Transcript Employability Skills - Birmingham City University

EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS
Finding and Applying for Jobs
FINDING AND APPLYING FOR JOBS
The first step in securing your new role as an SLT is finding and
applying for jobs.
Generic information is available from the BCU Careers Service at:
http://www.bcu.ac.uk/alumni/careers/make-your-applications
A dedicated Health professionals career specialist Katie Holmes is
available and this service is available for up to 5 years at BCU
and you can also access the careers advice service at other
Universitiess for up to 1 year after graduating.
This contains information on making applications and CVs and
covering letters.
WE KNOW THAT SLT JOBS ARE NOT THE SAME AS ALL JOBS AND
SO THIS SECTION WILL CONTAIN INFORMATION ON:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Where to look
Understanding applications
Matching a personal statement to a person specification
Writing Personal statements
Writing CVs
Finding related roles
Networking and making contacts (including social media)
Working abroad
Part time work and child care
Making the most of your previous experience
A year on – evidencing the gap?
MAKING APPLICATIONS
IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE

Applications including CVs should always be tailored to that role

Applications should relate directly to that person specification
Local employers said, On your application:
 These are anonymised by HR; if you have worked in that Trust
say so in your statement
 Give examples of what you have done including work, voluntary
roles and placement (especially if a gap following graduation,
fine to use more recent, related examples).
 Show related skills e.g. working as a carer, Teaching Assistant,
SLT assistant, voluntary roles, placement roles
 Demonstrate your skills by providing examples
 Demonstrate your learning from other contexts and how it
relates to the SLT job you are applying for.
BEING PROFESSIONAL







Email is often best for therapists who may not easily be able
to get to a phone during the working day. Give the therapists
a while to reply but fine to chase after a week. Be persistent
but professional.
Check your spelling and grammar are faultless – applications
are being rejected on this basis. Get someone else to check
If for any reason you can’t make the interview, telephone to
apologise in advance. Therapists share information; this will
affect your chances for other roles
Read the requirements for the day carefully and make sure
you have everything asked for
Bring examples of your work to show and discuss at interview
Don’t apply if you can’t do the role e.g. you are unwilling to
relocate for the role
Give full contact details ; if you want someone to call you back
give them a phone number you are actually on in the day and
an email
MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE
Local employers value previous experience in the NHS and
previous work experience. They feel this makes graduates aware
of the environment they will be working in and makes them a
flexible member of the team.
Graduates who have worked before can evidence professional
skills such as:
• Timekeeping
• Self-management of work load
• Flexibility
• Prioritisation
• Communication skills
• Problem solving
• Managing difficult situations
• Examples of clinical skills and how they could apply these in
the setting
• Working successfully in a team
Local employers also indicated that graduates who have worked or
volunteered in a related role are felt to be more successful in the
application process than those without this experience.





