City Challenges – Your opportunity to create lasting change in the community!

Students have been engaging in a variety of problem-solving activities to help local charities in the Bristol area. So far this year, students have worked with local charities including Brigstowe, Talk Club, and St Werburgh’s City Farm.

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City Challenges: Students Provide Solutions to Real-life Problems

 

The City Challenges are an exclusive programme of events which provides you with the opportunity to engage with Bristol’s charity sector, gain informal work experience, and develop your skills through working on real life challenges posed by local community organisations. 

The first City Challenge involved piloting a problem-solving session focusing on reducing HIV stigma within the medical community, which was supported by the Brigstowe charity and the Careers Service Community Engagement team. 

A total of 10 students took part, developing their teamwork, communication, and decision-making skills to create presentations in which they gave details of how Brigstowe could approach raising awareness in the medical community of unfair and untrue beliefs around people living with HIV.  

This City Challenge allowed students to explore their interest in community outreach as well as learn about how they can be aware of and actively combat their own biases around their attitudes to people who are living with HIV. They explored issues such as how General Practitioners and students can destigmatise their work when dealing with people living with HIV. Brigstowe will now be able to use these ideas for possible future funding bids, marketing campaigns and training sessions. 

The next City Challenge will be based ask the question ‘How can we encourage male university students to talk about their mental health?’ and students will be working with Talk Club and the Community Engagement team. This challenge will be eligible for the Bristol PLUS Award and held on Wednesday 27 October from 11.30am to 5pm and you can sign up on myopportunities. 

Extra careers support for LGBTQ+ students

At the Careers Service we know LGBTQ+ students can face additional challenges to career thinking. This may include facing discrimination in recruitment practices, and identifying inclusive and supportive workplaces.

To help level the playing field, we’ve compiled the best support and opportunities into one handy document over on mycareer.

We also send out live opportunities in our weekly Flying Start bulletin. Sign up to Flying Start now!

Here’s a taster of the support on offer…

Mentoring & Employability Events

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“I am thankful that I started thinking about careers in first year. It gave me more time to explore different options”

 It can be tempting to put off thinking about what you want to do when you graduate, especially when you are busy with university work. Chloe Henshaw, (BA English), shares how she started thinking about careers in her first year, and went from having no idea what she wanted to do to securing a place on the Civil Service Fast Stream.  (more…)

The Foundership scheme

New for Summer 2021! The Foundership scheme is open to students and recent graduates who want to explore their start-up ideas. Formerly the Enternship scheme, the Basecamp Enterprise team have revamped the programme for this year, giving student entrepreneurs the opportunity to explore their options over Summer break. 

The four-week scheme equips founders with £1,000 funding, ringfenced networking and workshop opportunities, and allows you to work from the comfort of your own home. 

Sound like something you may be interested in? Here is what you can get out of the scheme this Summer:

Goal setting-

On submitting an application, we will ask you to set out what you would like to achieve over the four weeks. This could vary between wanting to undertake some research on your target market to building a prototype. Setting out what you intend to do will mean you can hold yourself accountable, it will motivate you to strive to succeed and will help you break down your overarching goals into tangible, achievable chunks. Successful applicants will submit a weekly report to Basecamp outlining what they achieved each week.  (more…)

Careers in Psychology Q&A Event – key takeaways

Gelsica, Psychology of Education MSc student

Hi! I’m Gelsica, a Psychology of Education MSc student at Bristol. It was an Erasmus year spent working with young offenders in France which really ignited my passion for Psychology, and my career goal is to work in cognitive behavioural therapy with young children and adolescents.

I recently went to an online Careers in Psychology Q&A event, organised by the School of Education and the Careers Service. We heard from professional speakers working in a range of roles within Psychology, including Educational, Clinical, Counselling, Academia and Research.

Here are the key things I learned from the event, as well as some top tips from the Careers Service on starting a career in Psychology: (more…)

Key messages from the Faculty of Arts Careers Series (February 2021)

Hundreds of you attended the Faculty of Arts Careers Series, where alumni shared their fascinating journeys from their Arts degree to their current career.

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3 reasons to make the most of the Faculty of Arts Careers Series this February

The pandemic has impacted so much, including the world of work. The ongoing uncertainty can feel de-motivating; it may feel easier to avoid thinking about careers right now and to put it off until later. However, it could be an ideal time for career thinking and looking at what the Faculty of Arts Careers Series has to offer, (more…)

There are still many ways to Achieve!

With restrictions still imposed upon much of society, some of you may be wondering just how achievable the Bristol PLUS Award will be for you this year 

Well, fear notThere are still loads of opportunities out there for you to develop skills and experience to use towards your Award (and your future!) 

Restructured format to support you 

In September 2020, in response to Covid-19 and the new blended student experience, the Bristol PLUS Award was restructured. Meaning we now recognise a wide range of online and virtual experiences – making gaining evidence for your Award totally achievable! (more…)

Top careers tips from the Career Peer Support Assistants

Here at the Careers Service we have a team of Career Peer Support Assistants who are current students and help us with helping you. We asked some of the team to introduce themselves and share their top careers tips:

I’m Jasmine, I’m a third-year Theatre and Performance student.

I have a particular interest in the supernatural on the Victorian stage, and I’m really looking forward to working with the Careers Service this academic year! My Careers Service top tip is to attend as many online events, workshops and presentations as possible – they can open your eyes to job pathways that you may never have known about!

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