Edited by Christopher Douce, Thursday, 12 June 2025, 17:55
Whilst wearing my student hat I went to a careers event that took place on 12 June 2025 for students who were studying arts and humanities modules. I attended because I was curious; I wanted to know what would be covered in sessions like these.
What follows is a set of rough notes I made during the session. The aim of the session was to explore and to find ways to identify what skills employers look for, to learn more about career options for students studying arts and humanities qualifications, and to share resources.
Activities
The session began with an activity, where we were asked a question: what skills do you think employers want from you? This was linked to some research by an organisation called the Bright Network. In their most recent survey (at the time of writing) the top three ‘skills’ identified were: ‘interest in the business’, resilience, commercial awareness.
The next activity we were asked to create what is called a ‘skills calling card’. The idea was that we choose an image, list our top 3 employability skills, and rate them out of 100. In other words, imagine creating your own card for a game of ‘skills top trumps’.
This led to some questions, namely, how might you demonstrate or evidence your top skills by way of examples? This being, of course, being linked to how you pitch yourself within a job applications, CVs and interviews.
Careers
The activities led to the question: what can you do an arts and humanities qualification? There was a discussion about job roles and employers. I was stuck by a particular statistic, that 85% of jobs are open to students who have any degree, which was attributed to an organisation called the institute of student employers.
We were directed to some useful resources: Prospects, which as a section about ‘what you can do with your degree, and the OU jobs platform, opportunity hub. I like Prospects. It is through Prospects that I gained an opportunity for doctoral study, which eventually took me to the OU.
We were encouraged to carry out some further activities in our own time. One was to look through job adverts to identify what skills employers are looking for, what examples can you draw upon to evidence the skills that you might have. Another activity was to look at career paths of OU Alumni through LinkedIn.
Resources
We were introduced to a number of useful resources:
It is interesting that these attributes have been only related to Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences modules. They can, of course, also be applied to modules from other faculties.
A reminder was given that all students have access to the Careers and Employability Service, which can be found through the Help Centre. The services provides advice for about writing of your CV and preparing for an interview. You can also book in an appointment with a professional career advisor.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to the presenter and the facilitator, and the careers team who devised this session up.
Skills for Careers in Arts and Humanities
Whilst wearing my student hat I went to a careers event that took place on 12 June 2025 for students who were studying arts and humanities modules. I attended because I was curious; I wanted to know what would be covered in sessions like these.
What follows is a set of rough notes I made during the session. The aim of the session was to explore and to find ways to identify what skills employers look for, to learn more about career options for students studying arts and humanities qualifications, and to share resources.
Activities
The session began with an activity, where we were asked a question: what skills do you think employers want from you? This was linked to some research by an organisation called the Bright Network. In their most recent survey (at the time of writing) the top three ‘skills’ identified were: ‘interest in the business’, resilience, commercial awareness.
The next activity we were asked to create what is called a ‘skills calling card’. The idea was that we choose an image, list our top 3 employability skills, and rate them out of 100. In other words, imagine creating your own card for a game of ‘skills top trumps’.
This led to some questions, namely, how might you demonstrate or evidence your top skills by way of examples? This being, of course, being linked to how you pitch yourself within a job applications, CVs and interviews.
Careers
The activities led to the question: what can you do an arts and humanities qualification? There was a discussion about job roles and employers. I was stuck by a particular statistic, that 85% of jobs are open to students who have any degree, which was attributed to an organisation called the institute of student employers.
We were directed to some useful resources: Prospects, which as a section about ‘what you can do with your degree, and the OU jobs platform, opportunity hub. I like Prospects. It is through Prospects that I gained an opportunity for doctoral study, which eventually took me to the OU.
We were encouraged to carry out some further activities in our own time. One was to look through job adverts to identify what skills employers are looking for, what examples can you draw upon to evidence the skills that you might have. Another activity was to look at career paths of OU Alumni through LinkedIn.
Resources
We were introduced to a number of useful resources:
It is interesting that these attributes have been only related to Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences modules. They can, of course, also be applied to modules from other faculties.
A reminder was given that all students have access to the Careers and Employability Service, which can be found through the Help Centre. The services provides advice for about writing of your CV and preparing for an interview. You can also book in an appointment with a professional career advisor.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to the presenter and the facilitator, and the careers team who devised this session up.