Careers Advisory Service praised for its delivery of advice and guidance

Newly refurbished and relocated service receives top accreditation - News

Friday 30 January 2009
By Naomi Weston

The recently refurbished Careers Advisory Service (CAS) at Imperial College London has been praised for its varied programme of workshops and seminars, drop in sessions for students, extensive resources library and new website.

The work of CAS has been accredited for its careers guidance services to students and alumni of the College by Matrix, the gold standard for information and advice services.

CAS has been awarded the Matrix Standard Certificate, which looked at eight different elements of CAS from how aware people are of the service to the quality of the information available.

Matrix conducted interviews with users of the service including students, staff, alumni and employers to find out how they find the resources. A number of strengths were indentified including the redesigned CAS website, which now has rolling news feeds, an online events calendar and booking facilities for seminars and appointments with careers advisors. There are specific sections on the website for different year groups and more information tailored towards PhD students and postdoctoral staff.

Matrix also praised the Service’s relationship with employers. CAS currently works with a very wide variety of companies across all sectors and employers regularly visit to discuss how best to promote their opportunities to Imperial students. The number of careers fairs held was expanded last year, including the introduction of subject specific fairs and forums as well as events catering specifically for PhD students.

Elspeth Farrar, Director of the CAS, says: “We are delighted with this success. The whole team pulled together and we were determined to excel. It made the whole team reflect on what service we are providing and ask if we are doing it the right way. We take feedback really seriously and regularly look at what people think of us by asking students and alumni to fill out questionnaires after coming in.”

She adds: “Over the last year we have also focused more on addressing the needs of international students by running careers fairs in China, Hong Kong and Singapore. We have also started running events specifically for PhD students as they have very different needs to undergraduates. Plus we now have more targeted information to help students who may be concerned about the current economic slowdown, for example, we have introduced a new weekly seminar focusing on job hunting strategies in the recession.”

Elspeth Farrar gives advice at a careers fair

CAS has intoruduced new initiatives over the last year to improve the service provided. Due to popular demand, there is increased availability of short 20 minute appointments with careers advisors for students and alumni. Longer forty minute appointments are also still available for more in depth advice. New fast five minute while-you-wait CV checks are also available.

Over the last year CAS has delivered an extensive programme of seminars and workshops on various aspects of career planning and job search skills. They range from employer led sessions to centrally delivered careers adviser sessions on topics including, “How to write a winning CV” and “How to Complete On-line Application Forms”.

The seminars are supplemented by workshops covering interview skills, job application procedures and how to make the most of employer presentations, which take place throughout the year. The careers advisors also work closely with departments to deliver a wide range of careers initiatives targeted for specific groups of students.

CAS moved to its new location on Level 5 of the Sherfield Building on the South Kensington Campus in December 2007 and is now bigger with more seating, computers and meeting rooms for seminars and tutorials.

Since October 2008 nearly 4,000 students have registered with the online CAS system and over 1480 students have booked in for individual appointments and 6,500 students have booked on to the various seminars, forums, workshops and lunchtime careers talks.

For more information about the CAS please visit www3.imperial.ac.uk/careers