Top accounting firm, Ernst & Young recently published a survey of over 1000 university students’ employability skills and the results are fascinating. According to the study, students today are excellent at making friends, cracking jokes, and taking pride in their work, but poor at managing their time and taking risks. Students are also not good at recovering from set-backs, which made me think about Wimbledon High Schools’ ‘failure week’, in which teachers are encouraging students to learn from their mistakes and not be defeated when things don’t always go to plan. Perhaps Wimbledon’s classes in failure should be implemented in more schools and universities in order to remedy our problem with graduates who are not resilient enough.

Despite not being as resilient as employers would like, and faced with a very competitive jobs market, 87% of the students involved in the study said they felt confident about their career prospects, so it is good to see that people are optimistic even in these difficult times.

Stephen Isherwood, who is head of graduate recruitment at Ernst & Young, said in article by personnel.com, “Although it’s encouraging to see that students remain positive, in a climate of rising unemployment and fierce competition there’s absolutely no room for complacency. To get that first step on the career ladder, students need to be building their CVs with experiences that will help to develop their skills. This process needs to start at secondary school, rather than the last year of university.” He also warned “A good degree from a respected university no longer guarantees students a job. We interview more than 3,000 bright graduates every year, but only about 25% have the all-round skill set that we recruit for. Relationship development and problem solving are key attributes that we look for in our trainees. But the candidates who end up with job offers also demonstrate determination and resilience, and are able to work hard and thrive in difficult situations. We need to know that they are going to be able to cope if they are sent half way across the world to work on a client project.”
Ernst & Young and the Centre of Applied Positive Psychology have offered these ten excellent tips to graduate job seekers:
1. Take some risks and make mistakes – employers are happy to hear about when things go wrong, as long as you have learnt lessons.
2. Do something that makes a difference – don’t just focus on your studies. Employers want to see that you’ve used your drive and initiative to do more than the average.
3. Shout about your part-time jobs – if you work on a checkout you are delivering client service, in a business and working in a team
4. Develop your commercial awareness – if you want to work for a commercial organisation you need to show you are interested in business.
5. Study hard – your academic results demonstrate your intelligence, work ethic and ability to solve problems.
6. Find out what you are good at – different jobs require different strengths and you will be much more motivated and successful if you are playing to your strengths.
7. Learn to work to deadlines – we don’t live in a perfect world and you will have to deal with time, budget and resource constraints effectively.
8. Develop people skills – rarely does anyone work in a silo, you need to show you can work well with others and deliver results collaboratively.
9. Be positive – organisations want people who can deal with setbacks and overcome challenges.
10. Become self-aware – if you know what your strengths and weaknesses are, your likes and dislikes, you can grow and develop effectively.

I’ll never forget a conversation I had with a very successful businesswoman just before I started my first term at university; she was talking about hiring new employees and said that the initial thing she does is discard all of the CVs from people who had got a First at university. Her reason was that she knew how ambitious, ruthless and single-minded you have to be in order to get a really high degree and that she would rather employ people with a wider range of interests, who had excellent social and communication skills and who wouldn’t be ‘desperately after [her] own job’. Although our chat took place quite a few years ago now, I’ll never forget it and I was intrigued to read an article by Graham Snowdon in the Guardian last week about degree classes and employability. Clearly my acquaintance is not the only person who favours a 2:1…

At the Graduate AnswerTime event in London recently employers were discussing whether or not a 2:1 is more likely to get you a job than a First or Third will. Three quarters of large graduate employers admitted that they often sift out applicants with degrees classed either above or below a 2:1, with those attaining the top of the second-class tier as their ideal candidates. And yet, many employers also state that they have little faith in the current classification system.

In these difficult economic times the graduate jobs market is a crowded place indeed and in 2011, there were on average 83 applicants for every graduate place. Employers have had to work out ways to sift through applications and the most popular way is to hunt down who has a 2:1 and then move onto the interview stage of the process.

However, a 2:1 alone will not guarantee you a job and more and more employers are looking for candidates with a good track record of work experience. Of course graduates with a First, 2:2 or Third should not despair, but rather use the information to work out what you can do that will make you more attractive to employers. Showing that you are a good team player, hard working and have a range of skills is really important. Work out what sort of job you would like to do and find out what sort of skills you will need in order to be considered seriously when you apply.

