Your Questions Answered
What is the Loughborough Employability Award?
It is an award approved by the University to recognise the skills and personal development you gain through participation in activities outside of your degree programme. In today’s competitive employment market, you will not only need to demonstrate to employers that you have developed knowledge, skills and competencies through your academic studies, but that you have participated in other activities, such as volunteering, work experience or other interests from which you have gained valuable employability skills.
Employability is defined as:
A set of achievements – skills, understandings and personal attributes – that make graduates more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations. (Yorke, M. 2004)
What is the timescale for completing the Award?
It is recommended that you complete the Award over a period of at least two academic years, submitting your application for the Award at any time before the third semester of your final year. This will give you the opportunity to participate fully in the activities you choose to engage with while at university, and will provide you with sufficient time to develop a range of employability skills.
Who is eligible to enrol?
First, second and penultimate year undergraduate students can enrol between October and April (see Learn home page for dates). Finalists are not encouraged to enrol (although they can if they have a lot of activities to claim retrospectively) as they may have insufficient time to complete the award in their final year. The award will be extended to include post-graduate students at a later date. There is a limit of around 400 places each academic year, available on a ‘first come, first served’ basis.
How do I enrol for the Award?
You can enrol yourself on the Loughborough Employability Award module on Learn following the link from the Learn home page or from the Careers and Employability Centre web page. Your eligibility will be checked and you will be notified that you have a place on the scheme via a welcome email.
I am a placement student. Can I extend the two year timescale? Will the placement year count towards the award?
- If you are a student who takes a year out of your studies, either for a period of work, or to take part in a placement programme which is part of your degree course, you may start the Award scheme in your first or second year, then complete it in your final year, on your return to the university.
- If the year out is part of your degree programme, then it cannot be counted towards the Award, however, any additional activities in which you participated while in employment (such as involvement with a charity programme) may be included if they offered you the opportunity for skills development.
- If you take ‘leave of absence’ then the work experience you gain from this year out may be included in the application for the Award.
Are there any compulsory elements to the Award?
Yes, you are required to complete a self-assessment of your current level of skills and prepare an action plan to help you monitor your progress and the development of skills and competencies. These are available in the module in Learn and should be submitted by the last day of the term in which you enrol for the award. 10 points will be awarded for this.
The University is keen to promote both sustainability and the ability to be employable in a multi-cultural global environment. To meet these objectives the Award scheme requires you to complete two sets of questions, one for each of these areas. Five points will be awarded for the completion of each quiz. You are also strongly encouraged to be involved in activities relating to these important employability areas in your activities which count towards the Award.
How does the award scheme work?
Each activity will be awarded points. In order to be able to apply for the Award you will need to achieve a minimum of 100 points. Points will be allocated on a sliding scale from 5 to a possible maximum of 60 for one activity, although in practice this will probably be less than the maximum. Each activity will be awarded points on its merits, dependent on the length of commitment, any training you have had to do to carry out the task and the personal opportunity it has offered to you to improve your skills. This last part will rely on you carrying out your own assessment of what you have learned and how much you think you have improved your skill set and level of competence (see below for further information about this).
What can be included in the Award scheme?
You can include most extra-curricular activities that you have been involved with since you started your period of study at Loughborough University. The skills you gain from voluntary activities or from paid or unpaid work experience will form the majority of your Award application.
You are asked to include activities from at least two of the following groupings:
- Voluntary activities, including:
- All Students’ Union activities
- Student2Student programme
- Student Enterprise
- External volunteering, fundraising
- Vacation volunteering
- Paid work experience, including:
- All employment on campus (Union, Imago, Careers and Employability Centre etc.)
- Vacation work since the start of your time at university
- Other extra-curricular activities, including:
- Students helping Students (ShS) programme
- Language courses outside your degree programme
- Chaplaincy faith groups
- Careers and Employability Centre courses and some workshops
- Counselling workshop programme
- Library workshop programme
- Engineering workshops
- Only a leadership role in sport, music etc. may be considered
There is a more detailed list of opportunities available in the XTRA database (available in award modules), with links to more information about each activity. The award team will consider activities not on the list on a case-by- case basis.
