Employability Service
Category: Student support services
7 May 2020
Emma Scriven is finishing her BSc (Hons) Business and Human Resource Management degree and also works as a Student Employability Activator. Here she gives some thoughts on how she is coping with lockdown.
I think we would all agree that lockdown has given us a little bit more time at home, and if you’re anything like me, you’re probably struggling with what to do to fill your time. Personally, I think this is a great opportunity to work on your employability and skills base ready to go and get your dream job! So, here are some ideas of how to get started with this, as sometimes it can feel very overwhelming.
As students at ARU, we get free access to LinkedIn Learning and there are thousands of courses and videos depending on which skills you would like to improve. Personally, I’ve been really enjoying the courses on productivity, as this is something I really struggle with and would really like to improve throughout lockdown.
Did you know that the ARU Careers Centre has a CV Builder tool to help you format and input the relevant information for your CV? Then once you’ve completed it, you can run it through the CV 360 Tool to know how it may perform under a screening exercise and how you can improve. I always struggle with finding the time to keep my CV up to date and this is the perfect time to do so.
As lots of conferences have been cancelled due to the ongoing crisis, many of them are instead going online and making conferences free to access. My course (Business and Human Resource Management) is accredited by the CIPD, who are running an online Festival of Work, which is usually £200 for a ticket for free, which I will definitely be logging on for. Keep an eye out for any conferences which may be relevant for your course, or a career you’re hoping to pursue.
I have so many books that I hope to read during lockdown to help me improve my employability skills, and I think this is a great chance to read to widen your knowledge. Some that I am looking forward to reading include The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey, The Chimp Paradox – Professor Stephen Peters and Start with Why – Simon Sinek.
The Employability Programme enables you to understand where your employability strengths and weaknesses lie currently and point you in the direction of resources which may be able to support you to develop your skills further. I’ve personally found this really useful to get targeted resources to help me to develop specific skills within my skills base that I want to improve. If you need any further support, don’t forget that the employability team are available via Live Chat on their website, Monday-Friday between 11-2pm.
Hopefully this has helped you with thinking about your employability and skills base in lockdown, and good luck!
Emma Scriven, Student Employability Activator
Disclaimer
The views expressed here are those of the individual and do not necessarily represent the views of Anglia Ruskin University. If you've got any concerns please contact us.