On the first day of Christmas, my tutor gave to me…. A dictionary of literary terms and theory

On the second day of Christmas, my tutor gave to me…Two mnemonics to remember how to spell ‘rhythm’ and ‘rhyme’.

On the third day of Christmas, my tutor gave to me… Three essay questions to answer

On the fourth day of Christmas, my tutor gave to me…Four tips on how to do well in an interview

On the fifth day of Christmas, my tutor gave to me…Five French sentences to translate

On the sixth day of Christmas, my tutor gave to me…Six different suggestions for how to
begin a new paragraph

On the seventh day of Christmas, my tutor gave to me…Seven coloured highlighters

On the eighth day of Christmas, my tutor gave to me…A cartoon to remember the layout of the periodic table

On the ninth day of Christmas, my tutor gave to me…Nine quadratic equations to solve

On the tenth day of Christmas, my tutor gave to me…Ten difficult words to spell

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my tutor gave to me…Eleven key pieces of revision advice

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my tutor gave to me…Twelve gold stars for being an excellent tutee this year

Happy Christmas from all of the Enjoy Education team!

Finances always require careful management, and this is particularly true when you’re at university. It may well be the first time that you have to stock your own fridge, buy your own loo roll and pay bills.

If you’ve just finished our first term at university, or even if you’re in the middle of your second or third year as an undergraduate, then now is a really good time to have a look at your bank account and plan your spending for next term to avoid splashing too much cash on the wrong things and at the wrong time.

Work out what you need to spend money on each week; this list will include essentials such as food, travel and bills and then leisure (cinema and theatre tickets, gym membership etc), books, stationery, clothes… Set yourself a budget for each area, based on what you know you’ve spent last term and what you think is reasonable. If you think you spent too much on one area last term, then you can curb the cash supply for certain items.

Doing your weekly food shop at Marks and Spencers or Waitrose is probably not entirely necessary and you could save lots of money by shopping in cheaper supermarkets. Treating yourself to luxury items every now and again is fine, but you can save plenty of cash and not lose out on taste if you buy basic items such as rice, pasta, and tinned tomatoes and so on from supermarkets’ basic ranges. This will mean you have more money to spend on other things.

Keep an eye on little added extras that build up. The occasional coffee out or deli-bought sandwich won’t hurt, but if you have these things every day you’ll notice a serious impact on your bank balance. All of those small purchases can add up to one big total amount at the end of term.

Work in a contingency fund to cover unexpected costs. It is inevitable that in the middle of term certain problems will crop up that will need fixing. Your bike might get a puncture or you might notice that none of your socks match and they all have holes in them. If you have planned for the occasional surprise cost then your finances won’t take too much of a hit when a problem occurs,

Leave some money for the end of term…. When the holidays start you’ll want to catch up with friends at home and all those reunion drinks and lunches will need paying for. Make sure you leave some funds to keep you going when term is over.

Get a job in the holidays: your student loan probably won’t cover all of your costs and student holidays are long enough to get a part time job. See if you can get some temp work to boost your account between student loan deposits.

Save some money if you can. It’s always useful to have some reserves and just depositing a little bit every now and again will make a big difference and hopefully prevent you from ever becoming totally broke.

Going to university is about academic development, but it’s also a time to learn about all kinds of adult things like managing your own money. Enjoy yourself, but be sensible as well and try and find a budget that works for you and prevents a desperate phone call to the Bank of Mum and Dad in week four.

I adore Hallowe’en and always have. Sweets, dressing up, fireworks and playing games; what more could you ask for on a chilly autumn evening? Hallowe’en isn’t for a few days yet, but I’m so excited about it and what to instil anticipation in others, so I thought I’d blog about it now. Maybe after this you’ll be so fired up you can start making your costume for Monday. Or perhaps you’ve already got a Hallowe’en party to attend over the weekend.

Hallowe’en is always celebrated on October 31st, but there are many debates over its origins. Some people believe that it descends from the Roman feast of Pomona (Pomona was the goddess of fruits and seeds) or Parentalia (which was the festival of the dead), however the general consensus is that it is linked to a Celtic festival called ‘Samhain’ (which means ‘summer’s end’). ‘Hallowe’en’ itself comes from the Scottish ‘all-hallows-even’ (the night before All Hallows Day). The word ‘Hallowe’en’ or ‘Halloween’ came into use in the 16th century.

