Written by Dr Dawn Lees, Employability Co-ordinator, University of Exeter..
Undertaking a work placement, whether through vacation work, summer internships, short-term project work, casual work such as bar work or temping, or through voluntary work will help you develop your key skills and personal attributes and enhance your employability. You need to be able to identify, evidence and articulate the skills and attributes you have gained from your work experience, studies and extra-curricula activities in order for these to be useful learning experiences. As a graduate employee, you will then have knowledge and skills that will enable you to cope more readily with the demands of the workplace today. In order to make the most of your work experience, both now and in the future, you need to continue developing your self-awareness and learning about your personal strengths and weaknesses. The more you learn from all these experiences, the greater your understanding will be of your performance in the workplace. The wider the range of experiences you have from different aspects of work and social life, the more you are likely to understand the impact of those contexts on your performance. This in turn will help develop your self-awareness. Undertaking work experience can help you to improve your skills in several areas that will both support your academic work and your future career. Skills that can be developed and honed during work experience are often those that employers are actively seeking when they recruit graduates. Many recruiters want to employ graduates who are commercially aware. This means that you will have some knowledge and understanding of business issues and structures. Employers value skills such as the ability to work effectively as part of a team, good time management, flexibility and adaptability. Employers also like people who will challenge existing points of view, are able to understand and interpret large amounts of data, solve problems and have an enquiring mind. Taking the initiative, making decisions and taking responsibility for those decisions are also valuable attributes, as is the ability to deal with constructive criticism. Effective communication skills are also crucial. This includes being able to see things from another’s point of view, standing up for your own point of view, being able to negotiate and reason and having well developed listening skills. These diplomatic and political skills are fundamental to most working environments and can be developed whether your work experience is in a Solicitor’s office or burger bar. Undertaking work experience can also help you to manage your time more effectively, be more realistic and help you to increase your self-confidence and develop a more mature attitude. Even if your work placement is not directly related to the subject that you are studying, you may be able to make links between them. For example, if you are a Law Student working as a shop assistant in a Department Store, there will be many aspects of legislation that will affect your working life, such as Health and Safety Legislation, Consumer Information Acts and Trade Description Acts. It will be useful to see how the legislation is dealt with from a practical viewpoint in addition to learning about the theory in lectures. Taking time to reflect on the experiences you have encountered during your work experience, and showing how you have changed and developed as a result, is an important aspect of learning through the working environment. Related topics
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