference Sam will also be attending their two day Employment Essentials training days.

We’re following her at: http://nases.org.uk/content/199925/nases_events/nsea_blog/

During their second year of study the students were selected and trained as Aim Higher Associates and successfully delivered a series of workshops with young people in order to encourage them to gain access to higher education. Aim Higher is a national scheme where participants work as mentors to pupils ages 14-19 within secondary schools.

Sarah and Angela have proven to be excellent role models and ambassadors for Glyndŵr and as a result of the experience they gained with Aim Higher they have both now secured employment as Play Workers with Ysgol Derwen in Higher Kinnerton working with the children in the busy After School Club.

They know that gaining this experience alongside the achievement of their degree from Glyndŵr will help them achieve their future career aims. Staff from Aim Higher have been so impressed with the quality of Glyndŵr students they are now offering Associate roles to five more students this academic year.

If you feel that you would like to get involved in this developmental opportunity and you have the professional attitude that Aim Higher are looking for then please contact the Glyndŵr University Work Experience Officer Lucy Jones on l.r.jones@glyndwr.ac.uk