bright futures strathclyde annual achievement report 2013-14

ANNUAL ACHIEVEMENT

REPORT 2013/14 BRIGHT FUTURES STRATHCLYDE

1

BRIGHT FUTURES STRATHCLYDE – ANNUAL ACHIEVEMENT REPORT 2013/2014

Introduction to Report

Having worked as part of the Bright Futures Society at Strathclyde for around two

and a half years now, this is easily the most successful and enjoyable year yet!

This report includes not only all of our events and successes from this year, but also

includes a little bit about each of our committee members, their individual successes

and their future plans.

I think I write on behalf of everyone at Bright Futures Strathclyde when I say I’m

incredibly proud of what we’ve managed to achieve in only the last 12 months and I

have every faith in the existing committee members who

will be continuing and in the new members who will be

joining that they’ll take what we’ve built and make it even

better.

It’s an absolute pleasure to be finishing my time with Bright

Futures Strathclyde having worked with these incredible

young leaders and I’m delighted to write and send this

Annual Achievement Report for 2013/14.

Chris Milborrow,

President

Bright Futures Strathclyde

Contents of Report

Content Page

Introduction and Contents 1

Events (Bright Futures Schools) 2

Events (On Campus) 3-5

Additional Activities 6

Committee Growth/Development 7

Committee Profiles 8-11

Society Sustainability 12

Recognitions 13

2


Events

Bright Futures Schools

A Day on Campus.

Bishopbriggs Academy

In June 2013, even before the academic year had

begun, Bright Futures Strathclyde organized and

ran an event for over 150 school pupils from

Bishopbriggs to come onto campus and see not

only what University life is like, but also get a

chance to take part in a game putting them in the

shoes of a Bright Futures Committee. The

feedback from both the pupils in attendance but

also the teachers was great, with the school

deciding to launch their own society at

Bishopbriggs, which has also been hugely

successful over the year!

Skills for the Real World!

Springburn Academy

In August 2013, we continued the

great success of our ‘Skills for the

Real World’ project in Springburn

Academy. We took the pupils there

through a presentation on strengths

and then ran a Glasgow based

business game where we tested their

problem solving skills, as well as their

ability to produce innovative and

creative ideas, as well as leadership

and teamwork capabilities. The

school were very positive about the event and will look to work with us again in

future.

3


Events

On Campus

How to get the best Graduate Job!

Students Attended: 90-100

Our first event was run in September, where we

continued a Strathclyde tradition of having Simon

Reichwald on campus to kick-start our year. The

event managed to reach between 90-100

attendees, growing our turnout again year on

year. This event was a brilliant was for new

students to not only become more employable as

a result of Simon’s advice, but also as a way to find out more about Bright Futures

Strathclyde. As a result, we managed to attract new members onto our committee,

enhancing our committee capability for the rest of the year.

Science and Engineering Networking Event.

Employers Attended: Rolls-Royce, Shell,

AstraZeneca, Centrica, Syngenta, National

Nuclear Laboratory & P&G.

Students Attended: 250-300

‘Definitely the first networking event we’ve

organised to require a steward.’

The unrivalled success of this event can be

attributed to excellent planning and organisation.

Organisation of this event began way back in June and attracted 8 employers from

both science and engineering industries. The event was an unbelievable success,

with over 200 students signing up and between 250 & 300 actually attending. This

event was also the first of the year to include all Glasgow based Bright Futures

Societies, with both Glasgow and Caledonian coming along.

Here’s what the employers thought;

“The event was very worthwhile and well organised by the Bright Futures

team. We had the opportunity to meet with a wider range of students than we

would normally reach through our recruitment activities. We would definitely

be interested in attending the event again in future.”

“Really good event, brilliantly organised. Great calibre of students from all

years which was good to see.”

4


Assessment Centre Preparation.

Employers Attended: EY

Students Attended: 25

This event, run with EY, was a real eye-opener

to the Assessment Centre process and gave

students the opportunity to simulate what a real

assessment day would look like and participate in a mock team exercise. The

company were very pleased at the turnout and quality of students attending.

