UCC Career Services – Our statement of service

Contents

1. Our vision, mission, objectives and priorities
2. Detailed service description - Students and graduates
3. Working with Academic Departments to deliver employability skills development to students
4. Working with Employers of UCC graduates

UCC Career Services empowers the successful transition of UCC students to the world of work through impactful collaboration with industry and academic partners. UCC students and recent graduates acquire career-relevant knowledge and skills through integrated, experiential learning activities designed to boost employability, self-awareness and work-readiness skills. 

The vision of UCC Career Services is that registered UCC students will be supported and empowered to create and accomplish their personally meaningful career goals with confidence.  

We aim to:

• Inspire effective global citizens, who are socially responsible, equipped with career management and employability skills with the ability to create, evaluate and communicate knowledge when embarking on future facing career paths. 

• Empower students with the knowledge, skills and self-awareness to accomplish and succeed in their career goals. We do this by a professional and integrated service delivery model and by creating meaningful connections and a collaborative partnership with industry.

OBJECTIVES

To lead the development, integration, and delivery of University College Cork’s Employability Framework.  To be known for our expertise, agility, and strategic significance, as employability is a paramount outcome from the university experience.  We aim to drive innovative, transformative employability projects within the university and work with academic leaders, employers, and the Graduate Attributes Programme to ensure successful work-integrated learning and transversal skills are embedded in the curriculum to enable our students to be digitally fluent, agile, and resilient.

PRIORITIES

Our priorities for the 2024-2025 academic year are integrated in an Employability Framework.  This framework is derived from and aligned fully to the Connected Curriculum, the University KPIs and the University Strategic Plan https://www.ucc.ie/en/president/strategy2028/ .   

Five pillars of this framework make up key actions to lead to

• Embedding employability in the curriculum in disciplinary appropriate ways within programmes

• Fulfilling successful student transitions, to empower students to develop and articulate the skills and attributes needed to make a successful transition from university to the next stage of their career

• Building meaningful partnerships, and to establish, maintain, and expand an eco-system of inter-connected working relationships with our key stakeholders, including academics, employers and alumni to support student career development

• Promoting employment opportunities where we enhance meaningful connections for all students to gain local, national, and global employment opportunities, through placements, internships, work-integrated learning and work-based projects

• Communicating and enhancing UCC’s role as leader for graduate employability, and actively promote and support student employability as delivered through strategic initiatives.

2.   Service Description – UCC Students and Graduates

What you can expect from us

We aim to provide a high-quality service to UCC students which includes access to: 

1. Opportunities to develop employability skills
2. Opportunities for work experience placements and internships (paid and unpaid)
3. Opportunities to meet with our professional careers' staff in the classroom and at careers events and talks
4. Opportunities to meet with graduate recruiters through a comprehensive programme of activity
5. Opportunities to access a range of online learning spaces, digital resources, and digital tools such as AI practice interview and CV review platforms, psychometric questionnaires and transition out support video resources.

We are operating a triage system for one-to-one appointments due to the high volume of queries, if your query is related to CV or Interview please use our digital tools: Digital tools  

If you urgently need to see a career consultant please contact careers@ucc.ie for a Triage form.

Access to services and facilities: Access to our facilities is available free of charge to all registered UCC students. Graduates are eligible to use Career Services resources for up to 12 months after graduation. Our online resources are open access to all.

Email: careers@ucc.ie

Location: The Career Services office is located on the Ground Floor and Second Floor of the Hub Building on UCC’s main campus. We are open from 9:00am to 5:00pm - Monday to Thursday and from 9:00 to 4:00pm on Friday.

Detailed service description

Our Approach

• Working collaboratively with students, academic departments, and industry representatives as partners.
• Providing a careers advisory and coaching service to students. This service is bookable only.
• Working in partnership with university colleagues to deliver customised employability workshops and events to meet the students' bespoke needs.
• Administering work integrated learning modules on behalf of academic programmes.
• Creating opportunities for students and recent graduates to meet and connect with national and international employers.
• Offering a personal, bespoke service to create employer-student connections that form exciting futures for learning, living and working in a global society.

A Career Consultant can support your ability to:

• Make decisions and achieve goals that are aligned with personal strengths, values and interests.
• Clarify students’ individual interests, values, personal characteristics and aspirations using psychometrically validated questionnaires.
• Present a professional image to the world online, in writing and in person.
• Identify local, national and international development opportunities, on and off campus, voluntary and paid, educational and work-based.
• Source and compete effectively for career opportunities of interest. We provide professional impartial, person-centred, confidential support to all students and recent graduates.
• You can make an appointment to meet a Career Consultant on our Careers Connect platform. Login to Careers Connect with your Student IT details.

