Context
The Sheffield Impact Programme ran as a pilot activity between Monday 6th June and Friday 1st July 2022.
Activities were targeted at students who meet Equal Opportunities (Widening Participation) criteria, although the activities were open to all students. The first week of the programme consisted of Knowledge exchange workshops to prepare students to make the most of their work experience. Students then completed a virtual work experience through a variety of different platforms. Several optional activities were also offered through the programme, for example, an introductory session, programme debrief and a face-to-face networking session.
3 Objectives:
- Engage students from Equal Opportunities backgrounds in measurable and sustained activity,
- Provide students from Equal Opportunities backgrounds with opportunities to make links with employers and alumni and develop their knowledge of pathways after graduation,
- Increased awareness of skills and attributes required for graduate roles within SMEs with a focus on improving networking and communication skills.
Action & approach
Internally run activities
| Tuesday 7th June | Change and Innovation workshop (3 hrs) 6 x employer presentations on innovation followed by a knowledge exchange session and networking opportunity. Workshop on how to have impact in the workplace | 24 students |
| Wednesday 8th June | Grow your network in the Steel City event (3 hours) 6 x employer presentations on networking followed by a networking opportunity. Workshops on managing nerves when networking and using LinkedIn to connect with employers. | 33 students |
| Friday 10th June | Equality and Diversity workshop (1.5 hours) 3 x employer presentations on the benefit of building diverse teams. Q&A session followed by networking opportunity. | 20 students |
| Friday 10th June | Wellbeing in the workplace workshop (1.5 hours)2x employer presentations on taking are of your wellbeing in the workplace. Q&A session followed by networking opportunity. | 16 students |
| Monday 13th June to Friday 1st July | Employer Live Projects (6-8 hours) 1x 30 mins “Kick-off” session with employerGroup facilitation to complete project1 x 1hr presentation and Q&A with employerEmployer feedback to group | 6 students |
| Friday 29th July | Additional knowledge exchange session with local fashion online retailer | 4 students |
External opportunities promoted through programme
| Monday 13th June to Friday 1st July | Forage virtual internships | 11 students |
| Monday 13th June to Friday 1st July | Digdata virtual internship | 2 students |
| Monday 20th to Wednesday 22nd June | Internships UK Bright Network virtual work experience | 12 students |
Impact
Project performance against the three identified objectives
| Engage students from Equal Opportunities backgrounds in measurable and sustained activity | |||
| 51 students took part across the programme | 59% were from Equal Opportunities groups | 32 students took part in multiple sessions | 90% of students rated the programme 4 or 5 |
| Provide students from Equal Opportunities backgrounds with opportunities to make links with employers and alumni and develop their knowledge of pathways after graduation | |||
| 17 employers took part across three days | 11 unique opportunities were offered through the programme | 70% of students made links with an employer or fellow student following the programme | 44% of students reported increased knowledge of pathways after graduation |
| Increased awareness of skills and attributes required for graduate roles within SMEs with a focus on improving networking and communication skills. | |||
| 76% students reported the programme increased their confidence in finding a career after graduation | 76% students reported the programme increased their awareness of skills and attributes required for graduate roles | 59% students reported an increased confidence to make changes in the workplace | 76% students reported an increased knowledge of networking following the programme |
“I’m looking forward to hopefully inspiring students to see that you don’t need to have everything together to set up a business, you simply have to be willing and determined! I can’t wait to share my business and actually hear students’ feedback on it as we get closer to our second launch.”
Local fashion online retailer.
“The workshops were great starting points for these topics, including how to deal with my disability in the workplace and what is possible to put in place, which I did not know and felt very reassuring. Finding out how other people dealt with their disabilities during the workshop helped to see how this would work more practically and I enjoyed the fact that it normalized these types of “different” circumstances- I know I am not the only one, but you do not often get to hear about it first hand.”
Student
Conclusions & advice
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
- Work experience, networking and knowledge exchange elements were attractive to students,
- Students were largely positive about the flexibility of the programme, particularly the work experience elements,
- Students often undertook more than the minimum requirements of the programme, e.g. more workshops or multiple work experience opportunities,
- Large number of employers involved in different ways,
- Networking element to the programme, particularly on LinkedIn.
Weaknesses
- Current platform was not as successful as hoped- explore other options, for example, LinkedIn, for next year,
- Communications with students not getting through leading to confusion. Find a more effective method to communicate than email. This led to students criticising organisation but was more about information sharing,
- Student confidence in understanding pathways after graduation did not see the same increase as other areas (only 42% vs. 62%, 71% and 82% in other areas),
- Programme ran at the end of exam period which meant some students couldn’t attend particular workshops or were concerned about workload.
Opportunities
- Run event more than once over the year – Easter and June,
- Spread workshops over a longer period of time avoiding exam period,
- More opportunities for community building, particularly between employers who took part in the programme – use of LinkedIn,
- Different topics to ensure that students can take part again without repeating content,
- Get students involved in planning for next year,
- Provide students with other ways to engage; e.g. reflective activities before workshops,
- Link in workshops with other w/e programmes e.g. SME summer internship programme.
Threats
- Conflicting projects and programmes, internal and external (maintaining a USP and avoiding direct competition when recruiting students),
- Reliance on external work experience platforms – Digdata, Forage, Bright Network,
- Danger of employers becoming over utilised – needs a fresh source of new employers to recruit,
- Employers not seeing potential benefits, programme not being mutually beneficial,
- Danger of topics becoming repetitive (students feel that they have heard about this before and therefore less committed),
- Risk of overcommitting students, especially during exam times- How much time can students realistically spend on this programme?
| Potential opportunities for 2022-23 | |
| Expand project to run at Easter and in June/July | By offering this programme at varied times we can catch different groups of students and avoid exams |
| Semester one to focus on community building with Equal Opportunities students | By building community early with these groups we can raise their awareness of the project and increase take-up |
| Explore additional opportunities to recruit employers to the programme | Work more closely with Employer team to build links with SMEs Encourage students to use their networks to encourage employers |
| Remove restriction to SMEs- encourage some bigger organisations to get involved | This could particularly focus around third sector/ charities or organisations who are contributing to the community |
| Involve the ProjectSet Platform to deliver live projects | Platform supports better organisation for groups Increases ability to upscale projects without additional staff resource |
