Enhance your Employability with Club 21
"Work experience is currently the main vehicle for students to develop employability skills"*
*Source: Enhancing Employability, Recognising Diversity-Universities UK and CSU
Improve your Employability
As a graduate, you will need to be able to prove that you have certain skills and proficiencies and that you are able to recognise and reflect upon them effectively. While your degree is vital to your prospects in the graduate employment market, you will also need to demonstrate that you are able to bring other skills and abilities to the workplace. Work experience is an excellent way to gain these skills so that you are able to offer a graduate employer more than an academic qualification- graduate attributes are relevant to everyone, so you should start developing and recording yours today.
Club 21 organisations can offer thorough and relevant work experience, providing you with opportunities to develop a range of skills and competencies which will improve your CV and enhance your chances of securing graduate employment. Throughout your placement you will receive support from dedicated Club 21 staff as well as from an organisation-based supervisor or mentor, and you will be provided with a Club 21 Placement Learning Diary. The Learning Diary is an excellent opportunity to record your skills development and tasks which you have completed; this is a great tool to which you can refer back when answering scenario-based questions on graduate level application forms and at interviews.
The website TARGETjobs gives further information and advice on the role work experience and internships play in CV building and career planning.
"At the start of any Club 21 placement we fill out a placement diary and this focuses on skills we feel we have pre-placement and on the development of them throughout and then finishes by asking us to note how we feel we have improved them and also any new skills we have acquired throughout our placement." Laura Kerrigan, Club 21 placement student 2008.