The Bristol PLuS Award
The Bristol PLuS Award is a new award set up to recognise and reward students who have gained significant Professional and Life Skills through involvement in extra-curricular events and activities.
At Bristol we believe our students truly stand out as potential employees who excel both academically and in demonstrating the wide range of skills necessary for today's workplace.
Despite this, it is all too common for these skills to go un-promoted and therefore un-noticed, despite well-worded application forms and probing interview questions. By having the Bristol PLuS Award on their CVs we hope to convey the vast array of activities Bristol students are engaged in, have learnt from, and can thus benefit your organisation.
HOW IT WORKS
Our premise was to set up an Award which is both attainable yet rigorous. There is no point in having recognition for achievement unless it shows how a student stands out from the crowd. Therefore to gain the Bristol PLuS Award students need to have completed the following:
- 50 hours of non credit-bearing work experience or voluntary work.
- Attendance at 4 employability skills-related workshops. These workshops can be from a range of subjects including commercial awareness, presentation skills, communicating with impact, leadership and team-working.
- Completion of at least one 'intensive skills activity'. Students choose from a range of opportunities available at the University and beyond. To qualify the activity must not be credit-bearing, must allow the student more than 7 hours of active engagement and include an opportunity for the student to reflect on the employability-related skills they have gained. Examples of activities range from leadership roles at the Student Union to organisational roles in sports to involvement in military education training programmes.
- Completion of a reflective report on how all the activities listed above have enhanced the student's employability and what they can now offer to an employer.
HOW EVIDENCE IS CHECKED
For all the relevant elements of the Award we ask for a reference. These references are then routinely checked on a 1:5 basis. If students do not pass an element of the Award they are given feedback and 1 chance to re-apply.
The Bristol PLuS Award: Outstanding Achievement
For students who are outstanding in the skills they have gained, we have developed the 'Bristol PLuS Award: Outstanding Achievement'. To gain this Award students must first gain the Bristol PLuS Award and then complete the following additional activities:
Project Management. For this element students will need to provide evidence of having undertaken project management in an area which we believe to reflect the main strengths of Bristol students, these being
- Entrepreneurial Activity
- Environmental Activity
- Developing Cultural/Social Awareness
- Involvement in Local Community Support
To qualify the activity must have involved:
- managing people
- managing resources
- solving a problem or overcoming a challenge
- liaising with external businesses or organisations
- involvement for a minimum of 20 hours in total
Presentation. For this element students undertake a 15 minute presentation in front of a panel. This presentation would cover the activities the student has been involved in and what skills they have learnt. It is also assessed on presentation skills.
How to become involved
We believe that your involvement is crucial to the success of the Bristol PLuS Award. You can become involved in the following ways:
- By offering and promoting work experience/voluntary work opportunities
- By offering an internship
- By offering employability-related skills sessions
- Involvement in PLuS Award intensive Skills Days
- Endorsing or Sponsoring elements of the Award for 2010/11 .
- By helping us develop the Award further. You can comment on any element of the Award by e-mailing us at careers-plusaward@bristol.ac.uk .
- If you are a small or medium sized company we value your opinion and contribution to the Award. If you would like to become involved please contact us at careers-plusaward@bristol.ac.uk