The University of Central England (UCE) is proud of its commitment to enhancing the employability prospects of its ethnic minority students and, on a regional level, is leading the way with the implementation of two initiatives specifically designed to address these matters.
Run by the Careers Service, the first initiative is the UCE Mentoring Scheme for ethnic minority students, which is a unique initiative that links ethnic minority students to professionals from local business and organisations.
The primary aim is to enhance personal and professional development of both parties through a series of customised one-to-one relationships, which focus on identified areas of learning. The scheme lasts for six months from
November to May and students typically meet their mentors at the workplace on a monthly basis.
All parties benefit by participating in this scheme. Students are given the opportunity to develop essential work related skills, to meet potentially useful contacts, gain a greater understanding of how a given organisation
functions and enhance individual confidence levels. Employers receive free training in mentoring skills and develop stronger links on campus as well as sending a very positive message to the community about their attitude to
diversity.
Roselove Gyimah, a second year LLB Law student, was mentored by a solicitor from the West Mercia Crown Prosecution Service. She said: Overall I am more
confident and have a positive outlook towards my career development. This has led to a work placement in a law firm. It is an invaluable opportunity for future employability.
The second UCE initiative is the Work Experience Scheme, which aims to broker work experience placements in a variety of forms.
Imran Hussain, a second year BA English Literature student, wanted to gain a 'taste' of what life was like as a secondary school teacher. He undertook a placement in a school where he assisted a teacher of English for a number of weeks. He said: 'this was an inspiring experience for me and has fuelled my hopes of becoming a teacher. The scheme helped me to reflect on the skills I was developing and to articulate their value. It also encouraged me to
exploit my ethnicity as a positive asset to any organisation and in particular in an employment sector where there are probably very few male Asians.
Paul O'Donnell, Mentoring Co-ordinator at UCE, said: Research shows that ethnic minority graduates are continuing to experience significant barriers
in the transition from university into successful career paths and there is a growing disparity between the representation of ethnic minority students
at Higher Education level and that in the graduate labour force. Ethnic minority graduates are more than twice as likely to be unemployed after graduation when compared with their white counterparts.
We are positive that these two schemes being run by UCE will help ethnic minority students to make the transition into employment after graduation.
Both schemes are proving extremely popular with students and employers alike, and in fact, large multi-national organisations, government departments and SMEs have all participated so far.
We are always keen to recruit more mentors and set up more work experience placements. If you would like to know more about these schemes please contact me on 0121 331 5588 or by e-mail: Paul.O'Donnell@uce.ac.uk
UCE initiatives enhances ethnic minority employment
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