When I stood for election in March last year, I pledged to offer students the opportunity to engage with organisations that were offering paid work and volunteering work – this week that idea became a reality.

The idea behind the Summer Jobs Fair was for organisations to come down to campus and offer students the opportunity to take part in voluntary work, paid work, and internships during the summer break during their studies.

We had 23 organisations attend the fair, offering opportunities both abroad and in the UK, and attracted more than 1000 students to floor 5.

The event was delivered in collaboration with the Careers and Employability service, who supported us in finding paid opportunities as part of the Summer Jobs Fair.

The day was a huge success, and the stats paint a pretty good picture of just how well it went.

Of the 23 organisations that attended the fair, as I write 18 have returned their sign-up sheets to the union – 432 students signed up to an opportunity.

Once the remaining five organisations’ sheets are in, it’s looking like it’ll be more than 600 students signed up to take part in a summer opportunity.

That’s 600 more students that will potentially have paid work or a voluntary project to look forward to in the summer.

The feedback from the students was certainly positive, students were expecting opportunities which were paid, which were abroad, and opportunities which will enhance their CV – from talking to students, their expectations were met.

From the stallholders’ point of view, their experience of the fair was also a positive one.

Of the 19 organisations that completed our feedback survey, 18 of them said that the event met their expectations.

Not only this, but the comments left were also reassuring with regards to the event being worthwhile and beneficial to them.

Enthusiastic

“The Summer Jobs Fair was a fantastic event for us to showcase all of our volunteer opportunities and was a great event to introduce students to a part of the Oxfam family they might not have been previously aware.”

“Excellent event, kept us informed and busier than expected. We had one online application before we left - 25 genuine enquiries!”

“Huddersfield is a great university with enthusiastic students and a great staff team! All round a good experience with Huddersfield.”

With such great feedback given in the event’s inaugural year, it certainly sets the standard high if we want to outdo it next year.

The constructive feedback from both stalls and students can’t go ignored if we want to ensure even more students take up an opportunity and even more organisations attend the event.

The next stage is to see how many students in total have signed up and how many students then convert signing up to actually taking up the opportunity. Only time will tell.

We’ll be contacting the organisations at three key points throughout the next few months – one will be a month after the event, the next just before the summer, and then finally after the summer, to track just how many students followed through with their opportunity.

Ultimately, as a result of the jobs fair, more students are potentially preparing for paid or voluntary work in the summer.

This was exactly the reason why I wanted to deliver an event like this in the first place, and now it’s happened, I just can’t wait to see how many students take up one of the opportunities and really benefit from it!

Josh Elderfield

President