Local students improve job prospects with ELBA’s Career Capital
The ‘Career Capital’ higher education programme is almost at the end of another academic year, and alongside delivery of all our regular activities, we have continued to develop the programme (with support from the Commercial Education Trust).
We have continued to deliver insight clubs across sectors, with new companies, and added an extra online CV Surgery in January to meet demand from students. In collaboration with University of East London, we successfully piloted a mock assessment centre in January; we intend to run this again at one of our member companies later in the year to enhance the corporate experience, with development areas including psychometric testing.
Career Capital also joined forces with the Challenge: ELBA team to provide practical volunteering opportunities that place students alongside business volunteers. Teams work together on a project in the morning, then informally network in the afternoon.
Our insight clubs continue to remain very popular, with students making use of the professional contacts that they come across throughout the sessions.
“I am pleased to tell you that I had a work-shadowing day at Societe Generale within their FX and Rates Team. It served as very useful experience, full of new information about their roles and research. I would like to thank you for giving an opportunity to students like me to get real work exposure to the corporate world, all due to the ELBA’s excellent insight programmes.”
Students found mock interviews helpful to their professional development;
It was really helpful as it gave me an experience on how an interview will be like in the future as well as the materials to prepare for the interview. It gave me an idea of what I should do before and during the interview, such as finding the venue, or researching topics in an interview. Feedback from the interviewers was the most valuable part of the whole process. They suggested which area I should improve and feedback on how I performed. Now I feel more confident in approaching future interviews.
Another student shared their experience of being part of Career Capital:
“Whilst studying at London Metropolitan University I found out about ELBA and the opportunities they provide.
I was already working part-time in retail and volunteering in the British Transport Police while studying and although this helped me develop a variety of skill, I was not completely confident in job applications and interview etiquette.
ELBA provided a number of opportunities including a CV workshop where a volunteer provided constructive criticism to better my CV and attend mock interviews with employees from prestigious financial companies. I attended mock interviews at XL Catlin, Barclays and Credit Suisse which were fantastic opportunities to interact with employees, ask for advice and gain constructive feedback.
As a result of the feedback I gained, I was able to get further into the application process and develop confidence as a result. This eventually paid off – I recently obtained a permanent role; which I believe was influenced by the mock interview experience and development of employability skills with ELBA.”
For more information about how you can get involved, either as a student, university, or corporate partner, email educationworks@elba-1.org.uk.
