Gimmie a Job

  

Has it come to this? 

Employability, employability, employability. The University of Kent is nuts about the word and rightly so. The Blair government had a proclaimed target of 50% of school leavers attending higher education. Where I agree with the principle of free and accessible education for all as a principle, I do not necessarily believe that having a figures based target such as 50% was necessarily the right way to go about achieving this aim. I personally believe that University is great for many but for many it isnt the only definition of success and for some its just simply not for them. All who are willing and capable of studying at Degree level should be able to do so but I wonder whether we can pluck this figure out of the air and make a policy based upon it.

However, the point is that many more people have a degree now than ever before. I recently heard someone say that nowadays having a masters' degree is the equivolent to having a degree thirty years ago. The University of Kent's strategy is certainly focussed towards the growth of postgraduate numbers, particularly oversees students and as was to be expected, following the rise in undergraduate tuition fees to £9,000 a rise in postgraduate fees has fallen upon us. From my perspective this must partly be due to the need to maintain the perception of the value and quality of a postgraduate degree. However, support for postgraduates financially is not as robust as it is for undergraduates and often postgraduates are forced to hold down a part time job (particuarly challenging at postgraduate level especially for a highly condensed one-year taught course) or take out a personal loan.

Impressive Woolf Lecture Theatre near Postgraduate
accommodation at the Canterbury Campus

Whether you are considering a postgraduate degree or not its fair to say that if you are 21, freshly graduated with no work experience you are going to find it harder to walk into a job then our parents' generation did thirty years ago. So what are you going to do about it? My answer to this question is to take your fate into your own hands... get out there and develop your skills through volunteering. There are many ways you could do this including going directly to charitable organsations or community groups in the local area or you can pop up to the activities centre above essentials and speak to Steph our volunteering co-ordinator or myself about the wide range of opportunities available.

Another way that thousands of students at the University of Kent are making themselves more employable is by being involved in a society, CSR, Inquire or a student led volunteer group. Many people get involved in these projects because they have a passion for them not necessarily thinking about how they are passively developing the skills and knowledge that could be the clincher in that first job interview.

The University runs a scheme offering intern ships and other
rewards for students who have gone the extra mile 

In February during the sabbatical elections I was fortunate enough to be able to meet with Karl Leydecker the Dean of Humanities a few months esarlier I had been informed by Sam O'Hana (English School rep) of a possible opportunity. Humanities had expressed an interest in organising sessions for students during the third term which could develop employability skills for students. As any society will tell you funds are hard to come by and sponsors are not very forthcoming in these austere times. So Sam set up a meeting for us all.

What Happened Next?

We proposed that the leaders of these sessions could be students sharing their own skills and experience gained through extra-curricular activities on campus and in-turn further developing thier own skills through presentation and training. Each student led group whether society or volunteering group would lead a 90 minute session open to all students and be funded £150 by the faculty of Humanities towards their yearly activities. There were nine sessions planned with a trial total of £3,000 funding from Humanities. The first sessions were held last week with Kent Technical Services organising two techinical sessions; one in lighting and one in sound for musical gigs. Feedback was excellent and their hands-on session was very popular. Considering the specialist nature of the sessions the up-take was also pleasing.

Sessions are ongoing to the end of term on Wednesdays , they are free and everyone is welcome. If you would like to reserve yourself a place you can e-mail standout@kent.ac.uk. Be sure to check out the programme below as there are some exciting options to chose from and you can join as many sessions as you like. You'll also be helping to put up between £1,500 to £3,000 back into the coffers of societies to be spent on student activities.

Whatever stage of your degree you are at its worth checking out the wealth of knowledge available through the Careers advisory service provided by the University.

Why does everything take so long and what are you doing about it?

"Kent Student chilling in Templeman
pre-final exams" 

So this week has been a challenging one. In case it has managed to escape any of you at Kent this is exam term  and the stress levels are running high. For final year students in particular there are very high pressures to perform well in the assessments at the end of the year. These stress points are further impacted by the cost of living in Canterbury particularly leading to students having to work at their part-time jobs rather than revise because they simply need to be able to eat! On top of this many students are questioning more that ever whether simply having a degree is going to make them stand-out in the employment market. This means that many students have taken the initiative in getting involved with the Union and volunteering. There are many ways to get stuck in including standing in one of the part-time officer positions and representing students in a range of ways to joining a sports team, society or volunteer group committee or simply using the Kent Union volunteer portal to get engaged in some community or one-off volunteering opportunities.

