SUPPORT FOR ACADEMIC STAFF
- Career Education, Information and Guidance
- Lectures, Workshops and Events
- Awards (Credit-Bearing and Non Credit-Bearing)
- Employability Skills
- Internships In The Curriculum
- Labour Market Information
- Graduate Destinations
- Writing References
- Postdoctoral Fellows
- Statement of Service
ABOUT THE CAREER DEVELOPMENT CENTRE
UCD Career Development Centre is the central unit responsible for meeting the careers education, information and guidance needs of all UCD students. The Centre is located in the Library Building at Belfield (beside the campus bookshop). The Centre is led by Dr. David Foster who also has shared line management responsibility for staff at our sister-centre at the Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, the MBA Careers Service Manager and the MSc Admissions, Careers and Placement Manager. Click here to find out more about the Career Development Centre at Smurfit.
UCD Career Development Centre is a member of two professional associations which specifically address careers education, information and guidance in Higher Education. As such, members contribute to the professional development of colleagues, nationally and internationally and benefit themselves from CPD activities, networking events, conferences and resource sharing. The UCD Career Development Centre is bound to comply with policies and professional codes of practice produced by these bodies, in particular AHECS:
Association of Higher Education Careers Services (www.ahecs.ie)
Association of Higher Education Careers Advisory Services (www.agcas.org.uk)
In addition to working closely with students and a wide range of local, national and international employers, the Career Development Centre is closely aligned to UCD Teaching and Learning and is in a position to support academic staff implementing aspects of the UCD Strategic Plan and Education Strategy. Our work is organised around three related themes:
- Engagement - encouraging first year students to become active citizens at UCD by, for example, volunteering, joining student clubs and societies, taking up a new language or playing sport. These activities are valued by graduate employers. As part of the UCD Teaching and Learning series of podcasts entitled 'Focus on First Year', the Centre recorded an episode podcast entitled: 'Future Fit: Engaging and Developing from day one'.
Click here to listen to our podcast. - Employability skills and attributes - encouraging and facilitating students' development of the core skills employers expect students to possess when applying for graduate jobs through campus and off-campus activities such as internships.
- Effective Transitions - helping students make an effective and successful transition into work or graduate study through the development of winning CVs, understanding the interview process and how to be successful in it and writing high quality, reflective personal statements.
Much of our work with academic staff focuses on areas such as:
- Providing consultancy and support to staff developing career education, information and guidance provision or introducing personal and career development modules.
- Identifying the employability skills graduate employers are seeking in students.
- Developing internships for students in specific areas of study.
- Identifying trends in graduate recruitment and graduate employment.