This week, the students on KMTV's Year In Television course are looking at graduation The team look at what it means to graduate and what life holds after university.
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00:00Hello and welcome to Kent Student 101, live here on KMTV. I'm Isaac Bass-Bainbridge and
00:25this is to show 4 students by students. Each week we will be exploring different facets
00:30of student life across Kent with a range of topics and segments. This week we're taking
00:35a look at graduation. The looming threat of graduation and a life beyond academia can
00:39be a frightening prospect. The thought of leaving the place you've been for the past
00:433 or 4 years is intimidating and knowing what to do with yourself after leaving can seem
00:48like an abstract concept. To hopefully quash some of those fears and shed some light on
00:52pre-graduation preparation, we sent Zoe Foe to interview a graduate of UKC and an employability
00:58skills advisor at Greenwich University. It's coming and there's no escape. Graduation season
01:05is upon us and with many getting ready for this prestigious event, it can also leave
01:09many feeling nervous about what's yet to come. Universities across Kent have started preparing
01:14for life after uni, especially that all-important graduation ceremony. I sat down with Emmeline
01:21Berry, a 4th year student who's graduating this year, to get her thoughts on how she
01:26feels about leaving university. I'm very excited to have finished this journey. Uni has been
01:32brilliant but I'm excited to go out and do other things. I have a part-time job currently
01:39but I want to advance in the field. I've been studying here for over 3 years and I just
01:48think that we've paid so much for uni in general that it should, I think, be a little
01:54bit less for less than a day of renting stuff. Would you like more support from the uni to
02:00help plan for your future and the next steps? I think so. I think to have resources more,
02:07obviously, and help out a bit more. To have someone help map out what I should do and
02:14suggest things would be really helpful. Prepping for life after uni can be a daunting task but
02:19with the help of people like Savannah, a member of the University of Greenwich's Employability
02:24Service, the process can be made a little bit smoother. My job as Employability Skills Advisor
02:30is that I support students with becoming more employable for their future careers. I support
02:37them with things like networking, CV writing, interview preparation and then also just the
02:43general labour market as well. So what we normally suggest is that students come to us
02:49before graduation so that they've already built that professional relationship with us but not
02:55to fear if that isn't the case with somebody, they are just about to graduate and they've not yet
02:59contacted their university's career service is to make that contact today. I would say that first
03:05of all it's completely normal to be nervous because it's a big life change, it's also the
03:09end of an era. Second of all the way the best way is really to mitigate that anxiety is to
03:14be proactive with your application so ensuring that you are spending some time sending out those
03:19applications, networking on LinkedIn and various other platforms with employers, that you are
03:24working towards getting that job role, that internship, whatever it is you're looking for
03:29after graduation. Zoe Fode reporting for KMTV. Next up, our resident student Sam
03:39graduates this summer so let's see what he has to say about that.
03:49Hello, I'm Rohan Sanchez. This is the part of the show where I talk to you about my university
03:55experience, hopefully giving you some tips that will help you with yours. This week we're going to be
03:58talking about graduation. Now graduation can be such a stressful thing for people that come into
04:03the end of their university tenure but honestly there is not that much to worry about and there's
04:06loads of tips and tricks that will help you out and that's what I'm going to talk about this week.
04:09Let's get into it. The next piece of advice I'd give you is to start looking for jobs really early.
04:15This is a crucial thing that's happened for me as I'm coming to my end of my degree and I was
04:18really panicking about what to do after so I started going on LinkedIn, created a profile,
04:22went to some job fairs and honestly it made me much less stressed out and gave me much a better
04:26idea of what I want to do after university. A really helpful event when graduating is your
04:32graduation event. It will be different depending on what campus you're on or where you're from but
04:36the one I just went to had so much helpful information. It told me about my hat size,
04:40my gown size, when my graduation was going to be and honestly made me feel a lot less stressed out
04:44about the day ahead knowing how it was going to go. A final piece of advice I'd give you is to
04:49make sure you get some work experience in before you graduate. This can be excellent to put on your
04:53CV and can open up a world of opportunities after you've graduated. That's been this week's episode
04:58of Sam Says. We've been talking about graduating. Now when you graduate it can be a really stressful
05:03thing. If you use this piece of advice that I've given you this week it could hopefully
05:07be a little bit easier. See you next time! Well hopefully that was some helpful information for
05:20some of you watching at home. But now let's take a break and join Tate who is not graduating for
05:25Buddles Book Club. So Tate what have you brought in for us today? Well Isaac with the weather getting
05:37a little bit warmer I think we've all been daydreaming about summer a little bit and so
05:41one of my guilty pleasures is a really good old-fashioned rom-com and so what I brought
05:45with me is a perfect combination of the two and that is Abby Emerges Just for the Summer. Nice and
05:49why don't you tell us a bit about that book? So Just for the Summer centres around Emma and Justin
05:54and Emma is a travelling nurse and Justin is an unlucky in love small-town guy and they all have
05:59but they both believe that they've got this curse where the people that they date find their soul
06:05mates post-breakup and so they arranged to go on a series of dates across the summer in order to try
06:09and break this curse. I see and well why are you recommending it to us? Well to me it's such a
06:16heartwarming read. Is it a bit predictable? Yes but what romance isn't and what is so lovely about
06:21this book is how surprisingly profound and nuanced it is and the characters are constructed in such a
06:26way that allows that sets them apart from a typical love story protagonist and their range
06:32and depth really allows for a love story to feel realistic and developed and I'll be honest I
06:37started reading this book thinking it was just gonna be like a fluffy filler read but I was
06:42really pleasantly surprised about how much I enjoyed this one so it's one of my top recommendations
06:46absolutely for sure. Sounds great I mean you have to take a read of it myself. Absolutely. Thanks Kate.
