Hudds Careers and Employability Service wins AGCAS award
Thu, 12 Sep 2013 10:34:00 BST
UK/China research project praised as “a significant approach to career development”
The Careers and Employability Service at the University of Huddersfield are celebrating after they scooped one of the top awards at the biennial Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) awards evening.
Pictured right: Members of the University of Huddersfield's Chinese Society standing with Stephen Boyd (second left), Ann Harris (far left) and Lyn Hall (far right).
The highlight of the calendar for careers professionals, the national awards celebrate excellence in a small number of categories and are highly coveted by university careers services.
Crowned AGCAS Award for Excellence winner in the category of Research, the Huddersfield Careers and Employability Service undertook its research project with funding from the PMI2 British Council initiative. The work was carried it out in conjunction with the University’s School of Education and Professional Development and in partnership with GPNU University in Guangzhou, China.
The research explored the skills and competencies expected of new graduates by employers in both China and the UK, as the head of Huddersfield’s Careers and Employability Service, Stephen Boyd, explains: “Globalisation of the supply and demand for higher education has alerted universities to a need for graduates to develop employability skills that are sustainable, relevant and responsive to an increasingly competitive global labour market. The research provided a comparative international perspective on employability skills, and included the creation of an interactive web-based package that has been designed to help graduates develop employability skills.”
The outcome of this two-year project has now been disseminated to a number of universities in both the UK and China and was praised by the external assessor for the British Council as one of the most “significant approaches to career development learning promulgated over the past twenty years or so… a significant enhancement.”
“I am extremely proud of my colleagues in the Careers Service and in the School of Education and Professional Development,” said Mr Boyd (pictured left with the award). “Working collaboratively and diligently together we have once again demonstrated that Huddersfield continues to add understanding and knowledge to research on a global scale.”