One of the objects most strongly associated with Hallowe’en is the carved pumpkin. Traditionally Scottish and Irish participants of the festival would carve turnips into lanterns as a way of remembering the souls held in purgatory. Immigrants to North America started replacing turnips with pumpkins as they were more readily available and easier to carve than turnips. It’s funny to think that if it wasn’t for those resourceful Americans, we might still be decorating our houses with turnips!

For many children, the highlight of Hallowe’en is trick-or-treating when they get dressed up and go in search of sweets. The ‘trick’ is there because traditionally children would perform a song or some kind of trick in order to earn their sweets, although I’m not sure how often that happens now. As you’ve probably gathered so far, Hallowe’en has become a bit of a hodgepodge of different celebrations and beliefs and trick-or-treating is no exception. In the middle-ages people would dress up and go begging from door to door on Hallowmas (1st November), asking for food in return for offering to say prayers for the dead on All Soul’s Day (November 2nd). Similar practices are also found in Italy and in Shakespeare’s ‘Two Gentlemen of Verona’ the character Speed accuses his master of ‘puling like a beggar on Hallowmas’.

Apples have also become integral to Hallowe’en celebrations; apple-bobbing is a popular game at parties and toffee-apples are a favourite Hallowe’en treat.

Hallowe’en is massive business here in the UK and in the USA and after Christmas and Easter, it is the public celebration that makes the most money here in Britain (somewhere in the region of £300 million pounds). If you look in shops and supermarkets this weekend you should see loads of Hallowe’en related food, decorations and costumes.

Whatever you’re doing this Hallowe’en, we hope you have a great time. Finally, remember that if you are going out trick-or-treating make sure you are accompanied by an adult and that you only visit houses where you know the people who live there.

Many of you will be in the midst of sending off your Ucas applications to the handful of institutions you have decided to apply to, and I’m sure there’s an overwhelming feeling amongst you of relief after finally finishing writing your personal statements. Now you can sit back and relax and wait for the offers to start rolling in. Except, that is, if you have to prepare for a potential interview.

Not all universities interview applicants, but some do, and the interviews are a really important opportunity for you to show the admissions team how brilliant and clever you are. Although it is impossible to predict exactly what you’ll be asked, it is important to do some preparation. It might seem a bit early for me to be offering interview advice, but the earlier you get started, the better, and you want to try and avoid any last minute panics.

Think about some of the most obvious questions an interviewer might ask, such as why you want to study a particular subject and why you want to go to that particular university. Although these seem rather simple, sometimes the ‘easy’ questions are actually the hardest, so have a good think about what you would say in response.

Make sure you know the contents of your personal statement inside out. If you wrote on your PS that you read War and Peace over the summer then make sure you know it well enough to be asked questions on it. If you can’t remember a thing about the novel then you might end up looking like a liar and a fool, and nobody wants that.

Do lots of reading! Read everything: the comments and analysis pages of the newspapers, novels, non-fiction, all sorts of things in order to broaden your intellectual playing field. Pick challenging writers to follow, engage in current affairs and work out how to make connections between the things that you read. Interviewers want to meet pro-active thinkers who are curious and bold.

Get rid of nervous habits if you know that you have a tendency to play with your hair or bite your lips – for example- when anxious. Although it is understandable to get a bit nervous, you don’t want to come across as an anxious wreck, so try and phase out any telltale signs that you’re scared over the next few months.

Get some practice! Ask your school if they can bring someone in to do mock interviews so that you can have a trial run before the real thing.

You can also ask Enjoy Education for a tutor to help with interview preparation. Many of us went through them ourselves and are experienced at guiding applicants through the process.

Good luck!

If you’ve recently matriculated, we hope you’re having a fantastic time at university and that the first few weeks have gone swimmingly. Just to help you make sure everything is under control and to minimise the possibility of something disastrous happening, here’s a little list of things to check and think about.

