Employers are increasingly looking for graduates that are proficient in ‘softer’ transferable skills in addition to specialised knowledge from a degree to prepare them for today’s world of work.

BU’s new Skills Development Programme is free and available to all current BU students. It provides a structured approach to career development and helps students build confidence in the personal and professional skills that employers are looking for and how to apply them to a job, placement or graduate position.

Find out how your students can get the most out of the programme and showcase their development to employers below:

The “My Skills Development” area on Brightspace

From Tuesday 19 October, students and staff can access the new “My Skills Development” area on Brightspace, where a variety of e-learning resources, events and LinkedIn Learning pathways will be available. Resources in this section are mapped to nine key skill groupings and are organised so students can learn at their own pace and effectively fit in development around their studies. Staff can use these resources alongside their units to help embed employability into their curriculum.

Find out how students can get the most out of the “My Skills Development” section by exploring the new pages and watching this video on YouTube.

BU skills masterclasses

We’ve launched a new series of skills masterclasses taking place this semester. These sessions are co-delivered with industry speakers and academics to provide insight into different industries. Topics covered in our masterclasses are based on skills we know are in growing demand within industry and this semester we are focusing on: Professional, Sustainable, Digital, Human and Global Futures. We encourage you to share events that are relevant to your students throughout the academic year and are always looking for academics to be a part of the sessions to champion the work that we do. If you would like to get involved please contact skillsdevelopmentprogramme@bournemouth.ac.uk. You can find out more about the series by visiting the events page on MyCareerHub.

Coming soon

In addition to the masterclasses and development resources now available on Brightspace, we’re working on a structured skills programme, similar to the Global Talent Programme. More information will be available about this next year.

You can find more information about the Skills Development Programme on the dedicated pages on the BU website.