Set up an employment blog to help Modern Languages Students to evaluate their career options.
Jos Harrison (Careers), Ellen Crabtree (SML PhD student)
We set up a blog to showcase the different sort of careers graduates of the School of Modern Languages had and could have. We asked alumni of the School to contribute blogs about their jobs and how they got into certain industries, from translating to marketing, journalism to the European Commission.We also have a 'Job of the Week' section in which we present a career path that students may not have thought of and explain how to get into it, what sort of skills or experience it requires and what they could do in that job.
Because languages are not seen as vocational in the same way as subjects like law or medicine, students were becoming extremely anxious about what might happen after their degrees. We wanted to give them a resource which would reassure them but also let them see that their languages degree actually opened up a number of career opportunities which they may not have thought of. Getting alumni involved also helped them to see that they may not start their dream job the month that they graduated and that it was perfectly acceptable to spend several years getting into the job and the area that they really wanted.
The blog has been very successful, thanks largely to the efforts of the PGR student who ran it. There are regular posts, which is really important, and it's very interesting to see where our students have ended up. In getting in touch to ask alumni to write blogs, we've opened up the channels of communications leading to more of them returning to give talks and attend networking events too. The blog allows us to move beyond generic 'How to get a job' sessions and allow students to pursue their own career interests in their own time and to offer them much more choice and guidance in a central location.
Employment Blog in Modern Languages
Skills and Employability
Undergraduate (all Stages)
Modern Languages
blogs
Over 200 students in a group
In response to issues