Are you getting enough sleep?
Some students sleep too much, and some don’t get enough rest. You need to find a healthy balance, and although it can be tricky, try and find a regular sleep pattern. You’ll feel much better, have plenty of energy and will be less likely to get run down and ill.

Are you eating properly?
Without the comfort and reliability of home-cooked food, combined with a budget and busy schedule, it can be hard to achieve a balanced diet, but it is vital for your health. Make sure you eat plenty of fruit and vegetables and learn to cook some quick, cheap and nutritious meals ASAP.

Are you on top of the workload?
Make sure you attend all of your lectures, classes and tutorials and keep your notes in order. Write work deadlines down in your diary and do your best to hand everything in on time. If you get behind early on then it is hard to catch up on work, so do your best to keep everything under control.

Are you in control of your spending?
It is very tempting to splurge all of your cash when that dollop of student loan comes into your account and the shops are full of the latest season’s offerings. And yet, you really need to keep an eye on your spending if you’re going to get through the term without bankrupting yourself. Try and stick to a bit of a budget to prevent blowing all of your money before reading week starts.

How often are you ‘phoning your parents?
It’s great to be independent, but your mum and dad are probably concerned that you’re ok. There’s no need to ring all the time, but I’ve got a feeling they’d appreciate the odd call.

Is your room tidy?
It doesn’t need to be immaculate, but if there are piles pf pizza boxes and cereal bowls that look like they are about to grow limbs and start a revolt, then it’s probably time to invest in some rubber gloves and a bottle of cream cleaner. It is harder to concentrate in a messy room, so if you keep things in order you might even do better at your academic work.

Have you got involved in any clubs or societies?
There are thousands of bands, teams, groups and clubs of all shapes and sizes at every university. Don’t over-commit yourself, but join a couple to make new friends, develop new/old skills and add variety to your timetable.

Stay safe!
Many students cycle around town, but you must remember to wear a helmet and have working lights fitted. Although they don’t look very stylish, reflective vests are brilliant at making you visible to car drivers. Ensure you can be seen on the road so that you don’t end up in a nasty accident.

Ask for help if you need it!
Starting university can be stressful and tough at times, if you have any problems at all make sure you seek help and don’t suffer alone!

I’m afraid the moment you’ve no doubt been dreading has finally arrived and it is indeed time to crack on with your personal statement. A few weeks ago I wrote a blog full of tips for getting started, so hopefully you saw that and started jotting down a list of things that you think should be included, If not, don’t worry, it’s not too late to start from scratch, as long as you work efficiently and productively.

What you always need to keep in mind is the function of a personal statement: it exists to tell universities why you want to study a particular subject and why you are suitable for that course. That’s it, there’s no big secret.

Ucas has very strict regulations with regard to word limits and you can only have 4000 characters, so keep that in mind in order to prevent yourself from writing a thesis on how passionate you are about Geography or SPS or whichever course you are applying to.

Personal statements should cover the following:
-Which subject you would like to study and why.
-What have you done at school and beyond that has fuelled your interest and developed your understanding of the subject?
-How have your IB or A Level choices fed into your thinking?
-What other extra-curricular/charitable activities have you done?
-Have you done any work experience and what did you learn?
-What you hope to get out of university.

Don’t try to include too much information; it’s best to be selective rather than give a list of every sports team you’ve been in since you could stand. However, you should really try and communicate how your interest in the subject has developed and which books you’ve read beyond the school curriculum, or places you’ve visited, or lectures you’ve attended that demonstrate your commitment.

Ensure your personal statement is written in an appropriate style (it shouldn’t sound like a text to your friends) and check for any spelling or grammatical mistakes.

Don’t leave it until the last minute. Find out when the deadlines for applications are and leave yourself plenty of time to draft, re-draft and re-draft again. Personal statements tend to need lots of tweaking at various stages.

Seek further advice if you are stuck, either by requesting an Enjoy Education tutor, talking to teachers at school/college or by looking at the following websites, which have plenty more tips. Good luck!

Studential

The Student Room

Ucas

If you are starting your final year at school, there’s lots of stuff that you need to have a long hard think about. Not only will you need to start considering what you want to wear to your leavers’ ball, but you will also need to think about what path your life will take when you do step out of school for the final time.

