Hello prospective Bristol PLUS Award achievers! I’m Lana Henry and I’m a fourth-year Veterinary Science student who’s now working as a PLUS Award Ambassador.
I completed my PLUS Award in the 2021/2022, and am here to answer the age-old question: is it worth taking on the PLUS Award despite a busy degree?
Students of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (AHSS) are often keenly aware of the positive characteristics of their degrees.
Graduates of these disciplines are curious, creative, investigative and impactful, and AHSS degrees help us to understand ourselves, our society and our place in the world.
But what about their value in a career context? This is where unhelpful narratives about them being less ‘valuable’, come into play, such as that they lead to inferior job prospects. But there is so much evidence to challenge this.
Here are five myths that research by The British Academy has helped to dispel:
Are you a humanities or arts student without a clear idea of your career path?
I was in this position 2 years ago. Although I still haven’t gotten it all figured out, the Bristol PLUS Award was a huge help in kick-starting my career.
Let me talk you through how I went from not having a clue what I wanted to do, to having a great job in a sector I love – all thanks to the PLUS Award.
Hi, I’m Lana. I carried out my SME Internship as a mental health support worker at Supported Independence (SI), within their Redcliffe branch.
I began by attending three days of training: the first two days were company-specific training carried out by SI staff, and the third was run by an external company regarding breakaway and challenging behaviour. On the days of my inductions, I shadowed a few different experienced mental health support workers with clients they supported.
After approximately one week of shadowing, I began working with clients one-on-one. This included:
meal supporting clients struggling with eating disorders
supporting clients with their day-to-day activities, such as trips to the supermarket, appointments, managing finances, and supporting with medication
listening to those who wanted to talk about how they were feeling.
Throughout my internship, I learned how to better support clients in a person-centred way, whereby their individual needs were my priority.
I was given the opportunity to ask other support workers about individual clients’ needs in order to make them feel more comfortable with the way I approach them.
Hi, I’m Yueqi. In the final year of my postgraduate studying Marketing (Msc), I luckily found an SME Internship as a Marketing Intern for New Silk Route.
My internship included writing content on social media platforms, such as writing posts to attract customers to enquire about the company’s services and close deals.
Most of the time I worked remotely but I still needed to meet with customers to fulfill their desires and offer appropriate services.
Volunteering in your local community connects you with others and creates positive change.
Over the past academic year, the team at Bristol Hub have supported over 180 Bristol students to engage in social action.
Bristol Hub manager Sorcha Young shares the impact that volunteering can have:
“Social action takes many forms. It can range from donating money to good causes to creating campaigns or running community-based events. I love making a change by getting hands-on and volunteering in my community.”
85% of Bristol Hub’s student volunteers agreed that participation enhanced their well-being during university. Where there are many challenges to university, such as loneliness, academic pressures and an overwhelming amount to do, volunteering provides a space to escape and connect.
The summer vacation is the ideal time for some well-deserved rest and relaxation.
But if you’re anything like me, guilt-free relaxation time is near impossible without the nagging feeling that you should be doing something to improve your career prospects.
Here are our three stress-free ways to make the most of your summer:
In April, Bristol Walk Fest partnered with the Careers Service to run a City Challenge, with the goal of getting input from student volunteers on ways to engage younger walkers with their events.
Bristol Walk Fest is an annual walking festival, with events taking place all over the city. We chatted to Jennifer Graham, their 2023 Event Manager, about their experience.
Jen, can you tell us what Bristol Walk Fest is all about?
Bristol Walk Fest began over a decade ago and is a celebration of all things walking. The free festival, which regularly attracts over 7,500 attendees year-on-year, showcases the best of Bristol for everyone to enjoy, either individually or with others.
The festival takes place during May to coincide with Living Streets’ National Walking Month and offers a wide variety of walking activities, personal challenges, self-guided walking routes and discussion events. The (mostly free) walks and activities are for all backgrounds and levels of fitness.
Each year we recruit a team of current students to come and work with us at the Careers Service. They are an integral part of our team and work on a wide range of exciting tasks.
From working face-to-face with fellow students to creating content for blogs and our social media channels, supporting the Bristol PLUS Award and getting involved in employer events, and even helping students develop their entrepreneurial skills – we don’t know where we would be without them!
We are excited to say that applications are now open for next year’s team.
All of these roles are part-time and designed to fit around your studies.
You’ll receive full training and will gain valuable, transferable skills through working in a professional environment, such as teamwork, time management, and communication skills. We have also been told, it’s a lot of fun to work with us!
We are currently recruiting for the following roles:
(NB: All roles will begin in September, so you must be a current student as of September to apply.)