Using LinkedIn to your

ADVANTAGE!

Employers Attended: IBM


This event was our first ever with

IBM and was really successful. Both

representatives from the company

and Simon Reichwald sat on a panel

after a presentation about making the most of your profile, the event received good

feedback from the employer and also a great review in the Strathclyde Student

Newspaper, which can be found at

http://www.strathclydetelegraph.com/2013/12/using-linkedin-to-your-advantage/

Reverse Speed Interviewing

Employers Attended: Rolls Royce, EY, Shell,

Zurich, IBM


This event was an innovative role-reversal where

students were given the opportunity to interview

employers about applications, graduate and

internship roles and the skills they wanted. The

feedback from this event from both employers and

students was really positive, with both enjoying the informal setup and the time

allowed to cover everything they wanted to speak about.

http://www.strathclydetelegraph.com/2013/12/using-linkedin-to-your-advantage/

5


CV Competition

Employers Attended: Rolls Royce


This event was a huge success, with over

100 students sending in their CVs to be

looked through by Rolls Royce. The winners

were invited to a dinner with representatives

of the company and all those who entered

were given the opportunity to come and meet

Rolls Royce on campus in a mass-feedback

session.

The feedback from the company was really

positive, with the applicants coming from

relevant backgrounds and sending some high-quality CVs.

“It was great to receive so many applications and be able to provide some

constructive feedback. The standard was high so the focus was more on the

‘finishing touches’ and providing some ideas on how to sell your skills in the right

way to your chosen employer.” Rolls Royce

Events Still to Come in March 2014

Assessment Centre We teamed up with Strathclyde Accounting & Finance Society and PwC to bring students the opportunity to practice assessment centre techniques. The event will be held at the PwC offices in Glasgow and all 30 spaces have been filled!

Leadership Development This event will be based on Graeme Waddell’s leadership journey, where he'll be providing insights and advice on how to lead in the workplace. Graeme is a former Business Director of Rolls Royce Aero Repair and Overhaul responsible for providing leadership and business focus for the 1,000 people employed by Rolls Royce in East Kilbride.

Making The Most of your Internship/Grad Role We’ve booked out space in Glasgow for an informal networking event where current grads and past interns will come along and speak to undergraduates about how to make the most of their internship or graduate role. Employers attending are IBM, EY and Thales.

6


Additional Activities

Star Skills

In semester two, Bright Futures Strathclyde were asked to deliver a seminar on

using LinkedIn. Around 15 students attended the session which consisted of a short

presentation followed by group discussions on suggested improvements. The

feedback was brilliant, with all the students who attended rating their knowledge of

LinkedIn and their confidence in using it as higher afterwards than before the

session.

Careers Service

Throughout this year, we’ve helped promote careers service events by publicising

them to our members across email and social media channels. We also moved to

build our relationship with the careers service by helping them recruit for

psychometric test practices, which they filled.

Interview with Centrica

This year, we brought students at Strathclyde some great CV and

interview tips from Sandy Chow at Centrica. We interviewed Sandy

and uploaded the transcript in this PDF format.

The upload was a huge success, reaching over 950 people and

can be found using the link, below.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=428649030569059&id=417557

491678213

Social Media

On Social media, we’ve been able to grow this year. From the creation of our

Facebook page at the beginning of semester 1, we’ve reached 402 likes, with the

reach of our posts averaging between 300 and 400 views per post.

As a result, we can actively engage more students with the events we are uploading

and the additional materials we’re posting.

Twitter is an area we will look to develop in the next year, with follower numbers and

activity remaining low.



7


Committee Growth/Development

Throughout this year, every single member of the Bright Futures Strathclyde

Committee have dedicated a phenomenal amount of time and effort to help our

membership become more employable.

The diversity and success of our numerous events throughout the year can only be

attributed to the innovation, hard work and determination of each of the members

who organised and led them, along with the support shown from a committed team.

