Undergraduate
The Portsmouth experience
Emphasis on employability
At Portsmouth we recognise graduates enter an increasingly competitive employment market. That’s why we offer a comprehensive suite of relevant facilities, services, opportunities and support to help you to identify and achieve your career goals. In addition to everything offered by our careers and recruitment service, the course you follow has been designed to include preparation for future employment as an integral part of your studies. Many of our courses have direct professional input and actively engage with businesses or include a work-placement opportunity. Over 89 per cent of our graduates* are in employment or further study and training.
*full-time, first degree UK-domiciled 2010 graduates six months after graduation
CV-boosting opportunities
It’s all here for you; all you have to do is get involved. We encourage you to start doing something about your career as soon as you get here. That might sound daunting, but this could be a small but useful step such as finding some part-time work, talking to an adviser about how to start building your CV or volunteering.
The effort you make will be rewarded as you’ll have the edge over other candidates when you graduate. We focus on helping you discover what you have to offer and how to enhance it. With our help you can develop a proactive and pragmatic approach to your career development and gain essential graduate skills and the positive work attitude employers want.
Your centre
Purple Door Careers and Recruitment (PDCR), run by our Department of Employability, is at the heart of the campus and your careers support. Our centre is housed in a fantastic modern space, it’s very well equipped and we still believe in the value of face-to-face support from professional advisers. It offers:
Facilities and information
- large, accessible centre, which is open all year round
- computers for careers-related work
- printed and online reference materials including graduate job directories
- handy resources to take away
- our award-winning website, packed with useful advice, links and guides to download
Employer links
- our own professional in-house recruitment agency working proactively to find the job that suits you best
- exclusive opportunities resulting from our partnerships with local, regional and national employers
Guidance
- help with research and techniques from our experienced team
- one-to-one guidance interviews for that personalised approach we know our students value
- telephone and e-guidance services if you can’t drop in
Events
- workshops to perfect your CV, and application and interview skills
- seminars to give you an insight into particular careers
- our Graduate Recruitment and Placement Fair where you can meet employers to get a head start
Enterprise opportunities
- mentoring, enterprise teaching and networking events
- help to make your ideas reality and develop skills in business start-up, self-employment, freelancing and consultancy
- the chance to advance your creativity, leadership, self-knowledge and understanding of the global environment – valuable for whatever career path you follow
Your employability is part of your studies
At Portsmouth, careers support can be found not just through PDCR, it’s integrated into every course and across the University.
As part of your course
Employers tell us they want graduates to demonstrate a number of skills that are transferable to the workplace including self-management, problem-solving, effective communication, IT literacy and team working. Every course here offers opportunities to acquire these and more. In addition, every course includes a framework to help you take ownership of your academic and personal development and to build career management skills, so you will be able to identify career options open to you, formulate a plan and put it into action.
Study overseas as part of your degree
Whether you are interested in Europe or maybe further afield like the US or China, we have a range of exciting opportunities that will allow you to study or work in another part of the world for one semester or a whole academic year. Studying abroad gives you a fun and challenging experience, new or improved language skills, confidence and an impressive CV. For more information, visit the Study Abroad website.
Your work experience
Employers also tell us that they would prefer graduates to have gained proven employability skills through work-based or work-related challenges. At Portsmouth, you will have the chance to do just that, as every course includes work-related learning. This ranges from short and long-term placements, volunteering to the chance to learn from real employers who visit campus.
Furthermore, you can hone these skills in any job you do and at PDCR you will have access to hundreds of paid or unpaid job opportunities in the workplace or community. If you work part time while you study, it’s not just about ‘earn while you learn’; you’ll be gaining valuable practical experience and workplace skills such as time management at the same time.
Your link to employers
We are proud of the strong partnerships we’ve grown with local, regional and national employers and the doors these links open for our students. Our relationships with large organisations including HP, JP Morgan, IBM, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and Estee Lauder, as well as small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) alike give our students and graduates countless placement and job opportunities. One recent success saw 90 of our talented graduates employed in local SMEs because of the funding we won through a national internship scheme. Many of our academics are also practitioners themselves, bringing real-world experience and industry links to our courses.
Your future
The work we do with students on enhancing their employability is effective. Employers know Portsmouth students and graduates are equipped with the attributes and enthusiasm they want, so we have good employability rates. And we don’t simply stop caring what you’re up to after you leave the University – you can use the PDCR service for up to five years after you graduate.
Contact Purple Door Careers and Recruitment
To find out more, please get in touch.
T: 023 9284 2684
E: careersandrecruitment@port.ac.uk
W: www.port.ac.uk/careersandrecruitment