As you will see from our website, the Careers Service offers a real wealth and range of opportunities to help students succeed in their studies, gain experience, and develop their careers. Whether it is online materials, themed workshops and events, or tailored one-to-one advice and guidance, there are numerous ways for both campus-based and distance learning students, at all levels, to interact with our service. No less important, however, than our central service provision, is the extensive work we do in collaboration with academic departments.

This area of our work (a sample of which is explored in the case studies below) has grown significantly in recent years, and continues to grow each year. Indeed, for many of us working in the Careers Service, integrated departmental provision constitutes around 50% of what we do. Crucial though our central provision is (indeed, it too has grown in tandem with our departmental work) we are committed to expanding and deepening our involvement in the mainstream curriculum. Our main reasons for doing this are:

• by working with academic colleagues we can better ensure our interventions are relevant to students’ needs, and delivered in a timely fashion;
• mainstream curriculum delivery of academic and career development provision enables us to reach far greater numbers of students;
• by becoming more informed about what goes on in the curriculum, we are able, in turn, to develop more refined, relevant and tailored resources to help students develop and succeed;
• from a selfish point of view, we enjoy it – it’s interesting and stimulating!

Unsurprisingly, given the University’s enormous range and diversity of academic departments, subjects, teaching and assessment tasks, our curriculum focussed work is similarly wide-ranging and diverse, and includes:

• teaching themed academic or career development sessions;
• developing resources to support specific tasks and modules;
• designing and delivering module content and assessments.

All of this is overseen and discussed by the Careers Service Curriculum Team, which meets regularly to discuss projects, review progress, and share new ideas.

The purpose of this section of our website is to ensure that this important and expanding aspect of our work is properly represented and celebrated. To help us do this, we have included several case studies which explain in greater detail the kinds of curriculum projects we are currently involved in. If you’re an academic who wants to find out more about how you can work with us to support your students, or if you would like simply to find out more, please get in touch.

Case studies of practice:

Below are links to a number of case studies. These studies - which represent just a sample of the work we undertake - have been added in order to provide a more detailed picture of the range and depth of collaborative, curriculum-based work we undertake.

CASE STUDY 1: Developing study and communication skills for first year Biological Sciences students

CASE STUDY 2: Employability and career planning for second year English and American Studies students

CASE STUDY 3: Exploring and learning about the business applications of studying Mathematics

CASE STUDY 4: Reflective learning and self-assessment in the School of Historical Studies