Employability explored

Employability is about much more than just getting your first job – it's about having a positive self image and presenting yourself successfully, both as a new graduate and throughout your life.

Your skills, knowledge and personal attributes and the ability to convey them effectively all contribute to your employability as do your personal circumstances and labour market conditions. 

You probably already know that you need to get a good degree, complete some work experience and improve your skills in order to maximise your investment in Higher Education.

The onus is on you, to start right from the first year at university, to build up your employability.

What do I need to build my employability?

It is important to be able to manage your own career by:

• Knowing your strengths and weaknesses and the way that you like to work
• Building your confidence and self-belief
• Researching and understanding the opportunities available to you and knowing how to access them
• Being able to reflect, evaluate and make sensible decisions on your future and being able to act upon them
• Knowing how to present your skills, knowledge and competencies to employers when applying for jobs, preparing for interviews, presentations or assessment centres

Employability at University of Bedfordshire

The University of Bedfordshire is committed to enhancing your career prospects and your long-term employability. Through our courses and work experience opportunities you will gain knowledge, skills and understandings to help you with your career ambitions.

Being EmployAble goes beyond what you learn on your course – there are a range of activities across the University that you can get involved in to develop skills, create contacts, give you ideas about what to do after graduating and make you stand out in a competitive jobs market.

Each School has produced an Employability Map which clearly shows the activities and opportunities available to aid students in building the skills required for the career paths they're seeking.

• University of Bedfordshire Business School maps
• Creative Arts, Technologies and Science maps
• Education and Sport maps
• Health and Social Sciences maps

EmployAble

Our EmployAble activities are generally extra curricular and through these you can build a range of skills and experiences that will support you in fulfilling your career ambitions.

Whether you want to build your network and confidence by attending events with external companies, take on some additional part-time work to support you financially while at University, do some mock interviews or assessment centre practice, or apply for our Skills Award, The Beds Edge, EmployAble can help you to become the person that you want to be.

We understand that it can sometimes be difficult to know what activities are available and what you should do in addition to your studies.

Current activities available

• Careers and Employability Service
• Peer Assisted Student Success (PASS)
• Beds SU
• Employability Units