Career Smart for students launches this June

Eligible students can now secure their place on Career Smart, an online course that aims to prepare students for graduate recruitment.

Career Smart has been developed exclusively for our students by the Henley and University careers services, in collaboration with the Online Courses team, in order to help them meet early graduate recruitment deadlines and put them ahead of their peers at other universities.

The course is open to all current undergraduate students who will be graduating in 2022 and has been offered to all incoming postgraduate taught applicants who will be starting a course in the Autumn. Career Smart will launch on 7 June 2021 and will be facilitated by the course educators until the end of August, giving students plenty of time to get involved.

In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the team will also be re-inviting all final year students finishing their course this summer to take part to support them with their graduate job search.

More than 750 students joined the course last summer and it has received excellent feedback from participants, with 100% of those students completing the course recommending that others take part. Career Smart has also been attracting national and international attention in the employability sector.

Our Careers Registration data shows that students completing the course are more likely to be narrowing down options and pursuing graduate opportunities at an earlier stage. Those participating also finish the course with a better understanding of how the graduate recruitment process works and feel more confident about taking their next steps after graduation.

Here is what some participants had to say:

"Career Smart is a great course - everyone who led it was very engaging and enthusiastic and this was reassuring! I feel less scared about my future now and now I am just excited!"

"I found the course very enjoyable and extremely useful! I was not sure what my next steps were going to be after graduating this year but thanks to Career Smart, this is not the case anymore!"

"I would definitely recommend this course - it has really helped me to understand what is required and relieved a lot of nerves and anxieties that I had about this before."

The course is hosted on the FutureLearn platform and is split into four parts, with each section taking approximately 2-3 hours to complete. Students can therefore work through this at their own pace and interact with careers consultants, graduate recruiters and Reading Alumni as they go.

Your students can find further information, FAQs, the course trailer and the link to join on the Essentials Career Smart page.

Please contact Daniel Mitchell (Careers Consultant) if you have any questions.