Late May of this year, as I was in the middle of my academic research for my HRM & Training master degree dissertation, I received an email from the University of Leicester inviting me to participate in the Leicester Awards for Employability course being conducted for the university graduates over the three months summer break (June-Aug 2013).
Although I was very much overwhelmed with my existing study research and work load, I was extremely honoured to be invited and really welcomed the chance to take part with other fellow students as professionals of different background and disciplines, coming together from across the globe to learn, interact and work on our SM capabilities.
I too was very pleased to be given the opportunity to hone on my newly found knack for Social Media!
The Online Networking course is one of numerous Leicester Awards courses available to the University of Leicester graduate students helping them better improve on their business management skills, along networking and communication capabilities. These courses have been ideally devised with the students future career move in mind to highly assist them in their employability search after graduation.
Our LA for Employability course covers three main units, each with online interactive E-tivities, specifically designed to encourage students to connect and interact online, helping them better define their Personal Online Brand.
Throughout the course, advice and tips are provided in support of the students' learning to better grasp the implications of using major online tools from blogging, to commenting on other posts, using the current SM links and techniques. These are great ways to assist participants focusing better on their own professional aspirations by reflecting on their own writing and try out for themselves through the use of blogs and regular blogging, along engaging in various interactive/video presentations (such as the use of YouTube or Prezi) trying out their own creative work by reflecting, exploring and sharing their personal objectives and career goals with the help of SM.
Unit 1 Starts with clarifying and identifying the following main points:
1- Your Personal Brand reflecting on your own person, career, ideals and goals. How you want to be recognised and represented online.
2- Creating a 'Digital Footprint' for yourself. These are ways to introduce yourself online and establish a personal image through the use of all the SM tools available on the internet. These will form your online activities, your social interests, personal passions and professional skills, giving the audience/readers a clear picture of who you are in real life.
3- Create a Blog under your name. In this unit you will learn how to set up a blog, using the tools to enhance your brand image and be able to reflect and communicate your ideas and projects to all the people and companies you want to connect with.
You can use your blog site as your home/office and personal space, introducing yourself and keeping references related to you and your life. It's a great way of getting the world to know you better and showcase what you are capable of and what you can do & offer.
Your blog becomes your personal online identity where people can refer to you and contact you if they are interested.
Unit 2 Introducing Social Media for Employability:
Although I was very much overwhelmed with my existing study research and work load, I was extremely honoured to be invited and really welcomed the chance to take part with other fellow students as professionals of different background and disciplines, coming together from across the globe to learn, interact and work on our SM capabilities.
I too was very pleased to be given the opportunity to hone on my newly found knack for Social Media!
The Online Networking course is one of numerous Leicester Awards courses available to the University of Leicester graduate students helping them better improve on their business management skills, along networking and communication capabilities. These courses have been ideally devised with the students future career move in mind to highly assist them in their employability search after graduation.
Our LA for Employability course covers three main units, each with online interactive E-tivities, specifically designed to encourage students to connect and interact online, helping them better define their Personal Online Brand.
Throughout the course, advice and tips are provided in support of the students' learning to better grasp the implications of using major online tools from blogging, to commenting on other posts, using the current SM links and techniques. These are great ways to assist participants focusing better on their own professional aspirations by reflecting on their own writing and try out for themselves through the use of blogs and regular blogging, along engaging in various interactive/video presentations (such as the use of YouTube or Prezi) trying out their own creative work by reflecting, exploring and sharing their personal objectives and career goals with the help of SM.
The LA course for Employability kicks off over a period of three months with the following three units!
Unit 1 Starts with clarifying and identifying the following main points:
1- Your Personal Brand reflecting on your own person, career, ideals and goals. How you want to be recognised and represented online.
2- Creating a 'Digital Footprint' for yourself. These are ways to introduce yourself online and establish a personal image through the use of all the SM tools available on the internet. These will form your online activities, your social interests, personal passions and professional skills, giving the audience/readers a clear picture of who you are in real life.
3- Create a Blog under your name. In this unit you will learn how to set up a blog, using the tools to enhance your brand image and be able to reflect and communicate your ideas and projects to all the people and companies you want to connect with.
You can use your blog site as your home/office and personal space, introducing yourself and keeping references related to you and your life. It's a great way of getting the world to know you better and showcase what you are capable of and what you can do & offer.
Your blog becomes your personal online identity where people can refer to you and contact you if they are interested.
Unit 2 Introducing Social Media for Employability:
In this unit students learn more in depth about Social Media such as the following main websites:
- Twitter and how to use advanced job search, along adding Twitter to your Blog to help you find the right industry for you.
- Google+ use and how to use Google Alerts for job search.
More on Social Media in 2013 here!
These are great tools and techniques to know about and how to use these to our benefits, while being aware as well of their pros and cons on our work, career and online use . Seven helpful concepts of the 'Digital Literacy' have been introduced in this unit creating responsible awareness of our SM use.
These are great tools and techniques to know about and how to use these to our benefits, while being aware as well of their pros and cons on our work, career and online use . Seven helpful concepts of the 'Digital Literacy' have been introduced in this unit creating responsible awareness of our SM use.
How your online communication activities and reflective writing can become skills & assets you can take advantage of by improving on your learning, refining your presentation abilities, and gaining grounds with high online social skills, and how best to be connecting professionally with others in more successful and effective ways, to be directly in touch and linked with companies, people, sites and news you are interested about.
Managing all these info and data references is made easy through Social Bookmarking getting to learn how to collect & collate links and tags easy to find and locate to our blog and posts, along how to make good use of Pinterest and how RSS works, how to use Feedly as other forms of SM.
This unit has been very useful to me as it guided me into how best to focus on my blog writing and enabled me to Create an online CV & Resume !
In fact, the whole three months course has been extremely useful! It has helped us learn, through the use of these major online SM tools, how to best project a true image of who we are through our own CV recording and our own online presentation in our personal search for the right career and job prospects.
Furthermore, I thoroughly enjoyed the following three webinars:
1- Personal Branding with Malcolm Levene.
2- Social Media & Employability with Simon Reichwald
3- Presentation Skills with Marta Ulanicka of the University of Leicester
These have been highly effective and interactive scheduled webinars where students & instructors came together to discuss and explore each unit independently. These have been organised each month with the above special guests invited for the occasions to give us further valuable insights into how best to use our blog & social media activities to improve on our professional image and increase our chances to connect better with employers and business partners!
In fact, the whole three months course has been extremely useful! It has helped us learn, through the use of these major online SM tools, how to best project a true image of who we are through our own CV recording and our own online presentation in our personal search for the right career and job prospects.
Furthermore, I thoroughly enjoyed the following three webinars:
1- Personal Branding with Malcolm Levene.
2- Social Media & Employability with Simon Reichwald
3- Presentation Skills with Marta Ulanicka of the University of Leicester
These have been highly effective and interactive scheduled webinars where students & instructors came together to discuss and explore each unit independently. These have been organised each month with the above special guests invited for the occasions to give us further valuable insights into how best to use our blog & social media activities to improve on our professional image and increase our chances to connect better with employers and business partners!
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