Brussels wants graduates to apply: Employability in the EU

If you’re a British graduate with an interest in languages and policy, you should consider crossing the Channel in the direction of Brussels, the capital of Belgium. At a time when job opportunities for graduates appear bleak in the UK, the European Union wants new recruits to work in the “capital” of Europe where there are scores of other young people and plenty of cafes and restaurants, not to mention large quantities of good beer and chocolate as well as delicious mussels and snails.  Read the whole article in the Independent here

Prizes galore at ‘The Mix’

Winner's statuette

You’ve been labelled as a ‘NEET’*. You are one of 895,000 16-24 year olds in the same situation**. You don’t do ‘education’ or ‘training’ and you haven’t got a job.  Pretty depressing, probably. That’s where ‘The Mix’ comes in – a programme designed to help young people appreciate their talents, improve their skills and build their confidence. How does it work? The approach is not complicated; give young people something unexpected to do, watch curiosity overcome reluctance, help them with technical support when they need it and let their natural talents emerge.

For more on this story.. go here.

Who are Working Knowledge Experts?

Have you ever wondered who the experts are at a Working Knowledge Event? We took a close look at the 40 experts at this year’s FLUX Grand Final in Nottingham where experts gave up a day of their time to judge some of the UK’s top entrepreneurial students.

Read more about the experts here Who are our Experts?

Flux Student Profile – Ole Fjelberg – QMUC

Ole Fjelberg was at Flux 2010 as a member of the Queen Mary, University of London team. Originally from Norway, Ole is making a big splash in the UK not only as the founder of the Queen Mary Investment Club but as the man behind the UK franchise of One Piece a new clothing phenomenon from Norway.  Read more about Ole here -  Ole’s profile

Let’s breathe new life into apprenticeships

Students look to extra-curricular activities to give them employability.

An Overview Of Employability Skills for Students and How They Contribute to Career Success

This slide show gives some guidance on how students can enhance their employability.

Graduate Careers Group argues the case for Employability Skills

COLLEGE students should be taught interview techniques to bridge a “major gap” between academic qualifications and their ability to get a job.

It argues that students should have an in-depth knowledge of employability skills as well as their subject when they finish their course.

The recommendations were made by Graduate Careers Ireland, which represents careers officers in third-level institutions.

Read more here

New Chemistry XING Business Scenarios Now Available

5 new Chemistry-based business scenarios have been uploaded to the Working Knowledge scenario database (www.twkg.net/scenario-selection). These were developed in response to a request from the University of Plymouth which wanted to run a Xing session with a cohort of Chemistry students.  The scenarios cover a range of business areas including fuel replacement, genomics and renewal chemical products.

FLUX 2010 – over 200 winners!

Top student entrepreneurs from 33 UK universities attended an intensely competitive final of Flux 500 – a business challenge created and run by Working Knowledge.  See some video highlights here.http://www.vimeo.com/10614021

Hosted by Nottingham Trent University, Flux 500 is now the largest inter-university enterprise competition in UK.

As part of the fast-paced, two-day competition, teams of six students were challenged to create a new business division for Remploy, the national provider of employment services and employment to people with barriers to work. Over 40 business experts, from companies such as event sponsors Experian, Backup Direct, KPMG, and a range of other large and small organisations were on hand to guide the students.

During the competition finals, the team had just five minutes to pitch their strategy to the business experts – who went from consultants in the day to ‘dragons’ in the evening – before facing rigorous questioning and receiving feedback.

After the preliminary heats, four teams from the University of Bedfordshire, University College Plymouth MarJon, Nottingham Trent University and the University of Bristol were chosen to compete in a final head-to-head challenge.

With only 15 minutes to prepare, the teams then faced a tense press conference-style grilling from four of the toughest business experts.  After all the votes were counted the University of Bedfordshire came out as Flux 2010 champions.

Bedfordshire team member Greg Dorban said: “Winning was a fantastic feeling! To come top out of over 30 leading universities is just unbelievable. Obviously we went there to win, but never expected it, especially after seeing and hearing our competition.” Manjunath Basapoor another member of the team added: “I learnt some new skills and tools like XING, which are quite useful especially in preparing business plans. This win is a great credible addition to my CV, and this happened at the right time as I will be entering the job market after my MBA.”

The final day of Flux included the ‘Expo’ – a recruitment fair for students to find out about employment opportunities and take part in workshops to improve their employability skills. The event also gave employers the chance to speak to students who had impressed them during the competition and several approached students as a result of their success.

Flux 500 was developed and is run by The Working Knowledge Group, which bridges the gap between education and the workplace. This year’s event was sponsored by Experian, Backup Direct, NCGE, The Greater Nottingham Partnership and the Nottinghamshire City & County Employment and Skills Board, with support from Experience Nottinghamshire.

Chris Hall, business manager at competition host, The Hive, said: “There were a lot of extremely dedicated people who made this a very exciting and engaging event, from the students, to the business experts and the Hive entrepreneurs who came along to help. It was very enjoyable and we had lots of positive comments about our newly refurbished Newton building where the event was held.”