Student Employability and Academic Success

Student Employability and Academic SuccessStaff ResourcesInformation for Academics

Information for Academics / Tutors

This page is designed to give you the key information you need to direct students to the relevant services to support their career development. We ask you to encourage students to engage with the careers services in order to be fully prepared for their professional life after university.

Personal tutorials provide a unique opportunity to discuss a student's career plan, and for those students that have not actively engaged with the Career Zone, could be the first time that they have had a conversation about their career, or even thought about it. 

Our Careers Timeline aims to simplify a student's career journey whilst at University by providing a guide of what to do and when.

If a student is feeling overwhelmed by the fact that they have completed a significant proportion of their studies and are yet to engage with the career service, they might feel more comfortable using our Decide, Plan and Compete resources which acknowledge that a student's career journey is very personal and not always linear.

For more support and advice on how you can offer more to your students, please read our FAQs page, explore the Career Zone webpages, and come and speak to us at the Career Zones, located in the Forum (Streatham) and Exchange (Penryn).

If you are concerned that a student needs to engage more with the Career Zone, please encourage them to get in touch with us as soon as possible and we can look at prioriting some intervention.

Career Zone Activities, Schemes and Resources

Please help to ensure that all of our students have thought about their career prior to graduating by signposting to the following activity/scheme according to the student career planning stage:

Activity/Scheme/Resource Decide Plan Compete Already Secured
Handshake Y Y Y Y
My Career Zone Digital Y Y Y  Y 
Create Your Future Y      
The Exeter Award Y Y Y  
The Exeter Leaders Award Y Y Y   
Careers Guidance Appointments Y      
Careers Advice Appointments   Y Y  
Careers Fairs Y Y Y  
Career Research Y Y Y  
Grand Challenges Y Y Y Y
Green Consultants   Y Y  
Aspiring Educators   Y Y  
Skills Events Y Y Y Y
Professional Pathways Y Y    
Career Mentor Scheme   Y Y  
Ask An Alum   Y Y  
Access to Internships (A2I)   Y Y  
Employer and Alumni Events   Y Y  
Internships   Y Y  
Placement and Study Abroad   Y Y  Y 
Enterprise and Student Startups   Y  Y Y 

Careers Registration

As part of the annual enrolment process each student is asked to complete the Career Registration survey. During this survey students are asked to self-select their career planning stage based on 10 statements; these can then be grouped by ‘Decide’, ‘Plan’, ‘Compete’ and ‘Secured’.

Statement Stage

I’m not ready to start thinking about my career yet

 Decide
I have no career ideas yet but want to start thinking Decide

I have some ideas about my career and I am ready to start planning

 Decide
I have a career in mind and intend to gain relevant work experience Plan
I know what I want to do but I’m not sure how to get there Plan

I want to spend a year gaining experience

 Plan
I am ready to apply for graduate level/professional opportunities Compete
I am ready to apply for further study Compete

I have been applying for opportunities and so far I have not been successful

 Compete

I have already secured a graduate job, postgraduate study/research or business start-up opportunity

 Secured

The Careers Registration survey also asks 7 additional questions ranging from their level of work experience, to their plans after graduating.

For PPBI's internal analysis of the latest Careers Registration results, please click here.

Employability Skills and Attributes

In order to support disciplines and faculties with relevant lists of employability skills and attributes we are happy to advise but would also like to point staff towards the following industry recognised skills and attributes.