Career and employability initiatives

• In partnership with academic departments and other UCC initiatives/units, the Career Services offers a suite of employability & career related seminars and workshops. These are employability and career related workshops customised to meet the needs of the cohort of students of that department/initiative.
• Deliver general careers workshops over the academic year covering topics such as career planning, job search and the applications process. 
• The UCC EmployAgility Award enables students to receive formal recognition for the learning gained from their involvement in extra - curricular activities inside and outside of UCC. 

Management of work placement modules on behalf of academic departments

• UCC Career Services manages work placement modules on behalf of several Academic programmes. The service is responsible for all non-academic aspects of these modules. Placement managers based in the Career Services:
• Source relevant work-based activities which meet the criteria of the module. This can include work experience of a paid or unpaid nature
• Make contact with and develop working relationships with employers, civic and community organisations and any other organisation that may be able to support the module by providing placement opportunities.
• Work with individual students as required to advise on individual placement preferences and support them in the successful acquisition of a placement
• Provide one-to-one career coaching, workshops and preplacement training to prepare students for job applications, interviews and basic workplace skills and etiquette
• Provide up-to-date information to academic partners regarding progress in placing the students and any other feedback which may be relevant to the on-going management and development of the module

Note: Career services staff are not responsible for any of the academic components or assessment of the module. We will advise and provide employer and student feedback to our academic colleagues in this regard.

Access to graduate employers and job opportunities

UCC Career Services promotes engagement with employers and other opportunity providers to promote the skills and attributes of students and graduates of UCC academic programmes to those organisations. During the first teaching period, we organise a Recruitment Fair and a series of on campus employer activities. All events are advertised on ucc.ie/careers, in our fortnighly-newsletter, and on our social media platforms. These activities include:

• Annual Recruitment Fair: provide opportunities for students to meet employers who want to recruit UCC graduates. 
• Employer networking events where several companies from the same sector are available (on campus or remotely) to connect with students and graduates to outline their work and available and future career opportunities.
• All current students and recent graduates (within 12 months of graduation) have access to our Careers Connect platform where graduate and student job vacancies are advertised free of charge on behalf of employers who are seeking to recruit UCC graduates.

Our expectations from UCC students and graduates:

To offer a relevant, timely and high-quality service, we ask that students:

• Show respect and courtesy to our staff and be honest with us about your support needs.
• Attend workshops and presentations on time and contribute to discussion where appropriate.
• Consider what can be realistically achieved during a career consultation (30-minute session) and attend appointments on time.
• If you cannot attend a booked appointment, we would appreciate it if you could login to Careers Connect and cancel your consultation so another student or graduate can avail of the time.
• Assist us in our work collecting information on graduates’ career progression by responding to the graduate destinations survey which we conduct 6 months after graduation

Working with Academic Departments to deliver employability skills development to students

UCC Career Services works closely with academic departments to support them in the development of employability skills of students in their academic programmes. This working relationship is focused on core areas:

• Seminars and Workshops: A suite of employability and career related workshops customised to meet the needs of the cohort of students of a specific academic department/programme
• Work placement: Management of the non-academic aspects of placement modules including employer contact and acquisition of placement opportunities for students participating in accredited work placement or internship modules in an academic programme
• Graduate Outcomes Survey: This annual survey about the employment and post graduate destinations of UCC graduates is conducted in the spring following graduation. It is part of the HEA Graduate Outcomes Survey. Summary information is distributed to university Managers, Programme Directors and other interested parties.

We also support academic departments and UCC initiatives/projects in a variety of other employability related initiatives as requested from time to time. Learn more.

Enterprise Engagement

Career Services teams work in partnership with employers to connect industry with skilled, competent, and well-rounded students and graduates. We are instrumental in providing employers with opportunities to connect with students as they transition through university and prepare for transitioning to the workplace.

UCC Students bring strengths and values to the employer, far beyond their academic qualifications. Students gain a range of strong values and attributes during their time at UCC and this enables them to become valuable employees. UCC Career Services boasts a highly qualified Work Placement Team. Each Placement Manager has in-depth knowledge, experience, and specialisation in specific employment sectors. We offer a personal, bespoke service to create employer-student connections that form exciting futures. Our Employability and Enterprise Engagement Team can create opportunities for you to connect with our final year cohort and recent graduates.

What employers can expect from us:

• A range of opportunities to promote your company and advertise your vacancies to UCC students and graduates. This includes the organisation of a recruitment fair, networking events, presentations/webinars, workshops vacancy advertisement, class mailshots, social media campaigns etc.
• Advice on most effective methods and the optimum time to promote your brand and opportunities to UCC students and graduates.