This award will recognise and celebrate where student employability has been significantly enhanced by teamwork in higher education.

A prize of £2,500 will be awarded to the institution team who, in the opinion of the judges, has best shown their ability to enhance employability. Judges will also identify a number of highly recommended entries who will also be invited to attend the awards ceremony.

The judges will seek evidence of:

• the embedding of employability in the student experience.
• an integrated and strategic approach to working in partnership with others
• development of innovatory practice
• progress made in enhancing student’s employability
• an effective evaluation process

Those eligible to apply for the award are teams from institutions delivering higher education qualifications. These teams might be made up of staff (academic, student union, careers service) and students.

We welcome applications on any scale, both old and new initiatives, from many kinds of different groups (faculty, course, programme, module). We will be looking at best practice and will take into account the context in which your initiative has taken place. Don’t be put off if you feel that you are a small fish in a large pond!

Applicants must submit a statement by answering the following questions and provide five copies of any evidence supporting their entry. Evidence to support your answers can be presented in a variety of media. It will not, however be possible to submit applications online.

The questionnaire can be downloaded from www.ltsn.ac.uk/esect.

The Independent Graduate of the Year award

This award is designed to recognise the contribution that a graduate can quickly make to a business using his or her:

• Employability skills

And the role of the employer in
• Supporting and developing the graduate
• Recognising achievements

Criteria:
• Nominations must be made by employer.

• Graduate must have entered employment within one year of leaving their institution and must have been employed for no more than 2 years by Oct 1st 2004

• Any organisation can submit a nomination, and more than one entry per organisation is acceptable.

Any enquiries should be made to esect-project@open.ac.uk

Find out more about Enhancing Employability – ‘The Graduate Employability Awards’ by clicking here.