Finding out more

Section 5 - Skills development

'Skills development' looks at what you can do to enhance your skills; particularly presentation skills.

  • What can you do to improve your skills?
  • Information about how voluntary work can improve your skills
  • Recording which skills you need to work on
  • Things that can go wrong with presentations and how to avoid these mistakes
  • How to produce effective slides for a presentation
  • Advice and tips for delivering presentations
  • Preparing a short presentation

Section 6 - Searching for opportunities

'Searching for opportunities' covers finding sources of vacancies and how to read job adverts to find out what the employer is looking for.

  • Normal sources of job vacancies
  • How to read between the lines of a job advert
  • Alternative sources of vacancies, such as placement schemes and speculative applications
  • How to look for vacancies over the internet

Section 7 - Building up your contacts

'Building up your contacts' looks at who you can get in touch with in order to help you find your ideal job.

  • Who may be able to help you and how do you get in touch with them?
  • Making contacts in your chosen company even if the job you want isn't currently available
  • Professional organisations that may be able to help you
  • Finding out what help is available at your local careers service
  • How to make the best use of your careers service

Section 8 - Doing your research

'Doing your research' covers the information needed in order to make the right decision about whether a job would suit you and where this information can be found.

  • What do you need to find out and from where?
  • Researching a school or postgraduate course provider
  • More detailed information about what you need to know
  • What do you need to know about the area in which a job is located?