Enhance your employability

In the graduate job market, it is now becoming increasingly essential to find ways to stand out from the crowd! Academic success remains imperative, but employers are increasingly looking for more and in particular, soft skills and relevant work experience.

To ensure you gain both these skills and experiences, the University of Kent created the Employability Points (EP) Scheme.

The first part of the scheme requires you to undertake co-curricular activities and some relevant examples may include:

Join the Current Affairs and/or Model United Nations Societies.
Get involved with Community Action Groups such as Girl Up and Amnetsy International.
Become a Student Ambassador and/or Academic Peer Mentor.
Get involved with Kent Union volunteering projects.
Attend conferences and open lectures, notably the POLIR Open Forum.
Attend the POLIR employability events running throughout the year.

By getting involved with these activities, you can log them on MyFolio and in turn receive ‘points’.

You earn as many points as possible whilst at you are studying at Kent and towards the end of Term Two, if you have earned enough points, you can use them to apply for EP ‘rewards’.

Rewards include internships (cost 200 points), work experience (cost 150 points), work shadowing (cost 100 points) and experience days (cost 75 points) to name a few.

Over 140 companies and organisations support the EP Scheme and for this year, we can already confirm the following rewards:

Tunbridge Wells Borough Council – shadowing the Chief Executive
Civil Service Fast Stream – shadow senior civil servants.
Medway Council – details TBC
DSTL – details TBC
Sevenoaks Town Council – research internship.
Demelza – fundraising management placement.

However, you may also be aware that as a Politics and International Relations student you are developing some amazing transferable skills and in the past, students have also undertaken EP rewards in project management, digital marketing, journalism and more!

You can also see how a number of POLIR students have benefited through the EP Scheme, for example:

It may be the case you are already undertaking co-curricular activities and if so, you just need to claim your points to get rewarded! If not, there is literally hundreds of activities available for you to get involved with, and by doing-so, you will not only enhance your University of Kent experience, but you will be recognised and rewarded by the EP Scheme.

For more information, visit www.kent.ac.uk/employabilitypoints or contact the team via employabilitypoints@kent.ac.uk

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