By James Platt, Career & Employability Officer, LSST Birmingham Campus.   

Embarking on a week-long odyssey of career-focused events, LSST Birmingham elevated the professional aspirations of its career-focused student community. This blog serves as your insider's guide to a compelling series of workshops, networking sessions, and invaluable insights that help to reshape the career trajectory of our students. 

Monday, January 15th: Alice Carver, from Acorn’s Children’s Hospice, visited the Birmingham campus today to speak with students regarding volunteering roles within the charity. Acorn’s provides specialist support and care for local children and their families when they are going through the toughest times.  

They have over 40 stores across the West Midlands and there is a host of opportunities within the stores for volunteers to build networks and gain skills that they may not already have. From working out back processing the clothing to the customer service desk, to helping with social media, the opportunities are endless in the retail stores. 

Alice also told students about fundraising they can get involved in, such as running their own sponsored events or attending various meetings for the charity so they can continue to fund their work. Volunteering within the hospices was also on the table, with working in the gardens, befriending some of the children and housekeeping roles all available for those wanting to put in the effort and gain some work experience.  

Over 40 students attended the event with many intrigued by the variety of options available and over a quarter of them left their details with Alice to get followed up with and take the next steps to volunteering with Acorn’s in their local community.  

Tuesday, January 16th: Mehl Julião, came to Birmingham to present marketing insights to our students from her journey in the industry. In just under an hour, Mehl went through differences in international markets, successes and failures of marketing campaigns, and how to perform data analysis for marketing professionals. 

The students who attended enthusiastically engaged with the session and took in all the information to help them with their upcoming marketing module. After the session, several students came to speak with Mehl and thanked her for sharing her insights and tips to get into the industry. 

Thank you to Mehl for helping our students on their journeys learning from the best in the business as they work towards the end of their degrees. 

Wednesday, January 17th: Chris from West Midlands Police joined us for a presentation on careers in policing and the roles you might not think fall under the police. Going through the roles available and the various pathways our students can use to get into the police force, Chris walked us through the lengthy application process. 

While there are over 8,000 police officers in the West Midlands there is also 4,000 staff that support them including legal, marketing, force contact, HR and many more. The force is also looking to diversify its workforce and represent the communities they serve in Birmingham so they are increasingly encouraging those from different backgrounds to apply. 

A career in policing may not be for everyone but it’s rewarding work and you are there for people when they need support the most and there are plenty of roles that aren’t on the frontline! 

Thursday, January 18th: Dan and supply chain apprentice Cameron attended the Birmingham campus to show students all of the opportunities within DHL Supply Chain under the apprenticeship banner. Apprenticeships are often written off because people believe that they are just for 16-17-year-olds or that you are paid £5 per hour. However, this is not the case. 

Dan presented opportunities within data analysis, supply chain, management, engineering, and much more to our students. These roles will all be available to our students once they have finished their degree at LSST and will help them to build real-world skills while earning a full-time wage. 

With a great turnout, our students were intrigued by many of the offerings and had many questions for Dan about the program and asked Cameron what his day-to-day is like. As we move forward in 2024, we will be working closely with DHL Supply Chain to show our students what else is out there for them! 

To find out more email: james.platt@lsst.ac