As with most things, the earlier you start, the better. Here is a checklist of things for you to begin to ponder…

1. Do you want to go to university?
This is a big question; especially since tuition fees are about to increase. Do you really want to do a degree? There is no shame in not, and you certainly shouldn’t feel pressurised into going to university if you don’t think it’s for you. Maybe you’d rather do a training scheme with PWC, or find some work experience, or you could go travelling and spend more time working out what you’d like to do.

2. If you do want to go to university, then which course would you like to do?
Picking the right course is very important. Although some students are allowed to switch degree courses after they matriculate, this isn’t always possible, so it’s better if you get it right first time. There might be some degrees out there that you haven’t even heard of, but that you might be naturally talented at. Do plenty of research to find out about all of the different courses that are available.

3. Do you have the right subjects?
Once you’ve chosen a degree course, you need to make sure you are taking the right A Levels. If you are studying History, French and Art, it’ll be impossible to get a place at medical school, for example. If you need extra subjects, you might be able to do an extra A Level at a separate college. Ideally though, you’ll opt for a degree course that is not too far off your own A Levels.

4. Which university?
Do you want to be far away from home, or just down the road? Somewhere big or small? Would you like to be somewhere that will really challenge you, or would you like to be somewhere where you can do lots of extra-curricular activities? And are you likely to get the grades needed in order to be offered a place?
Choosing the right university takes time so order a prospectus or two and book some open days as fast as you can. You can’t beat going to visit a place to get a proper feel for it. Talk to current students to find out what it is really like. Once you’ve done lots of research, you’ll be able to make an informed decision about where you would like to apply to.

5. Start your personal statement.
These always take longer than you expect them to and they are vital. Ask your teachers or give Enjoy Education a call to get advice on how to start your PS. We’ll also be doing a blog full of tips shortly.

6. Stay organized!
Take a look at yesterday’s blogs for tips on how to make this your most efficient and successful school year yet.

7. Read the Enjoy Education blog!
Every weekday we post a new blog full of tips and advice about educational matters.

8. Don’t panic!
Stay calm; although there’s a lot going on this year, it is important not to panic. Your teachers at school and the tutors at EE are always available and happy to help.

Good luck with the year!

Now that the A Level results are in, thousands of students will have finally been able to confirm their university places. If you are about to embark on the beginning of your university life we wish you the very best of luck. Here are some tips for what you can do to prepare for Freshers’ week.

Save money
Although fortunately this year’s freshers are escaping £9000 fees, degrees are still pretty pricey. You will also have to start paying for many things that you didn’t have to pay for before and those weekly shops all add up. There’ll also be all of those freshers’ parties. New stationery and books to buy. There is still time to get a job for a few weeks before starting your course. If you can save pennies now, you won’t feel so bad when you find yourself booking a place on the university ski trip at the Freshers’ Fayre.

Budget
As well as saving money, you can also prepare yourself financially by drawing up a budget for the term. You don’t need to be too rigid, but it would be a good idea to prevent yourself from blowing the entirety of your student loan on a new wardrobe over the first weekend of term. Work out how much money you’ll have and divide it up by the number of weeks in the term. You’ll need dosh for food, socialising, travel and some contingency in case your bike lights break and need replacing, or some other similar unexpected peccadillo pops up.

Reading
Especially if you’re doing an arts subject like English or Philosophy, you’ll probably have a pretty hefty reading list to get through. Contact your faculty and get a list of the texts you’ll be required to read for the first term. Get started on these early and keep detailed notes on all the texts. Don’t just rely on your memory!

IKEA
Your university or college will probably provide you with a list of things that you’ll need to take with you. The list will depend on factors such as whether you are going to catered or non-catered halls and how well equipped the halls are. You may well need kitchen utensils, mugs and glasses, bed lined, coat hangers etc. The September trip to IKEA is a rite of passage for many students and once you know what you need you can stock up on well-priced Swedish goods.

Learn to cook
For a lot of students the prospect of cooking for yourself every night is a daunting one. Because you’ll be so busy at university, it’s important to eat healthy meals. So that you are able to whip up some tasty dishes when you matriculate, spend the next few weeks brushing up your culinary skills. Learn to cook fast, cheap meals such as chilli con carne, curries, soups, stews and pasta sauces.