Dear Student,

Re: Your employability

We know that many of you will be thinking of coming to university in order to get a great job at the end of your studies. We think that’s important too and so during your time at university you will be encouraged to focus not only on your academic studies but also on the development of your professional attitudes, attributes and abilities.

To start you off, during the first year you will take two modules - Business Communication Skills and Business Information Skills.  These make sure that your business IT skills are up to scratch; provide generic study skills support to help you adjust to the requirements of Higher Education; and help you make the most of the wide range of personal & professional development opportunities available to you whilst you are at university. Similar inputs will occur throughout your degree programme and you will use the Pebblepad e-portfolio system to record and reflect on your professional development from day one to graduation.

At an early stage in your first year you will be given the option of applying to study abroad. This is a scheme where you study at one of our partner institutions outside the UK during the Autumn semester of your second year, and is a great way of enhancing your employability and widening your understanding of the world.

During your second year you will have the option of undertaking the placement preparation programme, which is designed to help you secure a 1-year placement and make the most of your Professional Training Year. The university’s Careers Service provides supportive resources and workshops for this programme and a dedicated team of tutors and administrators provide individual support and guidance both before and during the placement year. The Professional Training Year at Surrey is second to none and you can find out more about it by accessing the Professional Training FAQs.

As you near graduation you will have access to the wide range of support and guidance that the university’s Career Service provide for final year students. These provisions include; careers fairs, employer workshops and presentations where employers talk about their sector/company/recruitment processes and are happy to talk to interested individuals; career guidance, mock-interviews, help with your CVs and applications, and of course access to a wide range of job bulletins and other online resources. Of course you can make use of these services at any stage during your studies. The Careers Service is there to help YOU.

We will encourage you to start thinking about getting ‘work-ready’ and building up your CV from day one, and so throughout your time at Surrey you will have access to a range of online resources designed to help you develop transferable skills, engage in meaningful work experience and summer internships, make the most of your part-time work, and engage in socially-focused activities that will enhance your CV.  We have called this focus on Employability the Professional Development thread and it is represented diagrammatically here.

So, if you believe, as we do, that it is important to make the most of every life opportunity and that employers are looking for ‘more than just a degree certificate’, then apply and take advantage of what Surrey offers.

Kind regards

Lindy Blair
Professional Development and Employability