With the Bristol PLUS Award deadline fast approaching in just over two weeks, noon Friday 7 June, we thought it a great opportunity to showcase the experiences of three PLUS Achievers from this year.
Yunfei, Katie, and Ana Lucia all spoke about their core experience of partaking in the PLUS Award at our Outstanding PLUS and PLUS Celebration event at the Bristol Beacon to a great reception from our audience. Not only was their skill development and pure passion for what they accomplished clear, but the authenticity in which they spoke speaks to their achievements.
At the Careers Service we work in partnership with external organisations to bring a range of experiences to our students, and we like to think our brilliant students give a lot back too!
This year we have been working closely with Tutor the Nation, who have taken part in City Challenges and run mock interviews for our students as part of becoming an endorsing organisation for the Bristol PLUS Award.
With just one week to go, Bristol Mentors is still open for applications for home UK students returning for study in 2024/25.
Bristol Mentors provides successful student applicants with an alumni mentor working in the sector/industry they are aiming to break into.
Mentorship can be an enriching experience and our student mentees are always happy to tell us more about the range of benefits they have gained whilst on the programme.
At this time of year, you might be thinking about how to make the most of your summer break. It can be an ideal time to get work experience before the next academic year begins.
Work experience not only looks good on your CV or LinkedIn profile, it can also help you:
Gain a competitive edge when applying for graduate jobs or further study. It can also be a requirement for some careers.
Develop skills and confidence, gain insights, and build your professional network.
Decide whether a career area is right for you.
But where to start? It may feel like many internship deadlines have passed. Or perhaps you want to know: “how am I supposed to get experience without previous experience?” It can feel like employers ask for lots of skills and experiences to apply for their internships.
The IKEEP programme offers students the opportunity to gain intrapreneurial training and engage with industry on knowledge exchange projects through a paid team placement with an SME.
Three undergraduates, Jack, (Economics and Management), Olivia (History and Spanish) and Kristina (Politics) recently completed one of our projects with Bristol Hub.
We spoke to them about what they have gained from the experience.
Meet the distinguished panel of judges who selected the winners of this year’s Outstanding PLUS Awards.
The OPA celebrates Bristol PLUS Award students who have made a significant change or impact in their PLUS Award activity. There are eight award categories, with just one winner per category.
Bristol PLUS Award achiever and Outstanding PLUS Award nominee Violet Allmark achieved her 70 hours of PLUS activity through working as a freelance drag performer and taking on a student leadership role as chair of Bristol Theatre Department Society InterACT.
Violet was a freelance performer with drag cabaret ‘The House of Savalon’ during their residency at award-winning Bristol LGBTQ+ venue Queenshilling, proud sponsors of Bristol University LGBTQ+ society.
Violet performing as Etta Boy, at The House of Savalon
‘My freelance work, as part of the House of Savalon’s three month residency at Queenshilling, gave me the opportunity to develop my artistic costume-making practice, and improve my time management and organisational skills. I spent hours preparing for my acts: sourcing, making and editing my own costumes, props and audio.
In addition, the regular feedback sessions enhanced my personal reflection skills on my own performances as well as my communication skills through constructive feedback
The House of Savalon at the Queen Shilling
Kickstarting my drag career this year has led to such amazing performance opportunities, such as performing last week before Divina de Campo at the Creative Youth Network Station and even internationally in Woody’s Bar Toronto, where I was tipped during my performance by a queen recently announced to be on Season 3 of Canada Drag Race and I was even in the presence of the show’s ‘version’ of Ru Paul: Brook Lynn Hytes.’
Violet also developed new skills and experience by chairing the committee of InterAct, the theatre department’s society.
Hi, I’m Emily! I am a third-year law student and I recently completed a project placement with PyTerra, after following a two-week Intrapreneurial course with IKEEP. I heard about the IKEEP training programme in the Careers Service newsletter, and it seemed like a great way to get interesting work experience. I got offered a 4-week work placement at PyTerra, which is a local ‘FinTech’ (Financial Technology) start-up and app where investors, developers, grant givers and corporates can collaborate to make low carbon housing projects feasible. Essentially, PyTerra’s mission is to generate finance for aggregated low-carbon projects. (more…)
