walking in their shoes:
A NEW STUDENT PERSPECTIVE
KATIE CLIFF, Head of the Careers and Employability Service at Leeds Beckett University, outlines how student ambassadors have been invaluable to shaping service delivery and enhancing outreach. At the start of 2021, a much-talked about collaboration – partnership working with our students – became a reality. To date, we have employed 9 Careers Ambassadors, working set hours per week, throughout the academic year. The students we recruited identified with one or more of the characteristics defined by our Access and Participation Plan (APP).
CHALLENGING PRACTICE Working with our student team has challenged the fundamentals of our practice to consider where we begin in developing our offer and how it evolves. A current team member brings this example to life. Emma, in her final year, identifies as a student with a hidden disability. She is acutely aware of her anxieties around transitioning from the supported university environment into an unfamiliar working culture. To explore a support offer that speaks to those concerns, she has worked alongside our team and an external partner, leading us to take a deep dive into the hopes and fears of students with a disability through facilitated discussions. Themes emerging from these discussions have shaped the agenda of the activity and support that follows. This has driven students to become active participants, many of whom we previously hadn’t reached. Undoubtedly, Emma helped to present the offer using language and tone that resonated with our intended audience. Emma is not only maintaining that connection with students but also growing our overall engagement. Finally, she has forged the connection with our Disability Advice Team and worked with our Student Union to contribute to their accessibility toolkit, #DoItMyWay. Together, we are delivering a connected offer to our students.
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"Many students with disabilities feel pushed to the side or ignored, but the transition to employment events have given them the opportunity to use their voice, helping them realise they are not alone in this journey."
Emma
REAL WORLD EXPERIENCE Stepping into the shoes of others comes to life in a particularly compelling way through our evolving activity to support students who are care experienced. David joined our team in February. Having passed through the care system himself, he was a few months away from moving out of university accommodation, without any firm plans. During this time, we had been working with UNITE Foundation on a transition programme to take final year students through a series of activities, linking up careers guidance with connectors to assist with practical transitions. David’s input to this proposal, informed by his own personal experience, completely reversed the approach we had initially put forward. His questions and challenges re-framed the proposition to one-to-one interaction, with David leading those student conversations, working with their most urgent challenges, then later guiding them into individual coaching with our team.
"The students I have spoken to have appreciated the contact. I tell them I am also a student, and it puts them at ease. They are more honest and open in the conversation."
David