An ‘Alternative Careers Fair’ is to take place on Wednesday Week 1, Summer Term. The aim is to provide a much broader base of career options than the traditional careers fair which took place in Michaelmas Term, which focused much more on financial institutions and large corporations (though a couple of those will be there too). This careers fair is to centre more on public sector opportunities, think tanks, non-profit organisations, volunteering and teaching. The purpose of the event is to expose students to careers which give them the opportunity to ‘make a difference.’ There will also be several recruiters from overseas programmes.
Students are increasingly being warned of the level of competition in the graduate job market. In acknowledgement of this, the event will be predominantly made up of those institutions which offer graduate schemes and have job vacancies available, as well as those organisations offering volunteering opportunities for those wishing to take a gap year. There will be several institutions on hand who may be able to provide advice to you, such as members of the Lancaster Enterprise Centre, who give guidance and assistance to students starting up their own businesses.
There will be some repeat visitors from the January fair, such as EY, Santander, the Civil Service and Enterprise-Rent-A-Car. One of the new additions this time is BUNAC, who specialize in overseas work and travel programmes. They provide opportunities to work, volunteer or intern abroad in many regions, including Fiji, Canada and China. Non-profit organisations such as Safe Child Africa will have a stall at the event. The charity is concerned with education and child protection. The National Trust and Teachfirst will also be in attendance.
