Understand, Empower, Act
Our ethos defines the way we equip University of East Anglia graduates with qualities that shape lives and communities for the better. Our founding principle of interdisciplinarity and drive for sustainability underpin a learning environment in which our students are encouraged to develop values of excellence, creativity, and citizenship.
We are consistently amongst the top UK universities for student satisfaction as a result of our high quality teaching and rich developmental and social opportunities: over 100 Student Union societies, a superb Sportspark on campus, the world-renowned Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts and International Literary Festival are just part of the mix. Engagement with these opportunities does much to develop the confidence, maturity and self-awareness required for employability.
Proactive Careers and EmployAbility Centres on campus offer one-to-one careers guidance, CV feedback, mock interviews and coaching into work in addition to many events involving local and national employers. Careers fairs cover fields from teaching to writing to biology.
EmployAbility, our job shop for part-time jobs, work experience and volunteering opportunities, gives students access to a wealth of interesting vacancies. We have a strong culture of providing job opportunities on campus for students, with many gaining employment as student ambassadors, resident tutors, student helpers and more.
Our Employability Strategy explicitly addresses the development of academic and wider skills through the curriculum. All degree programmes include opportunities to develop problem solving, presentation, communication, IT and team working skills. A well established personal tutoring system enables students to reflect on their development, supported by online tools such as CV Builder to help chart academic, employment and extra-curricular experience.
Opportunities to gain workplace and cultural experience include a year or semester abroad, a year in industry, short work placements or research internships. Professionally accredited vocational courses such as those in the healthcare professions routinely include placements to develop essential skills. Programmes are increasingly being developed with employer involvement, providing students with workplace experience and meeting requirements of local businesses. One example is our BSc in Actuarial Science run in association with Aviva.
Research postgraduates and international students are supported by specialist career development advisers and provided with comprehensive programmes to develop their employability skills. High profile events include a Postgraduate Showcase that allows PhD students to display their research to employers and the general public, and there is an annual Global Careers Day for International students and others who wish to work abroad.
