Video transcript: Progression Beyond HE

Transcript for the video embedded on the Access and Student Success Strategy page.

[Music] 

[Alongside Haryati Mohammed, this heading appears:  Haryati Mohammed, Equality and Liberation Officer, LUU] 

Haryati says: We have a strong track record in supporting students to achieve their goals. We offer inclusive activities throughout their academic journey, empowering them to make informed decisions about their future. In the 22/23 academic year, we launched our ‘Student Opportunities and Futures Strategy’. This sits alongside the Access and Student Success Strategy and outlines our holistic approach to enabling, empowering, and enhancing student opportunity and career prospects through all aspects of the student experience.  

[The text ‘Student opportunities team’ floats on to the screen, next to Haryati] 

Haryati continues: Our Student Opportunities team made significant strides in 2022/23, fostering access and success among students from diverse backgrounds.  

[Alongside Natasha Pickard, this heading appears: Natasha Pickard, Maths student at the University of Leeds] 

Natasha says: Student opportunities at the University of Leeds has been amazing to help me develop my specific goals and ambitions, in whatever direction that may be. So during my first year when I was applying for the Laidlaw Scholarship, as well as the Target Jobs undergraduate of the year, it really helped me through those application processes. Navigating them and building my confidence. And it was only through those that I was then able to go on to the internship that I’m currently doing with the confidence that I’ve got. I’ve been able to work in the deputy vice chancellor of Student Education’s office, and that’s been an utterly amazing opportunity, and I’ve loved every single minute of that.  

The best thing is the hugely wide variety of opportunities. So you have everything from internships all across the world in some cases, to placements here at the University of Leeds. As a student coming to university, it is an amazing opportunity to gain a wide variety of experience and to test different areas and Student Opportunities specifically will support every student in doing that.  

[Haryati Mohammed begins narrating again, with the text: “Discover, learn, launch” strategy] 

Haryati continues: The University of Leeds achieved significant milestones in student enterprise through the “Discover, Learn, Launch” strategy, This comprehensive approach expanded enterprise opportunities, including business simulation contests, freelancer programs, workshops, and collaboration with entrepreneurial socities within Leeds University Union.  

[Alongside Grace Wilkinson, this heading appears: Grace Wilkinson, Associate Artist at Bloomin’ Buds Theatre Company and Student at the University of Leeds] 

Grace says: I came across SPARK in my year in industry. My mentor, she said i should apply for a business scholarship and I got it, which I was very surprised about because I’d never thought of myself as an entrepreneur before.  

SPARK really helped me with, like, guiding me on how I could use that money to benefit myself and my career. I got the mentoring. I got to go to lots of networking events. I got to meet like really influential people. They taught me how to be a freelancer. They taught me how to advocate for myself, how to be not just like a working-class kid off the council estate, like they taught me how to be a woman in business. If I ever need advice, or if I ever need guidance, or even just like a shoulder to cry on they’re always there. It’s really unique, and I’m really glad that I can give students those opportunities that they deserve.  

[Haryati Mohammed begins narrating again, with the following floating text: Student careers service] 

Haryati states: The Student Careers service is pivotal in preparing students for their career goals. Our mentoring schemes saw substantial growth, with over 500 students matched with mentors over the year, reflecting a tailored approach to support under-represented groups.  

[Alongside India Clulow, this heading appears: India Clulow, Employability Progression Assistant]  

In March of 2023, the Employability and Progression Assistant's adapted a pre-existing Plus Programme project, which assisted care experienced and estranged students in their final year. But we gave it more of a career focus by implementing a mentoring scheme, where mentors met about three times from March until October and we also implemented workshops in this time as well. And workshops could be on stuff like resilience, tackling imposter syndrome, developing connections and networking. They just really helped to improve the student’s employability and progression skills.  

We have some students that come in that really just don’t know where to begin with their career journey, so we’ll kind of help them from start to finish. Whether that’s just creating ideas around what they would like to do, looking at their transferrable skills and all of that kind of stuff, to helping them with their applications, to when it actually comes to applying for jobs.  

I think it has a massive impact on the students, especially with thei sense of belong at the university. It really does help kind of even the playing field for students from under-represented backgrounds.  

[Haryati Mohammed appears, with the following text: Creative life stories] 

Haryati says: The Creative Life Stories project, launched within the Faculty of Arts, Humanities, and Culture, it highlights diverse pathways from university entry to professional life. 

 [Tess Hornsby-Smith and Chris O’Conner appear. Tess is paired with the text: Tess Hornsby-Smith, Learning & Teaching Enhancement Officer] 

Tess says: Creative Life Stories is about giving opportunities to people from disadvantaged backgrounds, the chance to see people like them who work in the culture and creative industries, who are successful but also faced similar barriers.  

Chris appears, paired with this floating text: Chris O’Conner, Writer and Podcaster] 

Chris says: From my perspective, it’s always a pleasure to come and meet students, talk about the industry to try and demystify it, try and change some preconceptions about it that might be negative, and just talk about how I made it without really knowing anything about the industry or any people in it.  

Tess says: What’s lovely about Chris coming in and our amazing alumni and experts, they tell the truth because often you see the shiny end product of people doing incredibly well. But actually the reality is it’s a lot of failure. It’s a lot of rejections and you have to work your way up to be where Chris is now.  

Chris adds: For the students, I think it’s a really good chance to just meet people doing what you want to do.  

Tess states: We cna just see that it is actually having an impact on them, because we know that it can really benefit our students. And not only that, it’s not just about benefits, they actually just enjoy it. 

Haryati says: Looking ahead, our focus remains on empowering students to make informed career decisions. We’ll provide diverse employability opportunities, equipping students with essential skills for the workforce and enhance access to postgraduate studies, fostering inclusivity and diversity within our academic community.  

[Text appears over an aerial photo of the University of Leeds campus, with the University of Leeds logo and the address leeds.ac.uk/student-success] 

Haryati concludes: To find out more about the progression beyond higher education at Leeds, please visit the student success pages on our website.