How do I get my points awarded?
It is your responsibility to have your activities endorsed by the named contact person in the database of activities, or in the case of an external activity, the employer or supervisor. The person endorsing the activity will need to know that you are taking part in that activity while you are doing it, so please make that person aware that you are an Award applicant and if you are attending a course or workshop please make sure you sign the sign-up sheet or
register on Learn or Careers Online, as required, so that your attendance is recorded. Try to have your activity endorsed as soon as you have completed it.
The process is as follows:
- Download a ‘record of activity’ form from the Learn module
- Complete the form to record your activity and reflect on your skills development (see below for more on this)
- Email the completed form to the contact person or employer with a brief explanation of your involvement in the award scheme
- Submit the endorsed form to the award team via the module on Learn
- Points will be awarded to you on Learn
Why is it important to reflect on the skills I have gained and how do I do this?
Employers expect you to be aware of your skills and competencies and to be able to articulate how you have developed these. They may ask you for specific examples of how you have worked in a team or how you have resolved a problem. It is therefore important for you to be aware of your own level of skill and how taking part in an activity such as work experience or volunteering helps you to improve that level of skill and to gain new skills.
For example, you may think that you are a poor timekeeper and are disorganised, and know that when you get a graduate job it will be important for you to be on time and be organised to do your work effectively. Taking on a voluntary role or getting some work experience will give you the opportunity to improve your time management and organisational skills.
It is therefore an important part of the award scheme that you complete the ‘record of activity’ form to describe your activity and to reflect on how that activity may have improved your skills and on your personal development.
It may be useful to look back at your self-assessment of skills to see how you have progressed. You are encouraged to keep a reflective log of your activities in your Learning Diary, which is available to you in Learn.
To help you in the reflective process there are a variety of Personal Development Planning (PDP) tools available. Your Department may have provided you with a guide to PDP or your tutor may mention PDP to you. Help is also available from the Careers and Employability Centre, the Library and through courses run by the Students’ Union.
There is also a tool developed by the University called RAPID. RAPID looks at the different levels of competence in a variety of skills such as time management and communication and may help you with the process of reflection and self-awareness.
When can I apply for the Award and how do I do this?
- Write your CV (with the help of the Careers and Employability Centre if necessary)
- Ensure that you have achieved the minimum number of points (100)
- Complete the Award application form which will be available on Learn (This asks similar questions to a graduate employer recruitment form)
- Submit the documents to the Award team via the module on Learn
How am I notified if I have achieved the award?
Your application will be considered and you will be notified within four weeks whether or not you have been successful. You may be asked to re-submit your application if we feel you have not articulated your skills development sufficiently as this is seen as important for your future applications for employment.
Successful applicants will be presented with an Award Certificate.
How do employers know I have the award?
Please include the award in your applications to employers and on your CV and be prepared to tell them about it at interview. The Award is also recorded on your Student Transcript alongside your degree qualification.
Do I have a right of appeal?
You have the right to appeal if you wish to query the number of points you have been allocated for an activity. You will also have a right to appeal if your award application is unsuccessful, although we do not expect there will be many of these!
Where do I go if I need help with the Award process?
If you have any questions you can get in touch with the Loughborough Employability Award team who are based in the Careers and Employability Centre in the Herbert Manzoni building.
employabilityaward@lboro.ac.uk
If you would like to know more about employability skills and why they are so important, you may like to read the section on Employability on the Careers and Employability Centre website.
The Careers and Employability Centre web site also has a list of skills employers seek which gives you an explanation of what each skill means. For students registered for the Award, there is an online forum on Learn where you can ask questions or share experiences about the Award.
Can I let you know if I get a placement or a graduate job?
YES! Please do! Email us or keep in touch via LinkedIn where you can join the Loughborough Employability Award group. We would love to hear if taking part in the award scheme has helped you secure employment.