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  

         

       




  

Scene Change at the Gulbenkian Theatre


For today's blog I'd like to take the opportunity to talk about the Gulbenkian and some of the recent changes that have come about since September.

The Gulbenkian Theatre, a fantastic facility for students

At the University of Kent, Students are fortunate to have a theatre and cinema on campus which is owned and operated by the University this has the distinct advantage of meaning that the views, opinions and tastes of students are at the forefront of the mission of the complex. Sadly, in my opinion in my time as a student studying at the Canterbury campus the Gulbenkian has not shown evidence of these commitments in its service in the way that I would like to have seen. In the recent past a tiny proportion of the audience would be made up of students and these were either at the healthily supported stand-up comedy nights (which have always been popular among students at the Canterbury campus and surely nationwide) or by arts students who to all intents and purposes are already engaged with the world of art and culture.The Gulbenkian was failing to engage the young thirsty-minded population of students on its very doorstep which I believe is not only a missed business-opportunity but guttingly is a dis-service to students. I believe that an arts complex on a University Campus has a duty to the students that walk through; and sadly sometimes past its doors to nurture cultural engagement especially as for some individuals this may indeed be their first visit to a theatre or cinema that doesn't just show blockbuster hits and high impact West-end musicals.

T:24 Drama And Theatre society at
Canterbury Campus, Nuts of course, but we love them. 

Having been employed, studied, volunteered and performed at the Gulbenkian like I've had quite a relationship with the place over my 5 years here and so felt quite passionately when I came into office last summer that some changes were due.

At this time there was an interim manager Mary-Ann Lelean for a period of several months and I met with her to discuss some of the major issues facing successful student engagement in the Gulbenkian including; the cost of hiring the theatre for societies such as T:24 Theatre society and Kent Dance, prices of the bar, cinema and theatre, the absence of any volunteering opportunities and the lack of any student dialogue or feedback. I remember turning up to the meeting with a list of items I wanted to raise and potential battles I expected to have, Mary-Ann was also armed with a list and as she listened to my suggestions she ticket them off on her almost identical list of intended improvements. This thought Yogi Bear ... was encouraging.

"Under Construction" The New Colyer Fergusson Building

Sometime between that meeting and September I had the pleasure of meeting Alan Fox and Liz Moran the two new permanent managers of the Gulbenkian who not only shared my vision for a more student-focussed and engaging campus arts-centre but had their own exciting big ideas... and a proven track record including a successful MacRobert at the University of Stirling. Now is a time of development at the Gulbenkian with the University's new Colyer Fergusson concert hall being built next door posing a world of exciting new arts opportunities for students and the local community and a facility I am keen to get my teeth into on behalf of current and future students at Kent crying out for quality extra-curricular facilities.

New Look Film and theatre
Programmes

As part of my priority  'Gulbenkian Campaign' I have worked closely with the new team seeing cinema prices plummet to £4 for students and £3.50 for student Gulbenkian Club members and theatre prices dropping to £5 (although this is dependant on negotiation with performers.) Having seen the figures for student attendance at the Cinema, there has been impressive growth in student numbers attending. The price for hiring the theatre for performance has been set to a low flat fee for student groups making it much more accessible for putting on performance.

Tiny Furniture: Free to feedback meeting attendees 

Most excitingly, I am working with Jake Taylor (Technical Manager) to set up a six-week rolling  volunteer placement scheme which will expose students to real first hand technical, front of house and arts centre marketing which will have formative feedback and offer students a mentor as well as being fully integrated with the K.S.C.V scheme awarded by the Union and University.

Finally, the Gulbenkian will be planning its first users' meeting open to all (dependant on room capacity!) at 4pm on May 30th at the Gulbenkian which will be an opportunity to offer suggestions and brainstorm with the team for future development at the arts centre. You are welcome even if you aren't a previous user. This will be followed by a viewing of Tiny Furniture a film about what one does after completing an arts degree! (Ironic?) or the Funny side the stand-up comedy night if you Prefer.

Above, the Salsa Society Performing at Worldfest in 2011 Winning "Best Choreography"


 All in all I'm very excited about the direction that the facility is taking. Although I'm proud of what I consider has been one of my most significant successes so far this year, much credit is due to the breath of fresh air that is the staff now working there.