UCD Careers Network aims to enable and empower individuals to develop the skills, self-confidence and attitudes needed to flourish in learning and work within a global economy. They assist students with their personal and professional development, developing their employability skills and with their progression as they graduate from college.
Academic integration/belongingOn campus | Online & in person (hybrid)
Time lineWhat is the main idea or gist?
What does this initiative/support/project look like?
At the UCD Belfiled Campus, there are 6 Career & Skills Consultants offering career coaching & guidance to students. They work across all programmes within the university, each having specific colleges that they support. There are also 3 Career Consultants that provide support to students in regards to CV preparation, applications, personal statements and interview preparation as well as a University Internship Manager. There are also dedicated Career & Skills Consultants for PhD students and Postdoctoral Researchers. There is also a careers team that work in the Blackrock campus with postgraduate business students. They provide support to MSc and MBA students.
The Careers Network (Belfield) opens Monday-Friday from 9:00am- 5:00pm. A Quick Query Service is on offer throughout the working week. Consultations are offered for 20 minutes at Belfield and 30 minutes at the Careers Network, Blackrock. The service is intended to help students prepare for the next step, for example, CV enhancement, interview preparation, job searching and further study. Students can book this service on-line or via a smart phone using the MyCareer system (www.ucd.ie/careers).
MyCareer is UCD’s career management platform. This is an online platform that acts as one stop shop for students in terms of career development, they can use it to help them explore their interests, possible career paths, see what events the careers centre are running, has a live vacancy section, a CV scanning tool, a practice video interview platform and lots of other career resources. Students can also book in for careers consultation using this platform.
Specific Support for UCD Access & Lifelong Learning (ALL) Students:
For students that are linked to UCD Access & Lifelong Learning Centre they get specific supports from the Careers Network – there is a Career & Skills Consultant assigned to support access students and they can be given a longer individual consultation. Bespoke workshops are also delivered for e.g. workshops for mature students, CV workshops for Access Leaders, Future You Mentors, careers as part of the UCD Access Programme, informal coffee mornings, outreach support & careers support the UCD ALL Centre with their Pathways to Profession project which is looking at supporting the progression of access students studying law to pathway into the profession. The Careers Network has also contributed to the academic skills workshop’s run at the ALL Centre. A range of tailored resources are available on the MyCareer platform.
Other services offered by the UCD Career’s Network includes:
Career Education and Events
Career education initiatives and related events on career choice, preparation for internship, job search, recruitment, and selection processes, further and graduate study are developed along College and School lines to ensure relevance.
Careers Education is embedded into the Curriculum
Modules in Personal and Career Development have been introduced to a number of academic areas and bear up to 5 credits. These areas include Prepare for Your Future Career for all discplines, Legal & Professional Skills, Career Development for Social Sciences, Career Development for Psychology and Career Developement for Arts and Humanities. In other situations, a proportion of an existing module has been re-designed to incorporate career and professional development content.
Academic Internships
Academic internships (internships that carry ECTS credits) are embedded within the curriculum across all six UCD Colleges. UCD Careers Network provides a degree of oversight and understanding of the internships landscape across the university. The UCD Internships Manager based at Careers Network organises networking opportunities and an Internship Manager Forum at which matters of interest, best practice, systems and processes that support the student experience and internship administration and other operational matters. Through professional associations, Careers Network connects UCD Internship Managers locally, nationally and internationally to colleagues across borders.
Information
UCD Careers offers a number of Information resources (including a range of career guides) containing up-to-date reference, on-line and take away material relating to:
Workshops & Online Training
UCD Career Network offers various workshops/training throughout the academic year.
‘Kickstart MyCareer’ is a two-hour, in-person career planning workshop designed to help students get started on their career journey.
Six workshops are held in both trimesters with one based in each college. The workshop will introduce students to;
All students are welcome to any of the workshops.
Graduate Bootcamp – Workshops for final year students at the end of trimester 2 on Job searching, CVs/applications, Interview Techniques and LinkedIn.
They have also developed a “Recruitment Ready” programme online. This is an employability programme that offers a step by step guide for students to help them navigate the graduate recruitment market – from learning how to identify opportunities and developing an impactful application, to standing out at interview, and planning their next steps.
Skills for Working Life is an 8 week programme of employer-led, interactive, skills-based workshops spread over Trimester 2. It takes place from February 1st to April 12th on Wednesdays from 17:00 to 19:00.
The programme covers issues such as commercial awareness, case studies, inclusivity, problem solving, and sustainable decision making. It’s a great opportunity for students to hone their employability skills while also networking with some of Ireland’s top graduate employers. Participating organisations include Tirlán, Deloitte, RTÉ, Coca-Cola, and KPMG;
Those who complete 6 out of the 8 sessions receive a Skills for Working Life Certificate.
This training is opened to everybody, largely attended by undergraduates.
Students also have access to career assessment tools to help understand motivations, preferences and values including Type Dynamic Indicator, Values Based Indicator of Motivation and other areas such as emotional intelligence, strengths and learning styles. The Euraxess Career Orientation tool is available for research graduates.