06:51Now after graduation there can be a lot to navigate, job applications, where to live,
07:02finding purpose after years in academia. To make sense of at least some of it I'm joined by Stefan
07:08a university graduate who is finding his way in life after university. So Stefan could you tell
07:15us a bit about yourself first? Hi my name is Stefan I'm a recent psychology graduate from the
07:21University of Kent. I graduated summer 2023 and since then I've been looking well for work.
07:27Obviously between that time I've taken breaks for traveling and looking out for myself but now I'm
07:34currently in the job market looking for work. Brilliant and could you tell us a bit about your
07:40what made you decide to travel after university? I think I really enjoyed my time at university and
07:45I found it rewarding and enjoyable however at times it was overwhelming and a lot of hard work
07:51so I really wanted to take some time for myself visit family that I have across the globe and
07:56not essentially not throw myself into working for for the next 40 or 50 however many years is.
08:03That's fair enough and you actually got a job soon after graduation could you tell us a bit
08:11about that process? So yes as a psychology graduate I wanted to get some experience in
08:17the field for potentially studying further and I worked as a mental health carer and at the time I
08:24did find it fulfilling and it was really nice to make an impactful change however it wasn't the
08:30right career move for someone my age at the time so now I am in the job market and looking for
08:36something that I could use my skills I've gained with psychology such as using data analysis skills
08:46and research skills. Nice good to have the skills kind of on hand I suppose with those skills how
08:54have you found the job hunting process since then? So when I initially graduated and came back from
09:00traveling finding that role as a mental health worker it was it was a smooth process I reached
09:06out to the University for some career guidance and for example I was working with a career
09:12supervisor that helped me prepare for interviews helped me tailor my CV for that specific role and
09:18it was a smooth process however after I left that role I have found it a bit difficult at
09:26times I feel like the job market is very saturated at the moment and there are a lot of graduates
09:31however I understand it's it's a long process and I'm quite lucky that I am supported and I'm at the
09:39age where I don't need to find a job straight away I understand that this is how your early
09:4420s are like and I'm not too worried about what my future holds. Well gotta love the optimism to be
09:52fair so is there any advice you would give to students graduating this summer? I think some
09:58advice I have is to I know it's really daunting but you really have to think about what you want
10:04to do and whether that's you want to take time for yourself or you want to go into further study or
10:12even look for work just be sure and we want what you want to do understand that it's fine to make
10:17mistakes it's fine to do something that you don't want to do just prepare yourself as much as
10:21possible get guidance from your career counsellors speak to family and potentially get use any
10:29contacts you have in any fields of work that you want to do and to just essentially give it your
10:34all and enjoy the process. And well how would you say students can best prepare themselves for life
10:42after graduation? I think using career guidance services that university where I studied the
10:50University of Kent it had a very good alumni career service provider I had support straight
10:57away they kept they regularly checked in on me whether I found work additionally maybe
11:03websites such as LinkedIn they offer I'm not sure if it's a premium version but websites such as
11:08LinkedIn offer services such as studying courses that could help boost your profile boost your CV
11:14to make you more employable. So it really is all about contacts people you know and using the right
11:22sites. Thank you Stephen. You've been watching Kent Student 101 live here on KMTV. There's more
11:29news made just for Kent throughout the evening and don't forget you can always keep up to date
11:33with the latest news across your county by logging on to KMTV.co.uk and you can keep us on your social
11:40timelines by liking us on Facebook and following us on Instagram. For now, tonight, good night.
11:52you