Lecturer and Director of Employability
The programme aims to provide career support and guidance and is committed to the academic success of students. It provides a suite of personal development opportunities, designed to help students gain experience and skills that are highly relevant to academic study.
Student-centred, inclusive and flexible, the EECS Graduate Attributes Programme (GAP) provides opportunities for engagement at all levels. It is a professional development programme for planning, promoting, and supporting the personal, professional, and career development of students. It articulates the knowledge, behaviours and attributes of successful graduates and encourages them to realise their potential.
The programme has been designed to meet a baseline standard of quality that is benchmarked against the QM core values, namely: Inclusive, Proud, Ambitious, Collegial, and Ethical. The programme also integrates EAST, the Queen Mary student career journey, designed to help students prepare for life after graduation, which consists of four stages: Explore career options, Acquire experience, Showcase your skills and experience, and Transition towards your next steps.
Each of the four domains has sub-dimensions which link to the different graduate attributes. The GAP also maps attributes to potential interview questions to aid students' transitions and bridge the academic/education-career gap, as demonstrated
in the diagram above.
The EECS Graduate Attributes Programme visually articulates the attributes of successful graduates and links these to available opportunities for students to develop themselves - this makes it highly valuable for students as they transition to the workplace.
A focus group was initially conducted with student representatives in which data was collected on their current awareness and understanding of graduate attributes and what opportunities they had to achieve these. The data collection demonstrated severe lack of awareness, and this visual wheel was created as a response.
Students in their third year of studies were then asked to use the wheel to help them reflect on the opportunities and activities they have engaged in during their time at Queen Mary. They used this reflection to underpin their description for a LinkedIn profile.
The feedback received was very positive and the framework was highly regarded among the student group. The EECS Graduate Attribute Programme will be fully launched during induction sessions for Academic Year 2023/24 and will be incorporated into advisory sessions. Students who take part throughout the year and submit a reflective piece which can then be used for their career networking profiles will receive a badge to associate with their photos. Data will continue to be collected to monitor participating students’ success in getting shortlisted for interviews.