When I was studying for my degree I was committed to the 40 hours a week of study that was asked of me (honest!) and was fortunate in a sense that the nature of my course meant that a considerably high number of these hours were spent in workshops and seminars as well as rehearsals. I spent a lot of time on campus. On top of this I held down between one and three jobs during my four year course working about 20 hours a week. This is not uncommon now for students with many working between 10 and 20 hours in term-time, many of which are employed by the university and 300 are employed by Kent Union alone. On top of this I was an engaged volunteer doing between 10 and 20 hours a week making my week about 80 hours long and I don't think that I was the exception to the rule. Gone are the days where students received a grant to study that covered them over the holiday periods. Not everyone's parents can afford to pay their rent for them either!

This week I feel like I caught a 'stress flare' with many of the feedback and volunteer fora I chair expressing their frustration at how difficult it is to organise events on campus. This is a frustration I remember well, routinely coming up to the student activities office (now my office) to come and complain to the VP-activities (now my role) about not having the resources I needed to fulfil my role as president of a society. The difficulty of booking a room, struggling to hire equipment, not being able to find a member of Kent Union staff to help me or locate my VP Activities when I needed him as well as not having a whole lot of money to do all of these things!

"Students too busy to complain often forced to
send pets to my office on their behalf"

On top of this I believe that Kent Union's systems are flawed, out-dated, being bureaucratic and not 'user-centric' with volunteers often having to find a member of staff who is ill or in a meeting, on lunch, at a conference, doesn't work out of termtime etc. Many of our systems are still offline where other unions are moving their operations online with societies being able to make orders and payments online and this being authorised at the Union end. This has been recognised but is a big thing to change, the student union provides an incredible range of facilities from the nursery to competing sports clubs, dance groups to the advice centre, a radio station, a paper, technical services, not to mention representation and democracy, training, volunteer programmes, community link-ups, retail, bars and a nightclub (across two campuses!) the course rep system, awards nights and contributes to a massive part of the student experience here at Kent. Yet it is expected to do it on a shoestring budget with a skeleton staff. Ultimately, we need more staff, specifically I feel we need focus on societies and volunteering but improvements are happening and we are moving forward.

So what am I/We doing about it?  

Open diary- You can come into the student activities office to speak to me (above essentials) and if I'm not there you will be able to ask at reception for where I am, what I'm doing and when I'll be back.

Staff Support- Kent Union have taken on a new member of activities staff this year Amy, she's been supporting societies and sports here this year. We have an employability coordinator Suzanne who has been developing the Employability toolkit.We will also be bringing a new member of staff onto the team to support Steph Hughes in our work with Volunteers on and off campus.

Systems- Part of my ongoing activities campaign is to review the systems we use (such as the cash reclaim form) and see what of it we can move online for better access.

"Schedule for Third Term training sessions"

Societies Funding- I have focussed a lot of my energy on justifying an increase to the societies development fund a pot of cash societies can apply to for additional funding for an event. This year it was increased from £2,000 to £4,000 and next year the budget to be approved by the board of Trustees will be £5,000 the first increase in at least 5 years. I've also set up one off fundraising opportunities in the form of stand-out training sessions. Run by student groups and funded by the faculty of Humanities societies can 'earn' £150 for their society by showing how their activity can help members to develop employability skills.   

Ents Forum- I run a forum where you can offer feedback on Kent Union's licenced trade (Rutherford Bar, Woody's the Venue and the Attic) attendees benefit from free entry to the Venue/ attic once a week by arrangement. We meet every other Thursday at 4pm in the student activities centre. All are welcome. Facebook group here 

Grant Funding- Proposals will be going to Societies Federation this coming Tuesday at 6pm in RLT1 which will give a range of options for societies to vote upon. The suggested systems would increase grant funding for societies overall and give more to smaller groups that need it most.

"Venue in Full swing"

Online Elections: This year has been the first year where society elections have been able to be held online. Societies can still maintain their old traditions around elections but now their votes are cast online which means there is no need for a returning officer and more autonomy is given to societies. There will also be a Q and A sessions at the societies federation meeting about the system. 

