Today, student blogger Sunna Akhtar first year Psychology student speaks about attending our virtual Graduate+ Week from a student perspective.
As a first year student this was my first ever Graduate+ week. I was extremely excited to attend the sessions and log them towards my Graduate+ bronze award.
Here is a summary of the six sessions that I attended:
Monday
Be in control of your future by taking control of your career plan now
This session was delivered by Curriculo solutions and I gained an insight into the Curriculo solutions industry engagement programme and why we need to start planning our career right now!
Through a variety of facts and data we were shown how employers are not only looking for academic qualifications. It was really interesting for me to see what else employers are looking for, so I am able to work to improve these areas.
The rest of the session focused on self-awareness, self-reflection and self-development. We were shown how we can sign up for the programme and the different modules. The programme looks really interesting and I cannot wait to develop my skills.
Preparing to volunteer
I decided to attend the volunteering session as I have been looking to get involved in some remote volunteering. This session was really insightful, and I was able to understand the benefits of volunteering for example: building confidence and making a positive difference to our community.
I learnt about how the Careers+ team can help me to find specific volunteering opportunities to align with my career plan and about the BCU mentoring scheme which I didn’t know about before. I really valued this session as I did not know this support was available to me.
Tuesday
Communication skills
This session was delivered by delivered by One Degree Difference. One of the main focuses of this session was facial expressions. We were first shown the most common emotional micro-expressions and their meanings and then we had a task where we had to identify the expressions in different images.
This was really fun, and I really enjoyed the interactive element!
Studying for Careers in Health, Psychology and Social Work
As a Psychology student and someone who wants to work in Health, I was really excited to attend this session. I was able to hear from a variety of people and what career path they took.
I gained an insight into the different careers I can go into after my degree and the different routes available. At the end, we were able to ask questions which was really great.
Wednesday
Presentation skills
I attended this session as I have a presentation very soon and I wanted to get some tips for it. From the session I have taken away the best colour schemes to use for my presentation, how to manage myself and the audience and how to be properly prepared beforehand.
I think these skills will really benefit me throughout my time at university.
Thursday
Defeating procrastination
This session was also delivered by One Degree Difference and it was one of my favourites! First of all, we had to make a note on what we were procrastinating about and in my case, it is writing lecture notes.
We then heard an anecdote and explanation to why we procrastinate and What is the self gratification monkey. We then set a goal to complete whatever we were procrastinating on by 5pm on that day.
This session helped me figure out what is distracting me, and I felt really motivated afterwards to start my work and complete it by 5pm! Which I did!
I have really loved how all the sessions were recorded since I was not able to attend them all live. Also, I was really surprised how engaging and fun they were despite being online. Overall, I really enjoyed all the sessions I attended, and I cannot wait for the next Graduate+ week!
View our NEW Graduate+ On Demand service here - https://graduateplus.bcu.ac.uk/ondemand/