What is this blog for?

This blog has been created to help students in the School of History develop your employability prospects, and to help you throughout your degree to prepare to enter the wider world of careers and employment.

Through the drop-down menus above, you’ll find signposts to all the employability-related services, awards, schemes, and opportunities available at the University. You’ll find advice on how to develop your skills and experience to prepare you for your career, and to help you decide on what that career should be!

Scroll down to find out more about the employability workshops and events going on across campus, and about opportunities for volunteering, placements, internships, paid work, and other work experience available to you.


CCCU events on routes into teaching coming up

Postgraduate Routes into Teaching Primary – Webinar

Tuesday 26 March, 6-6.30pm – online event

An expert from our PGCE Primary team will talk about our range of postgraduate primary teacher training courses, including School Direct. You will also have the opportunity to ask questions. For details and to book, visit www.canterbury.ac.uk/teaching-primary


Postgraduate Routes into Teaching Secondary – Webinar

Tuesday 2 April, 6-6.30pm – online event

Nick Oakley, Senior Lecturer, will talk about CCCU’s range of postgraduate secondary teacher training courses, including School Direct. You will also have the opportunity to ask questions. For details and to book, visit www.canterbury.ac.uk/teaching-secondary


Postgraduate Routes into Teaching Open Day

Saturday 18 May, 10am-2pm at Augustine House, Canterbury

Discover CCCU’s wide range of courses in early years, primary, secondary and further education. For details and to book, visit www.canterbury.ac.uk/pg-routes-into-teaching

Skills development sessions with PwC – 27th Feb

PricewaterhouseCoopers will be delivering a pair of skills development sessions on campus on 27th February. Read on for details, and the links to book your place at these sessions.


Your degree can take you anywhere! Discover your skills with PwC!

13:15, 27th February, KS11

This session will focus on how you can utilise the transferable skills you have gained from your studies and apply these to the workforce. Irrespective of your degree, all students will have acquired soft and technical skills from their studies that are relevant to a career in professional services. PwC, a multinational professional services network, will provide some suggestions on other ways you can develop your employability skills, as well as practice some interview questions and discuss the PwC application process.

Click the link above to book your place.


Master your Video Interview Skills with PwC

14:30, 27th February, KS11

This session will cover what you should expect from a video interview and how you should approach this stage of the application process. We will discuss how to prepare in advance, common mistakes, the importance of body language and tips for a successful interview. You will have the chance to review real life good and bad example case studies, and have the opportunity to practice filming yourselves and observe how you come across on camera. A great opportunity to practice your interview technique with expert advice from a Recruitment Officer at PwC!

Click the link above to book your place.

History in TV and the Media at the History Festival – Wed 13th Feb

The School of History’s History Festival will be held on Wednesday 13th February. The festival will be a range of talks and discussion workshops throughout the afternoon, discussing key themes of history and their relevance to the modern day.

As part of the History Festival, Rebecca Fairbank and Sue Hills from BBC History Programming will be coming down to offer a Q&A session on working at the interface of History and the media, and history employability in TV/the media.

If you would like to attend this Q&A or any of the sessions running as part of the History Festival, see the schedule below. We hope to see you there!


Careers in broadcasting, production and the media – BV Expo

BVE is the largest broadcast, production and media and tech exhibition in the UK attracting over 12,000 creative professionals, business leaders and tech professionals every year. This is an excellent opportunity to learn about all of the careers in media and production, network with employers, and attend accredited seminars. You can find the seminar programme here: https://www.bvexpo.com/programme

The expo is free for students, and the University has organised a bus to take students up and back from the Canterbury campus (leaving at 8pm, returning at 6.30pm). For more details and to book a place, head to https://careers.kent.ac.uk/leap/event.html?id=3733&service=Careers+Service

Location: ExCeL London, Royal Victoria Dock, 1 Western Gateway, London E16 1XL

Date: Thursday 28th February

Canterbury Cathedral – Oral History Project

The Canterbury Cathedral Archives are looking for volunteer interviewers for their oral history project, The Memories Project. The role of Volunteer Oral History Interviewer is supported by The Canterbury Journey, which aims to engage new, hard-to-reach and diverse audiences with heritage and the collections. The Oral History Interviewer is key to unlocking Canterbury Cathedrals living community archive. The interviewer will collate peoples experiences and memories of the Cathedral and city through wide ranging interviews.

Oral History Interviewers will receive training on how to conduct interviews that allow a person to tell their own story in their own words. Interviewers will also be given training in how to use the recording equipment. It is hoped that interested volunteers will be able to commit to conducting at least 3 interviews over the course of a year.

The link below will bring you to Canterbury Cathedral’s vacancy page, which has more information available on this role, and through which you can apply. The deadline for applications is Sunday 3 March, 2019.

https://www.canterbury-cathedral.org/get-involved/employment/vacancies/

Scholarships to study or work in China

The University is advertising two £1,000 scholarships to support two current Stage 2 students interested in studying or completing a work placement in China.

The University has established this fund in recognition of a generous donation of £20,000 from University of Kent alumnus and former Acting Governor of Hong Kong, Sir David Akers-Jones.

The deadline to apply is Thursday 31st January – for more details about the scholarships and the application process, head to the entry on the University’s scholarships page: https://www.kent.ac.uk/scholarships/search/FNADDAJHKC01.

If you would like more information about studying abroad, head to the University’s Go Abroad page. If you are considering a work placement, either in the UK or abroad, please feel free to get in touch with Jon Beer at J.Beer@kent.ac.uk.

Careers in the Civil Service – Wed 23rd Jan

The University is hosting a pair of events on campus tomorrow (Wednesday 23rd January) for all students interested in learning more about the careers available through the Civil Service.


Ask the Civil Service Fast Stream – 10am-12noon, CES Building

Abigail Lowy, from the Civil Service Fast Stream Outreach Team, will be on hand to answer any questions you may have regarding applying, the recruitment stages and working for the Civil Service. Abigail graduated from Kent in 2017 with a Business Degree and joined the Fast Stream straight after, she is now in her second year on the scheme, having worked in the Home Office on Police spending, and HMRC on EU-Exit.

You must book a place to attend this talk.


Alumni Careers in the Civil Service – 1pm-3pm, COLT2

The School of Politics and International Relations has organised a talk by a number of their former students who have gone on to careers in the Civil Service (including the current Chief of Staff in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office).They have opened this talk up to any History students who are interested in hearing about the careers available in the Civil Service.

To go along, book a place via TargetConnect.

Employability Points – get rewarded this summer

This is a guest post from Matt Cook, the University’s Employability Points Officer. If you haven’t signed up to the scheme, read on for reasons why you might wish to!


With the Spring Term now underway, don’t forget you only have until 5pm on 18th March 2019 to claim your Employability Points for this academic year!

If this is the first you have heard about Employability Points, to explain further; the Employability Points (EP) Scheme allocate points to students for completing co-curricular activities on or off campus. This can range from joining the History society (15 points) and attending workshops (5-15 points) to volunteering (10-40 points) and undertaking University roles (25-35 points). Ultimately, if it is co-curricular, you can claim points!

Continue reading “Employability Points – get rewarded this summer”