Kent Tech: Kent Union Technical Services are a group of volunteers working with Kent Union in order to provide technical support and equipment at low cost to student groups on campus wanting to hold events. This year a new member of staff has been hired Joff Taylor and a brand new group of volunteers who have been nominated for an award at The Kent Union Awards. This year they've gone from strength to strength and next year anticipate more of the same.  

Training: Next Year 70 key volunteers will be trained and awarded with an award in volunteer management. I believe this will be instrumental in helping students to become more self-reliant as far as organising volunteers is concerned (read more here). I am committed to renovating the societies training introducing a new multi-strand training day where volunteers will be able to chose the training that they feel is most relevant to the volunteering that they will be doing as well as including the core material that everyone needs. I am planning future blogs with videos showing volunteers how to do key things like complete risk assessments and organise events. I am planning on re-writing the out-dated and slightly ugly societies handbook which has been out of circulation for a while and helping societies to help themselves.

I hope this helps. Please send any suggestions to union-activities@kent.ac.uk  

         

       




  

Exciting Developmental Developments for Kent Union Volunteers

Exciting Developmental Developments for Kent Union Volunteers

I feel that one of the most exciting and rewarding aspects of the work I do and also the most important is the development of our volunteers. Students at the University of Kent this year have already contributed over 70,000 hours through the K.S.C.V awards scheme which is a volunteering certificate awarded by Kent Union and the University of Kent, at its most advanced level this takes the form of a 15 credit module which can become part of your degree or can be taken for extra credit. The award covers a wide range of volunteering skills and types which like all volunteering has the power to develop the individual but also has the benefit of developing an academic understanding of the place that volunteering holds in society.

We all love Bursting Bubbles....

An interesting study was held dispelling some of the misconceptions about young people and volunteering called 'Bursting the Bubble.' I found it very useful and there are some real surprises such as the disparity between the assumptions that employers make about young people's reasons for volunteering and the reasons that young people gave. If you would like to read it you can check it out here http://tinyurl.com/6jgq4or. I highly recommend it.


The 'platinum award' has been offered at the University of Kent for some years, although it has recently been shortened from an 18 month course to a 12 month course making it more accessible for volunteers who start mid-way through their University experience. However, there are several exciting new developments that Kent Union has made for volunteers for the year 2012-2013 including the introduction of the new certificate in volunteer management. This new course will be made available to approximately 100 key volunteers representing students at Kent's Canterbury and Medway campuses with a curriculum including:

4 modules (1 compulsory plus 3 optional):

1.      Promote volunteering to potential and actual volunteers (compulsory) - ASSIGNMENT

2.      Provide leadership and direction for own area of responsibility  (optional) (include content around project management in the training)

3.      Build support and manage a team  (optional) (include content around conflict management in the training)

4.      Manage the motivation of volunteers (optional) - ASSIGNMENT

In order to achieve qualification:

·         Attend at least 2 mentoring meetings

·         Attend all 4 of the training days

·         Complete 2 assignments

·         Wednesday 13 - Friday 15 June, inclusive (modules 1-3)

·         EITHER Friday 5 or Saturday 13 October (module 4)    

Kent Union is A registered
investor in Volunteers

This is an exciting opportunity with a cash value of hundred of pounds, for volunteers working with teams of volunteers and as a professional level qualification is going to be invaluable on the CV for anyone who completes the programme.


Two of the groups that will be but through this training are the Volunteer committees at Canterbury and Medway who champion community and campus volunteering, monitor, develop and champion the KSCV volunteering certificate and help to distribute funding to any volunteering group that exist.  Societies Federation Committee who hold a similar role for societies at the Canterbury Campus also being responsible for working on issues such as facilities and policy surrounding societies will also be able to benefit from this training.


Nominations for these positions are open now! If you would like more information about any of the roles please contact:


Medway Volunteering Committee (Kent University Students only) David d.coldwell@kent.ac.uk 
Canterbury Volunteering Committee Steph s.l.j.hughes@kent.ac.uk
Canterbury Societies Federation Committee Union-activities@kent.ac.uk

Many other roles exist in Representation and Democracy and there are still some vacant positions so drop Mel Sharman an e-mail if you are interested. As I will also be going on this training programme I am looking forward to meeting the new volunteer leaders (and managers) of Kent Union!