
🚀 Your Flying Start newsletter: championing social mobility, empowering you in your journey

Helping you get to where you want to be when you graduate
For some students, their passion for research and a specific academic discipline is such that a PhD is an obvious choice as part of their career planning, however, for others it is just one possible option, prompting further questions.
Having an insight into what life is like as a post-graduate researcher is a crucial first step. Without any doubt, you will need to love learning, have a hunger for research, and be a self-starter happy to work for long periods independently. Advice from vitae.ac.uk is to be ‘really clear on your motivations for doing a doctorate, and that it [will be] a positive career step.’
To grad scheme, or not to grad scheme; a question many of us have asked. Differing from graduate jobs, graduate schemes are training programmes run by large companies, offering a body of graduates a firm foothold in an industry. Keep reading to see if a grad scheme is suited to you and get application tips.
Ethan Osborn-Clarke is a final year Geography BSc student planning to teach Geography in secondary schools in London once he graduates, following the Teach First pathway. Other options for getting into teaching exist too – see links further down for details. We caught up with Ethan to discuss why he’s choosing this career path.
Teaching is a popular career choice for many graduates, for various reasons: job satisfaction, security, or to inspire the next generation.
There are many reasons I‘m going into teaching – all confirmed by my primary and secondary observation days and too numerous to go through individually. To try and summarise, I’ve put them into four main areas: fulfilment, differentiation, progression and challenge, giving a glimpse into my rationale for going into teaching.
The Bright Network Internship Experience is a free virtual internship which is open to everyone over the age of 18.
The scheme provides school leavers, current university students, and recent graduates with a valuable insight into one of 8 key sectors of the UK job market, giving participants the opportunity to connect with and learn from a range of leading employers.
Handily, there are an unlimited number of online places available on each of the 8 different internship paths available, and since every experience is fully online, they can be completed from anywhere in the world.
Whichever pathway you choose, your experience can be completed either as a three-day ‘live’ course, or in an ‘on demand’ format, which you can complete at your own pace. This means it’s really easy to fit the experience around your other commitments over the summer.
The TARGETjobs Undergraduate of the Year Awards is an annual competition to celebrate the best undergraduates in the UK. Each award is partnered with a graduate recruiter who offers an amazing prize for the winner, including a paid internship, trips abroad, and other exclusive opportunities.
To become finalists, students first had to complete an application, including essay-style questions and online tests. Once passing that stage, students were either invited to a telephone interview or to take part in an assessment centre.
We caught up with our six nominees to hear more about their journeys to becoming finalists. (more…)
Whilst worldwide travel might not be on the agenda right now, it’s still possible to make intercultural connections, through learning and engaging, right here.
Discovering what the world has to offer starts with tapping into local opportunities that could lead to big adventures in the future. (more…)