Enhance your employability and advance your career!

A program in which you'll gain practical, real world experiences, skills and knowledge to embark on an enriching future career journey. This hands-on learning approach is highly valued by employers and assists you to become career-ready.

What's in it for you?

  • Have a ready to go personalised Career Toolkit for your job search
  • Have access to career development and practical activities which will enhance employment and advancement potential
  • Find extra-curricular and volunteer activities that suit you
  • Become more actively engaged at UWA and the wider community
  • Network with key industry contacts
  • Be recognised by employers for your enhanced employability

Who is eligible?

All currently enrolled undergraduate, honours or postgraduate students can apply. There is no minimum GPA requirement, and you can start at any time during your course, and complete it at your own pace.

What people are saying about the Award

Ian Fitzpatrick - General Manager, UWA Sport (Employer)

As one of the largest student employers on Campus, employing a significant number of students per year, UWA Sport is excited that the Careers Centre has created and launched the UWA Careers and Employability Award for undergraduates and post graduate students. Knowing a student has completed all aspects of the Award means they are job ready, having undertaken volunteering, work experience, developed sound interpersonal and time management skills. The skills and attributes that make them successful in the workplace. As an employer having to review large number of applications and resumes for every advertised position, to make my job easier in the future, I will be prioritising students who have completed the Award, by including it as a desirable or essential selection criteria in roles.

Dilakshana Yogarasa - Student

Completing the Award, I have become more self-aware and can identify my attributes, values and interests. I understand that only 30% of jobs are advertised, so having a ‘network’ who can introduce me to organisations or offer opportunities is vital for career success. I now have a greater insight into the labour market, the benefits of joining a professional associations and creating a LinkedIn profile.

As part of the Award, I attended many useful employability workshops and the Award acknowledges the time I have spent on extracurricular activities such as volunteering at Fairway UWA, Aspire UWA and UniMentor.

Through the skills obtained from the Award, I’m now confident that my resume will get me to interview stage. The skills I have developed will help to set me apart in a very competitive field.

Thank you for a valuable program.

Mishelle Burton - UWA Careers Adviser

As students the UWA Careers and Employability Award program will help you as both an undergraduate and post graduate to further develop your employability skills beyond the classroom and make you a, highly sought-after graduate. While it is important to get good grades employers are looking for more than just academic performance. Using evidence based strategies, the Award will help build your self- awareness of work preferences, career decision making and job application skills. Developing the attributes that employers are looking for improves your employability and career success. I would encourage you to get started as soon as possible to get your career started.

Kathryn Watson

Kathryn Watson – EY Campus Recruitment Senior Consultant

EY encourages students to get involved in the extra-curricular and employability programs offered at UWA. You will develop valuable skills and experiences to help you transition into employment and will give you the edge.

What does it involve?

The UWA Careers and Employability Award requires the completion of the following components.

Prior to commencing the activities apply to take part in the Award. This application gives you access to the workflow that will help to guide you through the Award. Keep track of your progress with My UniHub.

EMPLOY 101 Modules

EMPLOY 101 will help you to take your first steps towards finding your ideal career pathway!

Employ 101 is comprised of an overarching module – EMPLOY101 - START HERE and 4 sub-modules:

  • Module 1 – Self Awareness
  • Module 2 – Labour Market
  • Module 3 - Career Action Plan
  • Module 4 – Your Toolkit

Within each module of the Employ 101 course, you will find a series of activities that guide you through the creation of a personal ‘Career Toolkit’ that you can use to help you with your job search.

Your ‘Career Toolkit’ is a collection of ‘living’ documents that you will continue to develop as you progress through your studies and refine throughout your career.

As you work through each module of Employ 101, make sure you record your activity answers and personal reflections in a journal or word document (whatever works best for you), as you will be asked to draw upon them as you progress through the course. Choose those modules that are relevant for you and during your university studies review and re-do as necessary.

Once you complete a module, do the CHECK quiz. Once all CHECKS are completed, you will be able to undertake the Careers Toolkit CHECK. This CHECK will be assessed for the Award program.

Career Development Activities

  • Pre-Placement Program Modules;(approximately 1.5 hours)
  • Employer events (minimum 1, maximum 2 events)
  • Employability events (minimum 1, maximum 2 events)

Part 1. Pre-placement modules:

Get prepared to successfully launch into your work experience! Completion of these modules will greatly contribute to your understanding of your requirements in the workplace and put you at ease about your future work experiences.

Once you have submitted your assessments, a Course Completion Award Certificate will be generated. This will appear in the Congratulations Module.

Part 2. Employers events:

Employers often visit campus to share their opportunities and industry insights with students. These on campus visits may be at a Careers Fair, information session or networking event. Information on opportunities to engage with employers are posted on CareerHub and regularly sent to your student email.

You need to attend at least one of these events to complete Part 2. Remember to have your attendance recorded at each event you attend.

Part 3. Employability workshops and events:

The Careers Centre employability workshops help you understand what employers are looking for, how to apply and prepare to enter the workforce. Workshops include tips on how to find and apply for jobs, prepare for interviews and assessment centres.

You need to attend at least one of these events to complete Part 3. Remember to have your attendance recorded at each event you attend

Experiential Activities

These Experiential Activities are transformational! They are opportunities to:

  • Further develop your self-awareness, technical capacities and transferable skills;
  • Gain hands-on experience within a workplace and apply your academic learning
  • Gain insight into and test out your preferred work environment;
  • Demonstrate your initiative and cultural fit in an organisation/s;
  • Develop your network to gain industry knowledge and future opportunities;
  • Apply your career management skills in an industry context;
  • Undertake an overseas experience;
  • Develop cultural awareness, language skills and an understanding of global markets though overseas study; and
  • Set yourself apart from others in a competitive job market!

Part 1. Work Experience

To complete Part 1 of this stage you need to record 100 hours of work experience. These hours can include your part-time job.

Part 2. Volunteering

To complete Part 2 of this stage you need to record 25 hours of volunteering experience. These can include hours that you complete with Guild Volunteering.

Part 3. Supplementary Activities

To complete Part 3 of this stage you must choose 2 supplementary activities from the list on CareerHub. Examples include:

Reflection

IT'S NOT WHAT YOU DO, IT'S WHAT YOU LEARN FROM IT!

Experience alone is not enough - you need to know what you have learned from a situation. To do this, you need to reflect on it. Since the reflection is about what you did in certain situations, it is self-reflection. The main purpose is to consider your reactions and responses to situations and how you use them to determine your actions (and reactions) in the future to affect a positive outcome or achieve set goals.

Self-reflection is your capacity to analyse every event/situation you have been involved in, evaluate how you acted, then decide what you have learned about yourself that you can take forward to be more effective in the future. 

You are required to complete a reflection as the final stage of the Award. This is very important in furthering your career development and employability. Reflection and learning from your experience is as important as doing it. Employers want to recruit students who will continue to learn informally as well as formally.

Your reflection can be delivered in writing (500 words) or in a video presentation using The BigInterview.

Ready to get started?

Apply now

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