Celebrating Student Success!  

Over 200 Queen’s students received Careers, Employability and Skills awards and certificates at a special presentation in the University’s Sir William Whitla Hall on Wednesday 14 May.

The activities in which several hundred students right across the campus are engaged during the current academic year include: an Insight into Management course, workplace study tours to London, alumni career mentoring and the City and Guilds Senior Licentiateship, many of which contribute to a Degree Plus Award.

Addressing guests at the presentation ceremony, Queen’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education and Students, Professor Ellen Douglas-Cowie spoke about the necessity for Queen’s students to stand out from the crowd in an increasingly competitive graduate labour market. She commended the Degree Plus initiative and thanked the sponsors PwC and Santander Universities before conducting a Student Voice interview session which gave a number of students an opportunity to outline their experiences.

Among the students were Rachel Wilson, one of six who will be joining law firm Clyde & Co in London for a summer vacation scheme and Andrew Dickson who was matched with a Senior Vice President within Citibank on the Alumni Career Mentoring Programme, whereby he was able to talk through his career ambitions in a series of one-to-one conversations over a period of six months.

Keynote speaker at the event was Lynne Rainey, Director of Forensic Services at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, who encouraged all students to seriously consider their career options long before graduating. Ms Rainey, a 1995 Queen’s BA Modern History and Politics alumna, added: “At PwC we need to recruit over 200 graduates this year and we will invest over £100k in training each new recruit. Degree Plus helps Queen’s graduates to differentiate themselves which is hugely important as employers are investing in you, rather than your degree.”   

Also in attendance at the Awards presentation were staff from Careers, Employability and Skills at Queen’s, and from University Schools and Departments and the Students’ Union.

Degree Plus was established in 2008 within the University’s Employability and Skills Policy.This scheme, which is supported by PwC and Santander Universities, provides Queen's students with a vehicle for accrediting learning and skills developed through extracurricular involvement. Participants earn credits through a wide range of activities including volunteering, taking additional courses, becoming course representatives or undertaking a study tour or work placement.

Photo: Lynne Rainey, PWC (courtesy of Eimear Gallagher)

For more on Degree Plus, please contact Deirdre Deery, Placement Learning Manager in Careers, Employability and Skills, tel + 44 (0) 28 9097 2727, email d.deery@qub.ac.uk

 

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