About us

The Careers and Employability team values its relationships with academic schools and departments. Mutual understanding and co-operation are the foundations upon which our work and new developments are built. Links are becoming increasingly important as the Teaching Excellence Framework and Graduate Outcomes and other external forces drive the employability agenda forward. 

The following information will be helpful for all academic colleagues in understanding the role of Careers and Employability but will be particularly beneficial for the liaison officer. 

We aim to

•  Increase students’ and graduates’ awareness of the range of career options open to them when they graduate.
• Develop the career planning skills of students and graduates – their ability to reflect on strengths and knowledge, and how these relate to career opportunities.
• Help students and graduates to recognize the skills and knowledge that they already have and apply these to the career opportunities that exist for graduates.
• Ensure students and graduates have the skills to be able to assess the graduate job market and identify appropriate opportunities.
• Give students and graduates the confidence, knowledge and skills to complete effective job applications. 

We will do this by: 

• Offering careers guidance appointments that will help students and graduates to understand what kind of opportunities will suit them best.
• Providing access to the latest resources and tools that will enable students to develop their employability skills e.g. Keele Careers Online offers a CV review function called CV 360
• Holding regular sessions that will give students and graduates the opportunity to see a careers consultant quickly, to have short queries dealt with promptly or referred on appropriately.
• Offering the opportunity for students to meet graduate employers to enable them to better understand the graduate job market and tailor their applications effectively.
• Ensuring that all of the team is well trained, all the Careers Consultants have the appropriate professional qualifications and are keeping up to date with the latest developments.
• Requesting feedback on the services that we offer and, based on these comments, making adjustments to what we do or how we do it.

Core activities comprise

• Co design, delivery and assessment of career management and experiential learning within the curriculum.
• Individual and group sessions with students (e.g. career choice/transition skills).
• Employer engagement (national and local networks e.g. Institute of Student Employers.
• Support for internships, placements and experiential learning

Careers Consultant Team - All of our Careers Consultants are attached to a Faculty:

• Andrew Whitmore – Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
• Sarah Longwell – Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (Law, Humanities)
• Bernadette Grannon – Faculty of Natural Sciences
• Ben Simkins – Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (KBS, SPGS, Foundation Years, Liberal Arts) 

How can we help you ? 
 
We are based in the library and are open Monday- Friday providing both physical and online appointments see – www.keele.ac.uk/careers 
If you would like to discuss how the Careers and Employability team can support you, please contact: 
 
Lisa McWilliams, Head of Careers and Employability 
l.h.m.mcwilliams@keele.ac.uk