A half-day HR workshop was held on 14th of March 2012 at Kent Business School, the University of Kent for our BA (ERHRM) and MSc (HRM) students. It started off with a 45 minute session on what to expect on HR graduate schemes and how to address interviews and competency tests. This was conducted by Dr Maddy Wyatt, recently appointed to Kent Business School. We were also privileged to have four HR practitioners (Julie Waller of JPW Business Solutions; Patricia Stretton of Peopleface2face; Alastair Goss and Simon Black, University of Kent HR Advisors) participate in a ‘Question Time’ panel discussion with more than 40 students who asked many questions ranging from ‘what was the most exciting thing you did in your HR career?’, to ‘what is a typical HR practitioner’s workday like?’. They also asked questions about how they could get into various careers in HR.
Trish Stretton of Peopleface2face commented that “it was inspiring to see from the breadth and depth of questions asked the potential of this next generation of HR professionals”. Ihinosen Mayaki, a second year BA (ERHRM) student enthused that “it was great! Well organised and very insightful. It also came at a good time for us second years as it helps put our future plans into perspective”. Final year students Matylda Rabczenko, Sophie Williams and Bodunrin Akinola agreed and thought that the workshop gave them a lot of information about what employers would look for in graduates, across different industries, a useful supplement to the theories they’ve learnt, and provided useful information about the importance of CIPD qualifications.
Dr Pamela Yeow, Director of the BA (ERHRM) programme, who organised the event commented that “this event was organised in response to our students’ requests to meet HR practitioners in the real world. We thought that this would add to their learning as they could speak to these individuals directly and ask them questions that would affect their future careers in this area of work”. Dr Patricia Lewis, Director of Student Experience was pleased that the event was so well attended and received and said that “Kent Business School is committed to preparing our students for the labour market”.