Career Trek February 2020

Posted on: 28 February 2020 by Jane Marsh, Employer Connections Team in Employer Connections Blog

Jane Marsh in the Employer Connections Team has brought Career Trekking to Liverpool. Find out more about a new way we’re connecting students with employers in the region to showcase the wide range of opportunities available for students and graduates in Liverpool.

In spring 2020, we introduced a Career Trek to our CareerConnect programme of employer led events designed to help students make connections, build networks and get hired.  The purpose of the Career Trek was to raise awareness amongst our students of some of the varied opportunities available within the City, with the long-term aim of increasing graduate retention in the Liverpool city region. There was a total of twelve students who took part in the pilot Trek from varied degree courses and years of study.

We started on a building site with Morgan Sindall, the company overseeing the Knowledge Quarter being built at the top of Brownlow Hill. We were lucky enough to meet a Project Manager, Business Manager, Design Manager and Quantity Surveyor and our students got to spend some time with each listening to what their jobs entailed and asking questions. Morgan Sindall said - “Bridging the gap between education and industry is a priority focus for Morgan Sindall and it was a real pleasure to provide insight to the students on the range of opportunities in construction”.

Next we trekked to a local small tech business within the Liverpool Science Park called Angel Solutions.  They create quality web applications for UK Schools, Children Centres, Local Authorities and major businesses. They are an office-based company with a difference, the office has a circus theme running through it. Here we had a presentation off the MD who delivered his talk standing in a ball pit demonstrating to students that work can be fun!

Finally, we took a short bus ride to the waterfront to visit Griffiths and Armour, an insurance brokers who provide sector specific and tailored risk and insurance solutions. Their office was so impressive and they had planned a great experience for our students.  After a presentation from one of the partners, who is also a University of Liverpool alumni, the students had a tour of the office and got to meet some of their recent graduate recruits. They asked in-depth questions about working life at the company. Griffiths and Armour commented “It was great to meet the students who were a real credit to the University in fact a few of them have already been in touch to connect with me via Linked In and it was hugely rewarding to be involved in this initiative.”

Afterwards our students LinkedIn with all of the contacts they had met during the Trek, therefore making connections and building networks – who knows where those connections could lead to!

See a video summarising the experience: 

For me the highlights of the Trek were how much the students enjoyed the whole experience and how engaged they were.  It really showcased the wide range of opportunities in our city and was a brilliant new approach to connecting students with employers.  I’d like to think it took away any of the students’ concerns they might have had about applying for roles and what to expect when they start work and may have just opened their eyes to some of the sectors they could go on to work in that they may not previously have considered. 

We hope to run many more of these initiatives for our students and local employer partners in the future.  Any employers who would like to get involved in future Career Treks, please contact Jane Marsh via employerconnections@liverpool.ac.uk