Student/Staff Partnerships
Title and contact details (name and email) of project lead
Beverley Gardiner, Careers Adviser
[email protected]
WHAT?
Last year GCU Careers Service, as part of a GGAP funded project and working in partnership with
academics in the computing department, invited groups of final year computing games students to bid
for the opportunity to develop resources for the Service in line with a brief. Students were asked to
propose an outline for how they would develop “innovative, useful and student-friendly web-based
resources to help in the search for work experience”. Several bids impressed and two groups were
selected. The first group produced a game called “CV Savvy”, an interactive resource that takes students
through the different sections of a CV that would support a job search for work experience, part-time
work or placements (as opposed to a graduate CV). Players are invited to select options to include in
each section and receive feedback on their choices. The second resource is called “Experience Counts”
and the interactive theme is designed to help students understand the value of part-time work and
other activities not directly related to their degree and often undervalued by students but which offer
rich contextual evidence of transferrable skills, personal qualities and attributes. Advice and signposting
to relevant careers resources available from the Careers Service is scattered throughout the different
stages of both games.
SO WHAT?
Participating students experienced the challenges around working to a client brief and budget. They
took the projects through from brief to design and implementation. They participated in regular
progress meetings and developed their communication, negotiation, presentation and applied technical
games development skills in the context of a paid project related to their course of study. Involvement
in the projects also gave them directly relevant evidence to support their graduate job applications and
CV content. The Careers Service was supplied with two interactive resources to be included in the
refreshed website. It is hoped that these resources, when active, will engage younger and articulating
students in the career planning process earlier than usual and encourage them to access the wider
services available from the Careers Service.
Both the Careers Service and the academic department benefited from developing closer working
relationships and links that will ensure that students, in turn, will be more aware of how to access
support from us throughout the duration of their studies. It is hoped that greater awareness and
engagement will improve the prospects for success of students as they prepare for the graduate
recruitment process.
NOW WHAT? (consider what you would stop, start or continue)
The Head of Service for Careers and the Web Development Team are in the process of embedding
updates, including the two new interactive resources in a refreshed Careers Service webpage. Relevant
sections of the GCU Careers Service, including the interactive resources and advice for articulating
students, will be accessible via links from the City of Glasgow College website to support students there
who will be joining GCU following completion of their HN qualifications. The resources will need to be
piloted and evaluated when possible in liaison with the Web Development Team.