Birmingham City offers a hand out on recognising your skills at:
http://www.bcu.ac.uk/_media/docs/Making-Yourself-Employable1.pdf
You can also try asking family, friends and employers for ideas of
skills you would have that are related to clinical roles.
Think about hobbies, activities and family life; there is likely to be
evidence of professional skills such as prioritising,
time management and working in a team in there.
Try looking through job descriptions for band 5 therapists for the
skills they are looking for and write a list of the skills, noting
examples that you can evidence.
Think about the unique skills and experiences you have that you
can offer an SLT team.
PERSONAL STATEMENTS
WRITING A PERSONAL STATEMENT
Your personal statement is an opportunity for you to
demonstrate that you meet the qualities identified in the
person specification for the job. Here are some tips that we
have put together. It is up to you whether you follow them.
Some of this can be done in advance or you may prefer to
have a generic personal statement although this MUST be
tailored for each job or it may not be shortlisted. Don’t copy
and paste as these can be spotted and may be rejected!
Local employers said stick to 2 pages max and focus on the
essential then desirable things stated in the person
specification.
GUIDE TO WRITING A GOOD PERSONAL STATEMENT
We wrote ours by printing off the person spec., highlighting the key words and then writing
those down. Get rid of anything covered on the application form elsewhere. This might
leave you with:
Essential:
1. CPD
2. Clinical work with range of relevant communication / swallowing problems.
3. Working as a member of a multi-disciplinary team.
4. Able to quickly assume independent responsibilities commensurate with Specialist role
5. Excellent interpersonal skills.
6. Time management, Prioritisation & organisation.
7. Ability to problem-solve.
8. Highly developed auditory / perceptual skills.
9. Self-reflection.
10. Sustain intense concentration
11. Awareness of and adherence to RCSLT Professional Standards and Clinical Guidelines
12. Management options for range of disorders.
13. Enthusiastic.
14. Flexible.
15. Empathic.
16. Self-motivated.
17. Tolerant of occasional working in highly unpleasant circumstances.
18. Able to manage the emotional consequences of working in distressing conditions
19. Good hearing.
20. Ability to travel to a variety of destinations during the working day.
WRITING A GOOD PERSONAL STATEMENT
Think about any you can group together and evidence quickly, so
that you have more room for areas you want to prioritise.
e.g Clinical work with range of relevant communication /
swallowing problems. Links with placement and voluntary
work which includes working as a member of a multidisciplinary team and CPD
Then do the same with the desirable e.g
1. Postgraduate training in Paediatrics.
2. Working through others.
3. Teaching / training others
4. Good presentation skills.
5. IT Skills.
6. Specific schemes and programmes relevant to post.
7. Car driver.
8. Welsh speaker.
WRITING A GOOD PERSONAL STATEMENT
Write a short sentence for any short points that you can
group, linking to the essential e.g.
Full clean driving licence and access to own car; available
to travel to and work at any site.
Which evidences:
1.
Ability to travel to a variety of destinations during the
working day.
2.
2. Car driver.
Remove these from your list each time you evidence one so
you can see what you have covered. Then try and bring it
all together so it makes sense. Get someone to check it.
WRITING A GOOD PERSONAL STATEMENT
Your draft may have points under key headings suggested by the job
description/person specification such as those above:
1. CPD:
a. How you have kept skills up to date
b. Extra work you have taken on
c. Self-reflection.
2. Clinical work with range of relevant communication / swallowing problems.
a. Placement
b. Voluntary experience
c. Range of other experience
d. Management options for range of disorders.
3. Career development, motivation
4. Excellent interpersonal skills: Empathic, team player
5. Clinical management skills including Time management, Prioritisation &
organisation, problem solving, flexibility
6. Why this role: enthusiastic, awareness of context,
7. Personal qualities: what you can offer as well as how you cope with the role
inc extra skills e.g. IT
8. Any other relevant experience: project work, training etc
CREATING JOB OPPORTUNITIES
CREATING JOB OPPORTUNITIES
Graduates can write speculatively to SLT departments. They
may hold details and then send out job opportunities when
available
- You can start with a part time role and then look to take on
extra hours or create a full time role out of a second part
time job
- Some trusts may be forced to advertise internally first. As
long as you are paid by that Trust, whatever role you are
in, you will be eligible to apply
- Departments are taking on volunteers: this could be in
a related role as long as you can show how the skills and
knowledge you have learnt could be transferred to an SLT
role
- Start networking and volunteering alongside your degree
CHILDCARE AND PART TIME WORK
Local employers said:
Your own restrictions:
Hours should be negotiated after you have accepted the job: "I
can only work Mondays" is not a winning opening line (this
question was asked specifically in relation to childcare and
the suggestion was that for the right candidate employers
may be flexible).
Other:
- Being a car driver is useful although not specifically
requested often (suggest bringing your driver’s licence as
ID)
WORKING ABROAD
The RCSLT has an agreement with some equivalent organisations abroad
including:






The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)
Speech Pathology Australia (SPA)
The Canadian Association of Speech Language Pathologists and Audiologists
(CASLPA)
The Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists (IASLT)
The New Zealand Speech-Language Therapists Association (NZSTA)
Enabling full members of the RCLST to join the others.
To apply for membership of the professional organisations overseas:
• check the requirements and application processes for that country’s
organisation
• contact the RCSLT to let us know you are intending to make an application
using the Mutual Recognition of Credit Agreement (MRCA)
• Complete the application from the RCLST to get a letter of good standing.
• Get a reference from your manager using the form provided
• Send your application to the professional association for that country
WRITING CVS
This isn’t generally done if you are applying for jobs via NHS
jobs. This may be required for a job within the RCSLT
applications or if you are sending them out speculatively.
Information from BCU on writing a CV is:
http://www.bcu.ac.uk/alumni/careers/make-yourapplications/cvs-and-covering-letters
You might wish to send a covering letter explaining why you
are interested in that team, area and what you can offer
them. It needs to be worth their while following you up and
they may receive many approaches.
If you are not sure who to send them to, ring the
department to explain your interest and ask who you
should address this to. It is worth asking them if any jobs
are available; even if they aren’t would they let you come
for a visit to find out more about what they want to do?
Remember to leave your full contact details/best method by
which to contact you!