Meet Bethany Lane: Highly Commended Cardiff Award student

What motivated you to join the Cardiff Award?

I had heard a lot about the Cardiff Award, and I seemed to already be doing many things that could contribute towards it, such as being a Student Mentor. I thought that it was worth going the extra mile and working towards it, as I thought that it would also enable me to find out more about developing my employability skills.

When I started the Award, I wanted to find a way to reflect on the roles and work experience that I had and was involved in. The reflection log is the perfect place for that, and I found that being able to reflect on my roles enabled me to develop my employability skills because it meant that I was seeing both what I was doing well and where I could improve.

I also wanted to improve how I approached applying for jobs. This included how I wrote my CVs and cover letters and how to improve my composure and approach to answers in interviews. The e-learning for this did not take long and I noticed improvements after I had done them, that I can use after university. The following CV and cover letter I wrote led to interviews. I was able to achieve my initial goals and am now more confident in these areas thanks to the Cardiff Award.

Do you feel the Cardiff Award helped you develop employability skills?

What I enjoyed most about the Award was being able to consider how my roles have developed me as a person, not only making me more employable but more confident in myself too. I also feel like the Award has encouraged me to develop my skills and it has showed me how to develop in areas I did not know I needed to or where I was not sure how to, such as in the writing of my CV and cover letters.

Would you recommend the Award to other students?

I would highly recommend the Award to other students. It is a really rewarding experience though and I felt very proud having completed it.
I have a few top tips that helped me:

1) Don’t stress! You can take your time, even if you are trying to do it in one year. The online modules should not take too long, and the team are super supportive if you have any issues.
2) You are probably already doing something that can contribute towards the hours for the award. Have a part-time job? Done some work experience in the summer? Maybe even some volunteer work? It can all count and the modules are helpful in conjunction with the Careers and Employability team who can help you find work experience too.
3) Have fun with it and do what works best for you! Filling out e-learning and a reflection log may seem like a lot but doing a bit each day or setting aside a day or two to get some of it filled out really helped me out and I was done before I knew it. Plus, I found my roles fun and rewarding so that really helped me to get things done.

What did you enjoy most about the Cardiff Award?

What I enjoyed most about the award was being able to consider how my roles have developed me as a person, not only making me more employable but more confident in myself too. I also feel like the award has encouraged me to develop my skills and it has showed me how to develop in areas I did not know I needed to or where I was not sure how to, such as in the writing of my CV and cover letters.

Bethany Lane, Final Year English Literature and Creative Writing

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