The Careers Network offers a range of online courses designed to help students develop their personal and professional skills. These are short online courses covering a wide range of topics including project management, effective team working, presentation skills, IT skills and much more. Students can accessed these courses by logging in to their E-Learning Hub
Recruitment Fairs
Careers Network annually organises a series of events designed to help students and graduates make contact with graduate recruiters and access graduate, placement and internship vacancies.
Career Mentoring Service
Over a six-month period, student mentees will virtually meet with alumni mentors at least three times. Both mentors and mentees are supported by UCD Careers Network and UCD Alumni Relations throughout the programme offering training and advice.
The programme is open to the following students;
The aim is to support students at a critical time in their career, as they begin making decisions in relation to employment, internships or further study.
A mentor can provide practical information on specific roles and sectors, including what is required to work in that area and what their day to day job involves. Often, they can also help with applications and interviews. Mentors are a great objective sounding board who you can run ideas past and seek advice from.
UCD Advantage Award
The UCD Advantage Award is given to students in recognition for development of skills, knowledge and experience in co-curricular activites such as involvement in a society, sports team, volunteer work or summer internship. Completing the award helps students to articulate the skills they have developed from their experiences.
Students and graduates have access to:
Background/Underlying Construct:
The DOTS Model and CareerEdge Framework
Career Registration is a methodology that involves collecting data directly from students on their level of career readiness and the extent to which they have engaged in activities that enhance their employability. This data enables us to develop a unique understanding of students’ career readiness which in turn empowers us to align tailored career development initiatives with different cohorts within Schools and Colleges.
Target Group: Who may use the UCD Careers Network?
Current undergraduates, graduate students, and graduates (up to two years beyond completion) of University College Dublin may access the full range of services. Prospective students may access the website, information facilities and Quick Query sessions, subject to resources. All incoming non-EU students are given access to the JumpStart module which helps them understand the Irish labour market and how to engage in recruitment and selection.
Postdoctoral Researchers may access the full range of bespoke services developed by the Research Careers Manager. For details on services for Postdoctoral Researchers go to www.ucd.ie/researchcareers
What are the goals?
How are students involved?
Students complete a surveys at the end of module delivery to give feedback and this is taken on board within reason. Feedback is also collected after workshops and recruitment fair.
Every student who has an appointment gets a link for feedback.
Students have the opportunity to apply to become a Career Ambassador. As a Career Ambassador, students are part of a leadership programme designed to develop and enhance their skills and provide them with a range of opportunities to develop. The Career Ambassadors are motivated students with enthusiasm and commitment to promoting the work of the UCD Careers Network. This is an excellent opportunity to gain valuable paid experience and develop personal and professional skills that you could been added to a students CV and LinkedIn profile.
What underlying constructs or ideas inspired the design?
We follow the Dots model and CareerEdge Model
Resources
There are lots of resources available on the my career registration which is the online careers software that UCD uses and lots of resources on the UCD careers webpage: https://www.ucd.ie/careers/
What the success criteria and the points of attention?
One of the ways that we measure success is with our annual Graduate Outcomes Survey (GOS). This is a national survey distributed to all graduates 9 months after graduation. Of those are responded (72.1%) for 21/22, 77.4% are in employment, 15.3% doing further study or training, 5.7% seeking employment and 1.6% doing other activities. We achieve this by developing students’ self-confidence, skills, and competencies to make effective life and work transitions, driving and managing change in professional practice, delivering career interventions, and evidencing the impact of our work by using data and reporting.
(How) does the effectiveness get tracked?
strongly agree
(How) is this initiative/support/project evaluated?
Students have the opportunity to give feedback after accessing the service. Every student who has an appointment gets a link for feedback.
If students take part in a career’s module as part of their course or by participating in a workshop or online training they get sent surveys to give feedback and the Careers Networks tries to take feedback on board.
The service also contributes to CYBIL – Cibyl careers research helps to understand students and their motivations, how to build employer or membership brand, and attract and hire well into graduate roles. Every year the university inputs their data and compares it to other universities.
In addition, the Careers Network largely works off two types of data; graduate outcome survey and the career registration survey – do they know what they want to? – Do they have any work experience and what is it? What industry are they interested in?
The career registration survey helps to track students career thinking and identify where interventions need to be made.
How is it communicated and advertised?
What is the current and ideal timing and duration?
Ideally it would be great if the Careers Network had students actively accessing their service from the first year. That way students would be thinking about getting some work experience, how to make the most of their time and understand the importance of getting involved in extracurricular activities. Some colleges are good at having a focus on career development from stage 1.
What resources are needed to run this initiative?
Is it easily transferrable to other contexts or groups?
We think it is easily transferable to other contexts or groups.
UCD Careers Network staff have completed the UDL Badge – understands the principles and it’s considered in their design and delivery.
It was strongly felt that the service they offer could easily be transferred to another university setting but how it is delivered might depend on the size of the university.
It would be very important for it to be properly resourced.