Employability Award

Leicester university, alongside the majority of other universities offer an Employability Award. This is a course which provides valuable learning for skill set improvement and practical workshops aiming to improve your employability for the future. When completed it appears on your degree transcript and is a certificate which is recognised by multiple employers.

If you're interested approach your universities careers service and they will be more than willing to point you in the right direction.

Today I took part in the last workshop, Assignment 3. The aim was to carry out a 5 to 10 minute presentation on your development during the award. We were judged on structure, presentation style, confidence and of course content. We were then asked a couple of question reflecting our presentation.

I am really pleased to be able to say it went well! I received excellent feedback from the moderators and a great response from the audience.

Something I took away with me from this is recognition of what I could improve. Although I was told I seemed confident, relaxed and held good eye contact, I personally felt I spoke at break neck speed. This may have been because I was struggling to process all of my thoughts due to nerves. Therefore in order to improve upon this I want to find situations in which I can improve my confidence in public speaking and slow down my thought process. Such as joining the debating society and getting involved in the universities mooting, or the LUDA.

I'm going to go over in more depth the benefits of taking an employability award after its completion in June. Meanwhile I learnt a lot from myself today concerning public speaking...
- I felt I spoke too quickly and came across a little bulchy (I am a harsh critic of myself but it never hurts to improve) = therefore I have decided to take up more opportunities for public speaking in order to build confidence and skill.
- I struggled to provide clear examples of why I want to do law and examples of team work and leadership, even though I knew it so clearly in my head! = my moderator gave me great feedback concerning this. A technique she suggested was CAR. I can't remember exactly what C was for but I will hazard a guess. C stands for case, what the problem or situation was. A stands for action, what YOU did to deal with it (great emphasis placed on YOU here, your employer wants to know about you not your entire group) and R stands for result. A clear structure which is easy to remember and valuable to anyone in any similar situation.

I can't stress enough, how important it is to learn from your experience. This is exactly what this award has helped me to do and provided me with the ability and motivation to prioritise my career planning.

I would recommend the employability award to anyone! I will expand upon this post more when my head isn't so clouded by other essays!