What is Equal Opportunities in Careers?

Equal Opportunities in Careers is an initiative that offers eligible students opportunities for tailored employability funding and internships, as well as community workshops and activities. The full eligibility list can be found on the ‘About Us’ page, but as a generalisation, it extends to undergraduate students from the UK, who come from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds. The majority of students are automatically included under the Equal Opportunities in Careers offer at the point of enrolment when you disclose your details. This may not be the case for everyone, so we also operate on an opt-in basis. It is a wide criteria, so that our offer can support a range of issues and barriers to positive graduate outcomes. So this may be your first time engaging in extracurricular career activities. However, being a part of this diverse and vibrant community will only bring you positive outcomes through support and inspiration from fellow students also looking to achieve their potential.

Why is this important?

Words like ‘social mobility’ and ‘widening participation’ aren’t just buzzwords that are bounced around; they are important societal matters that universities take seriously. Statistically speaking, students from widening participation (WP) backgrounds have already overcome a number of challenges to gain a place at university. Also, people from non-traditional backgrounds are less likely to attain higher paying careers, earning up to 10% less than others on the same course at their university. Our university is committed to addressing the inequality in higher education and graduate outcomes, by offering additional employability advice and support. 

How can we support you?

Starting to think about the next steps after graduation for many students isn’t obvious, and can sometimes feel overwhelming. You may also face other challenges such as a lack of networking contacts, worries about disclosing personal details for fear of discrimination or a need for financial support to access employment opportunities like interviews. To combat this, throughout your time at university, we aim to offer tailored and exclusive employability support to give you the confidence to pursue the next steps in your career journey, no matter what that might be. 

What can you expect this year?

Firstly, by using this blog and keeping up to date with the newsletter, you can tap into a whole host of employability opportunities happening throughout the year. The calendar on the Home page is a great snapshot as to what’s coming up in the month, including events and programmes that are relevant to the criteria for the offer, as well as exclusive Equal Opportunities workshops and resources. To apply and book onto something that peaks your interest, head over to the ‘Events’ and the ‘Programmes and Courses’ page. 

Secondly, we operate an Equal Opportunities fund, that is run in monthly funding rounds, to help you engage in more employability activities such as travel expenses to interviews or needing professional clothing to attend a conference. To find out when the next funding round is and more information on the fund, head to the ‘Funding’ page. 

Additionally, you have the opportunity to gain paid work experience in the summer through our exclusively sourced SME summer internship scheme. More information about this will be released closer to the time.