Empowering Black Excellence: Unlocking Employability During Black History Month

Black History Month is a time to celebrate the achievements, resilience, and contributions of Black individuals and communities. It's also an opportune moment to reflect on the importance of inclusivity and diversity in various aspects of life, including employability. At ARU, we recognise this is essential for a thriving society and workforce. In this blog, we explore how ARU encourages Black students and alumni to excel in their careers through a committed employability focus.

A Diverse Talent Pool:

ARU is proud to have a diverse student body, including a vibrant Black student community. We understand the significance of harnessing this diversity to create a dynamic and inclusive workforce. The Employability Service has developed the Shine Community, a platform where we post 'all things employability' that would be of interest and support for our diverse student body. Join the Shine Community.

Employability Service:

Our dedicated Employability Service team supports students and alumni in their journey to securing meaningful employment. We offer a range of services, including careers appointments, CV and interview workshops, job fairs, and networking events. These services are available to all students, regardless of their background, and are tailored to meet individual needs. We are excited to announce our upcoming Shine Conference: Employability event for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic students, where students can hear from inspiring and diverse professionals, attend skills workshops and network with organisations promoting diverse opportunities. Book your place here for the 18 October event.

Empowering Black Students:

During Black History Month and throughout the year, we take special care to empower Black students in their employability journey:

• Get a Career Mentor. The mentoring programme matches current ARU students with their own professional and career-focused mentors. These mentors provide guidance, advice, and valuable insight into navigating the job market from their own journey and industry knowledge perspective.
• ARU Shine Programme. Our award-winning Shine programme includes professional skills workshops led by ethnically diverse professionals, a career mentor, promotion of work experience opportunities and support with career planning.
• Networking Opportunities. We facilitate networking events that enable students to build connections with industry professionals, opening doors to career opportunities and internships.
• EDI University Business Challenge. We offer students the opportunity to apply to the Business Challenge, sponsored by Microsoft Embrace where students develop solutions to a business challenge and apply their learning to a real-world situation.
• Student Employability Activators. We recruit students to help promote the professional self-development services and resources that the Employability Service offers, to students. They play an important role in encouraging students to think about their future and we have some Activators who focus on engaging our ethnically diverse student population.

Black History Month is not just a time of celebration; it's a reminder of our commitment to fostering an inclusive, nurturing and empowering environment for all our students to grow and thrive outside of ARU.

By Sarah Sterling, Employability & Careers Adviser

Our Employability Service works with students throughout their time at ARU and after they graduate. The Service offers careers advice, online resources, and help with job searches, applications and interview preparation. Our Employability & Careers Advisers may mention some of these resources and services in their blogs, to give you an idea of the careers support that's on offer at ARU. Some of these resources sit behind a log in and can only be accessed by current students.