Uni wins 'best employability strategy' at national recruitment awards

Staffordshire University has been recognised with a national award for its success in graduate employability.

The University won the award for Best University Employability Strategy at the TARGETjobs National Graduate Recruitment Awards 2020.

The award recognises Staffordshire University’s commitment to student employability built around a peer-to-peer coaching model which empowers trained student Career Coaches to truly understand the challenges that fellow students face.

Judging for this award was led by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales with a judging panel mainly made up of employers including Credit Suisse, BlackRock and Mott MacDonald.

Staffordshire topped the field in the category where the shortlist also featured Anglia Ruskin University; University of East Anglia; Goldsmiths, University of London; University of Greenwich; University of Hertfordshire; University of Huddersfield; University of Leicester; University of Northampton; University of Reading.

Martin Perfect, Staffordshire University’s Head of Student & Graduate Employability, said: “Employing students to deliver one-to-one coaching breaks down many barriers to student engagement we have experienced. This approach means we can then crucially nuance our Employability Strategy at school and department level and deliver at the scale required to have maximum impact.

“Our Career Relationship Managers work in close partnership with our schools to ensure students can achieve, learn, reflect and articulate themselves successfully.”

The University’s employability team works directly with academics to ensure that along with industry-specific skills, a broader range of transferrable skills are embedded into the curriculum.

The careers team are embracing technology to better engage students, recent examples of this being the introduction of an online chat function and video interviewing software that utilises Artificial Intelligence to analyse interview performance and provide detailed feedback.

Across the last three years Staffordshire University has seen a significant transformation in the level of support offered to students in the area of Career and Personal Development.

This improvement has been a real factor in the University being awarded TEF Gold and being shortlisted in the prestigious ‘University of the Year’ category at the Times Higher Education Awards 2020.

Maria Scrivens

Communications Manager

t: 01782 294375

m: 07766 520339

e: m.c.scrivens@staffs.ac.uk

Staffordshire University is the Connected University; connected to the needs of students, academic partners, business and society. Our main city campus in Stoke-on-Trent features excellent learning and teaching facilities and good transport links. We have specialist Centres of Excellence in Healthcare Education at Stafford and Shrewsbury.  

We were recognised with a Gold award in the 2019 Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF) for delivering consistently outstanding teaching, learning and outcomes for students.  

We have been shortlisted for University of the Year at the THE Awards 2020 and were named ‘Midlands University of the Year’ at the Midlands Business Awards 2020. 
 
Staffordshire University has signed up to the Civic University Agreement, pledging to play a leading role in improving the regional economy and enhancing quality of life in local communities. We were recognised in the top 15 for social inclusion in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021. We aim to be a leading university for digital technologies building on our proud computing heritage and in 2019 launched Staffordshire University London’s Digital Institute which is committed to preparing students for careers in new and emerging tech industries. 

We are a Top 250 Young University (Times Higher Education Young University Rankings 2020) and are connected globally, with more than 11,000 people are studying Staffordshire University degrees overseas.