This year at Strathclyde, we began with four members and finish the year with eight.

The additions to our team not only strengthened an already successful committee,

but diversified our ideas and led to even more variety in what we’ve been able to

offer our membership.

In terms of development, the group has undoubtedly grown stronger from working

with one another and each individual member has taken on responsibilities,

providing opportunities for both teamwork and leadership. The events our members

had the opportunities to attend couldn’t have been done so successfully without the

skills of the committee in building professional relationship with our corporate clients

and with other societies, by being able to effectively publicise and being able to

organise venues, resources and other members of the team to ensure the events ran

effectively.

8


Committee Profiles

Every member of the Bright Futures Strathclyde team has had the opportunity to

build transferrable skills and add to their CVs. Some have secured internship or

graduate roles for the coming year and the others will be equipped with a skill-set

and experiences to help them achieve brilliant things in the near future.

The next few pages are dedicated to this year’s committee and demonstrates the

hard work they’ve put in to make ‘13/14 so successful!

Tom Brawley – Joint President

Studying: (MEng) Chemical Engineering

Graduating: 2015

Tom has been a brilliant organiser in the team

this year. He has demonstrated great

leadership in the organisation and running of

3 extremely successful events, each of which

received excellent feedback from our partners

in industry. He has also been a brilliant

ambassador for Bright Futures Strathclyde,

attending two National Conferences and flying

the flag for Strathclyde. These contributions,

along with his support with Bright Futures

Schools, has really helped the society go from

strength to strength, Tom has secured an

internship with BP for this summer and will

continue as President in 2014/15.

“I’ve really enjoyed this year at Bright Futures Strathclyde and I’m looking

forward to helping take the society on to achieve even more next year. I’m

looking forward to starting my career through an internship at BP and, no

doubt, the skills learned during this year on the committee will help me make

the most of the opportunity.”

9


Cheryl Carrigan – VP Science & Engineering

Studying: (MSc) Forensic & Analytical

Chemistry

Graduating: 2014

Cheryl’s organisation and excellence in planning

led to the huge success of Science &

Engineering networking event. Cheryl built

relationships with companies from both

industries and delivered an event of the highest

quality with a huge turnout and brilliant employer

feedback. Cheryl has also been important in the

Bright Futures schools events and plans to lead

her own schools event in June 2014. As part of

the team, Cheryl always has important

contributions to planning and helps develop on others’ ideas by providing an

analytical and practical lens. Cheryl will be starting a graduate programme at the

National Nuclear Laboratory in 2014.

“This year has been brilliant and allowed me to take on a leadership and

organisational role. I’ve developed skills I’ll definitely use at work!”

Laura Carr – VP Business &

Humanities

Studying: BA (Honours) Accounting &

Finance

Graduating: 2014

Laura has been a fantastic team player

this year, with input to help develop and

add to others ideas to help create

excellent events. She has also had an

important role in the Schools projects,

helping to facilitate both the skills for the

real world event and the day on campus

event. Laura has also led an assessment day event with PwC in collaboration with

Strathclyde Accounting & Finance Society, which has been fully signed up for. Laura

will begin a career in Assurance with PwC in 2014.

“I am very excited about my short term plans & look forward to graduating

from Strathclyde and joining the PwC graduate programme, in assurance and

studying for my CA. Bright futures has given me a solid foundation in aiding

my development within professional services.”

10


Julius Matuzevicius – Committee

Member

Studying: BA (Honours)

Economics.

Graduating: 2016

Julius has worked tirelessly to bring

Strathclyde an event based on

developing leadership skills. Julius

arranged for Graeme Waddell, former

Director at Rolls Royce and

entrepreneur, to come on campus and

speak about his own leadership story.

Throughout this year, Julius has also

taken on an ambassador role at

KPMG and will be an important part of

the Committee in 2014/15.

‘My short term future plans are to maintain and develop Bright Futures society,

organising many other successful events to make students more employable

and try to improve myself every day.’

