Introducing the UWE Bristol Futures Award- A Personal
Reflection
Sandra Parry - [email protected]
Senior Careers Consultant, Employability and Enterprise, University of
the West of England
In 2013 I was tasked by the then Pro Vice Chancellor (Learning and Teaching & Student
Experience) Julie McLeod, to pull together a proposal for an Award which could be used as a
vehicle to showcase the co-curricular activities the University of the West of England, Bristol
provides, which support achievement of ‘graduateness’ attributes and skills. This was at the time
of two extra-curricular awards stimulus reports from the QAA, one from CRA1 and the other from
AGCAS2, which indicated a big growth in these awards across the sector and a range of benefits
of introducing these sorts of award, as a way of enhancing student learning, development and
career management.
As an institution we were looking for a way to bring together a whole range of experiences including
volunteering, work experience in a range of formats (e.g. placements, internships, work shadowing
etc.), university projects, involvement in student societies and so on. We were aiming to meet the
challenge of increasing the reach and awareness of these opportunities amongst both students
and staff, as we knew that engagement with these wider opportunities can have a significant
impact on student retention, satisfaction, achievement and graduate employability.
We wanted to develop our students’ ability to understand the concept of ‘graduate identity’
developed through the range of learning and experience gained at UWE; and to create a
meaningful use of section 6 on the HEAR.
One of the key elements of introducing this successfully was to get buy-in at all levels of the
university. Having the sponsorship of the PVC gave crucial backing to the project and a series of
stakeholder events and detailed consultation with academic and professional staff and the student
union ensured contributions were heard from across the university. The positioning of the Award
was very much a whole institution initiative rather than one located within the employability service
and there was a clear focus on bringing together a wide range of the exciting activity taking place
at UWE. My experience of talking to staff was characterised by their overwhelming positivity about
the potential that the Award could bring to students and their activities.
In order to bring together the reflective element as well as capturing the detail of activity engaged
in, we decided that UWE students would produce an e-portfolio through our central system,
InfoHub. As a large university with a diverse student population, we were guided by the desire to
create something that was manageable alongside students other commitments, including those of
studying and others such as caring responsibilities and financial constraints. This influenced the
THE CENTRE FOR RECORDING ACHIEVEMENT 104 -108 WALLGATE, WIGAN, WN3 4AB |
11