Embedding diverse skills for the world of work
The Classics Department has an active commitment to help you to prepare for the world of work by supporting you as you develop an impressive range of transferable skills as you progress through your studies.
Our modules are carefully designed both to help you to learn and experience new skills and to enhance existing ones. While you study the classical world, we use this as a means to support you to develop these skills for practical use in the global world of work today and tomorrow.
A single, joint or combined degree course with the Classics Department can include a range of different sub-disciplines that develop specific skills. Modules in archaeology and material culture, for example, explore skills in understanding and presenting visual evidence; while classical language modules develop a critical eye for detail and communication. Ancient history modules encourage your curiosity to question evidence and to assess it in its context, while literature modules support creativity and imagination.
Employability Manifesto
Our commitment to employability.
Created in collaboration with the Careers Service and Classical Society.
The Classics Department has a commitment:
- to offer top quality careers advice, tailored to those taking degrees in our department, both undergraduate and postgraduate;
- to integrate transferable and employability skills training into all our teaching;
- to offer a dedicated research and employability skills course embedded in the first year curriculum;
- to raise students’ awareness of the employability skills that they acquire during our degree, and their ability to articulate them in a career context;
- to offer departmental-specific training workshops;
- to foster contacts with graduates from our department (alumni) to provide networking opportunities and advice to current students;
- to encourage students to share experience of applications for jobs, internships etc.
- We offer careers support throughout your degree.
- To follow the Classical Society, take a look at their Facebook and Twitter pages.
The Professional Self Toolkit
Prize-winning innovation in support for employability and wellbeing
College Team Teaching Prize 2021 for Dr Richard Hawley
Dr. Richard Hawley won the 2021 College Team Teaching Prize 'Excellence Award’ with Dr. Rita D'Alton-Harrison (Law), Helen Groenendaal (Wellbeing), and Louise Ogle and Gianina Harvey-Brewin (Careers Service) for their work on developing The Professional Self Toolkit, a new app that integrates academic, wellbeing, and careers support. The prize enables further development of the app.
Using the Toolkit app, over their degree students input skills and experiences to construct their personal professional self, their unique 'iBrand'. The easy-to-use app integrates diverse existing university support services to encourage students to record the different skills which they gain from academic, sporting or volunteering activities, and to explore directed opportunities to develop new skills, such as leadership, teamworking, communication, project management, and problem-solving.
The app is carefully designed to empower students from all backgrounds to have the confidence actively to create their own professional identity as they prepare to transition successfully into the world of work.