David Lockhart – Committee Member

Studying: (MSc) Subsea Engineering.

Graduating: 2014

David has been brilliant at building on ideas and

developing innovative and practical solutions for

events and activities. He is always on hand to support

the events of other committee members and provide

advice and reassurance. David also co-led the

reverse speed networking event which was a huge

success and was excellent at managing client

relationships throughout the planning process.

Upon finishing his Msc in Subsea Engineering, David

is looking to apply to work in Oil & Gas.

“I’m looking to utilise the skills I have developed

through volunteering with Bright Futures to get

the right graduate job for me"

11


Kayleigh Linklater – Committee Member

Studying: BA (Honours) Management and

Economics.

Graduating: 2014

Since Kayleigh joined the committee, her

energy and enthusiasm for making events a

success has been infectious. This was

demonstrated in her joint leadership of the

reverse speed networking event which was

delivered with great success resulting in very

positive feedback from both students and

employers. Kayleigh will be joining Zurich in

2014 on their General Management Graduate

Programme as a General Insurance

Commercial Broker

To finish four great years at Strathclyde on a high note and to carry my

enthusiasm and drive into my career as a graduate - bringing with me all of the

great lessons learnt from my time at Bright Futures!"

Jamil Tariq – Committee Member

Studying: BA (Honours) Human Resource

Mangement with Marketing.

Graduating: 2015

Jamil is the newest member on our

committee and is keen to take what he has

learned from being on this year’s team and

using it next year as part of the 2014/15

committee. Jamil has also taken on an

ambassador role at KPMG this year.

“Having recently joined the Bright Futures

Committee Group I plan on leading many

successful events hoping to both raise

awareness and practice employability

skills amongst students and myself. My

short-term goals within the next year is to

achieve a first class degree along with equipping myself with further relevant

experience all leading to a successful career in a business.”

12


Society Sustainability

Bright Futures Strathclyde has a really exciting future committee, with Tom, Julius

and Jamil all remaining with us and two new members set to join already before the

new semester begins.

We’d like to welcome both Youssef Hounat and Kristin Simonova onto the committee

for 2014/15.

Youssef is a current 2nd year undergraduate student

studying Accounting and Finance and is current

President at Strathclyde Accounting & Finance Society

and trains and coaches the Strathclyde Rowing Team.

“Next year I am hoping to secure an Internship

with a big four firm and gain exposure to different

companies in different industries.”

Kristin is currently in 2nd year studying Hospitality &

Tourism Management with Management Science at

Strathclyde and is Marketing Director at Enactus

Strathclyde.

“I am looking forward to working with established

business leaders to provide Strathclyde students'

with useful training and support which in turn

would take them further in their personal and

academic development.”

The new committee will also be continuing to recruit throughout the beginning of next

year in order to further strengthen the team for the year ahead!

2014/15 Planning Session

The current committee along with new members will meet in April to discuss the plan

for next year, where key events will be inputted in the calendar and organisation will

begin before summer.

This will give both committees an opportunity to work together in order to help the

sustainability of the society moving into next academic year.

13


Recognitions

On behalf of the committee at Bright Futures Strathclyde, I’d like to thanks all of the

National Team members who have helped us achieve our goals this year. I’d also

like than Simon who has always been on hand to offer advice and support, along

with attendance at our events.

We’ve had lots of support from the Students’ Association at Strathclyde who have

provided venues and resources throughout the year and look forward to working with

them in future.

We’d also like to recognise our partners in industry who have always accommodated

our ideas and supported our events with attendance and those who attend always do

so enthusiastically and provide great insight to our membership.

Bright Futures Strathclyde Committee 2013/2014 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bright-Futures-Strathclyde/417557491678213 Twitter: @StrathBrightFut Email: [email protected] 'Bright Futures is more than just a student society; it’s your pathway to success.’

bright futures strathclyde annual achievement report 2013-14

Documents

bright futures committee

bright futures society

events bright futures

strathclyde tradition

academic year

enjoyable year

committee profiles

committee growthdevelopment