The Role of a UWS SIE Intern – Angela Castellano

This month we asked UWS SIE intern to tell us about her role with SIE and how it is helping her gain key employability skills for the future…

I am a first year Web and Mobile Development student at UWS. Right after starting my university experience I learnt that good grades alone are not enough. What an employer wants is someone bold, able to handle responsibilities and step out from their comfort zone.

Soon after starting classes in September, I started to look for an opportunity to develop my transferable skills. Being a first year student I didn’t expect to find a great internship in my field right away, therefore volunteering for different organisations looked like the best option. This is how I came across The Scottish Institute for Enterprise. SIE is a charity organisation that gives free business advice to students and also helps them develop employability skills through workshops, events and competitions – both locally and all around Scotland.

I first got involved with SIE as a volunteer ambassador after my module coordinator forwarded to his students the flyer promoting the ambassador position. After a couple of months, the SIE paid intern position at UWS became available and I decided to apply. SIE employs one student in every Scottish university and this role is to promote the organisation through stalls, lecture shout-outs, social media and events. I got the role and I had the chance to engage with a large number of students coming from all different backgrounds. It inspired me so much to witness how brave some of them were to challenge themselves by opening their own business in their early 20’s while still studying.

I am aware that I still have a long way ahead of me before graduating, but after this experience with SIE I feel more confident and inspired by my own ideas and possibilities.

There are many ways to get involved with SIE:

• Participate to the monthly competitions. All a student needs to do it is to have an idea that they believe could evolve into a business.

• Come along to one of the free workshops organised in the UWS campuses. These are held by a trainer and are extremely interactive and interesting. They are a great way to develop new skills.

• The intern’s role is also to organise and run small events – in the past months the Paisley campus held a Game Jam competition and a Movie Night organised by the intern and the ambassadors.

• SIE also has a big event open to all students in Scotland: the annual SIE SUMMIT. At this year’s event, the students had the opportunity to listen to business owners that started as entrepreneurs themselves, ask questions to an employability panel and to network with other students.

It is often wrongly assumed that SIE can only be useful for business students! What’s extremely important to understand is how the Scottish Institute for Enterprise welcomes students from every field of study.

By Angela Castellano

International Nurses Day 12th May 2015

International Nurses Day on May 12th gives everyone in the careers and employability team at UWS a great chance to thank and congratulate our nursing students and graduates for the amazing effort and dedication they put into their studies and career! The event, to commemorate the birth of Florence Nightingale, is an international day to focus on nurses and the role the profession has in every society.

The theme for 2015 is “Nurses: A Force for Change; Cost Effective and Care Effective” and organisations such as the Royal College of Nursing or International Council of Nurses have more information on the theme and the profession.

Of course, if you are a current nursing student the careers staff will work with you as part of your programme to make sure you have as much advice and guidance as possible to compete in the jobs market when you graduate, but if you are currently in the profession remember we also work with graduates up to 2 years after completing. So, if you are considering your nursing career path or need help with that Band 6 application statement, remember we can help!

For now, we wish you every success in your career, and take the time around this International Nursing Day to reflect on the great work you do every day as a nurse. For those non-nurses reading this, have a look at the role and the demands of the job and the amazing work of nurses all over the world – you might just find a possible career path……..!