How to boost your professional development out of lockdown

Whilst coming out of a lockdown it can be hard to look towards the future, but it is important to reflect on your previous experiences, identify skill gaps and to fill those gaps in preparation for jobs or graduate applications opening! In this article I will be letting you know about some of the professional development opportunities provided by the university careers and employability service.

Graduate Skills Builder Programme

If you find yourself with a lot of free time after lockdown ending, taking part in the GSB might be ideal for you. GSB is a programme that last for around 6 weeks where student work in multi-disciplinary teams to complete real-world challenges set by local Lincoln businesses. This really enhances your employability as it gives you real-world experience that employers look for. Not only do you gain many transferable skills, but you also get £200 for taking part!  

WorkDay Programme

If a 6-week programme does not work for you then Workday might be better suited. This programme provides the opportunity to work on a project that should not be much longer than a day’s work. WorkDay will not get in the way of your studies as it can be set out over a few weeks to give you time to get to know your company and make sure you can keep up with your studies too.

Daily Careers Clinic

The Careers Clinic offers pre-bookable appointments to get support with your CV, personal statements, or job applications. This is open to all UoL students and you can get support as frequent or infrequent as you need.

Online learning resources/recorded webinars

Linked In learning is an extensive collection of training and instructional videos on a plethora of topics and as a student at UoL you have free access! In addition to this, throughout the year the university Careers and Employability team works with employers to put on “How to get a graduate job with” talks for almost every sector of industry. You can catch up on these events here. Make sure that when you attend webinars or complete courses that you put it on your LinkedIn profile so potential employers can see everything up to date.

CareerLinc

CareerLinc is the Career and Employability Service’s online portal where you can view vacancies, part time jobs, placements, internships, and graduate roles. With such a wide variety of opportunities available it is a great start when it comes to finding the next step in your career, especially if you are unsure about what you want to do next.

Lincoln Award

The Lincoln Award supports you in developing and demonstrating key employability skills which will set you apart from other applicants. All of the award can be completed online if you prefer so it can be done in your own time around your studies.  Below is a video explaining more about the award

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. I hope it encourages you to take part in some professional development and make yourself stand out from the crowd! More information about the wide range of services the careers and employability team offer can be found on their website.