School leavers need better "soft skills"

An employer survey by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) found that 80% of school leavers require "significant training" in what is known as "soft skills" before being put to work. The top areas of weakness for new recruits are people skills and business skills, followed by technical skills. More than 90% of those surveyed said that their workload had increased as a result of skills shortages, with 66% agreeing it had increased the stress levels of staff and 44% that it had caused a fall in departmental performance.

Oxford comes out on top

The recently published Times Higher Education World University Rankings, ranked Oxford top, a first for a UK university, knocking the California Institute of Technology (top for the past five years), into second place. The table ranked universities on measures including teaching, research and international outlook, for example, numbers of overseas students and staff.

UK INSTITUTIONS IN TOP 200 (previous ranking)
1. Oxford (2)
4. Cambridge (4)
8. Imperial College (8)
15. University College London (14)
25=. London School of Economics and Political Science (23)
27. Edinburgh (24)
36=. King's College London (27)
55. Manchester (=56)
71. Bristol (69)
82=. Warwick (80)
88. Glasgow (=76)
96=. Durham (70)
109. Sheffield (97)
110=. St Andrews (86)
113=. Queen Mary, University of London (98)
121=. Southampton (=110)
126=. Exeter (93)
129. York (=131)
130. Birmingham (119)
133. Leeds (=133)
137=. Lancaster (130)
147. Nottingham (143)
149. Sussex (140)
158. Liverpool (157)
165=. East Anglia (=149)
172. Leicester (=167)
173=. Royal Holloway, University of London (129)
180=. Dundee (=185)
182=. Cardiff (=182) 188=. Aberdeen (=172)
190=. Newcastle (=196)
192=. Reading (=164)

Personal Statement tips for applying for Medicine

There is no one way to do a Personal Statement but here are things to consider. The information below is taken from the excellent medic portal website.

Reflect.

Reflection comes from thinking about what you’ve done and extrapolating learning points. You should follow a three step process when speaking about work experience to ensure you have reflected properly:

· Where were you and what did you do?

· What specific incident did you see? 

· What did this teach you?

Show that you understand what they are applying to.

Tutors don’t want to see statements that talk excessively about how amazing medicine is. There are times when medicine can’t help. People die, patients can be ungrateful and you might see suffering and not be able to stop it. You need to break bad news and hours are long and will take over evenings and weekends. You need to show that you understand all this, and still believe this is the right path for you! The best students manage to get across the fact that they appreciate the realities of medical school and recognise the challenges ahead.

Clarity in language and structure.

Always remember that your personal statement is one of a pile to an admissions tutor. They are busy and you are doing yourself a favour if you can show achievements clearly and concisely. Use short, sharp sentences, with straightforward language, and follow a logical progression, from motivation, to work experience, to volunteering, extracurricular activities and a neat conclusion. By making your credentials jump off the page, you avoid the risk of them being missed.

Honesty.

Don’t exaggerate the things you have done, especially in a medical context, this will be really obvious to admissions tutors, and don’t fabricate life-changing moments that meant you simply had to be a doctor. This can create a bit of suspicion, so if that is the case for you, make sure it is well backed up.

Tutors want people who are well-rounded human beings.

Medicine is a demanding degree but this does not mean that medical schools want you to give up all other interests. Rather, they want people with an outlet for stress, who are well-rounded with other interests, like sports, hobbies or regular activities. Try and state them in relation to key qualities like teamwork.

Good news for graduate employment

The latest leavers’ survey found that the proportion of graduates in work or further study is at a record high, with more going into professional jobs. Overall, 90% of graduates were in work or further study sixth months after graduation. 71% of those are in work roles which are classed as 'professional employment', a rise of 3 percentage points on the previous year. 

The survey also found that the gender gap in pay was increasing, with men in work having a mean salary of £24k compared to £21k for women, the gender gap in the previous year was £2,000. The highest unemployment rate was in Computer Science, 10%, although this has fallen from 14% in 2011/12. The highest employment rate was Dentistry and Medicine, both of whom had 1% unemployment. This is the penultimate leavers’ survey, as the intent is to use employment information from national data sets in the future, which will be far more accurate. The effect of Brexit on graduate prospects will not be known until next year.  [ source: CES newsletter ]

Most expensive cities for students

A study by the Royal Bank of Scotland has concluded that Edinburgh is the most expensive UK city for students. However, Edinburgh students are still the highest social spenders and spend above the weekly average on alcohol. The survey of 2,500 students took into account a range of factors, including how much students spend on going out, how much time they spend studying, accommodation costs and average term time income. The survey found the majority of a student's income came from student loans, on average £161.14 per week. That figure was four times higher than any other source, including part-time work. After loans, parental support was the largest income source. [ source: CES newsletter ]

List of the top 25 most cost-effective cities for students in the UK:

1 Portsmouth	10 Dundee	19 London
2 Liverpool	11 Manchester	20 Sheffield
3 Newcastle	12 Norwich	21 Plymouth
4 Belfast	13 Leicester	22 Oxford
5 Exeter	14 Brighton	23 Cambridge
6 York	15 Reading	24 Southampton
7 Cardiff	16 Glasgow	25 Edinburgh
8 Nottingham	17 Leeds
9 Birmingham	18 Bristol

Need a "Plan B"?

If your GCSE results were not what you expected and you need to re-think your options, DON'T PANIC, help is at hand! There are lots of things you can do. Start by reading this ...

• Talk to someone at school. Senior Staff will be available in school on Results Day (Thursday 25th August, 9.00-11.00am.) and you can book an appointment to speak to someone to get advice about what you can do next, for example, if you need to change your Sixth Form courses.
• Talk to our Youth Connexions Personal Adviser, Claire Blanchard. She will be in school on Results Day and you can also contact her through the St Albans Youth Connexions website. She can work with you on a late application to College or help you with other pathways such as entering employment, training or an Apprenticeship. 
• If you have an offer from College but need to change course or your level of entry visit Oaklands on Results Day and talk to the tutors there  - they are expecting visits from potential students.
• Visit the Youth Connexions "one stop shop" in Catherine Street. You can find out the details here. It will be open on and after Results Day  -  details here.
• Think about an Apprenticeship. You can find all the information you need at Apprenticeships.gov. You simply fill in your details - like a mini CV - and then you can search the opportunities available and applying is easy as your information is stored.
• Think about applying to Oaklands College. They have Open Days this month for late applications. You can find the details here as well as on the Oaklands website. 
• Check out ChannelMogo for general information and advice.
• Use the 'search' tool on this blog to explore further options.

Keep calm and talk to someone to get the impartial advice and guidance you need ... Good luck!

ANOTHER new league table for universities ...

Researchers from the Times Higher Education supplement (THE) have used the same criteria that will be employed for the teaching excellence framework (TEF), student satisfaction, graduate employment and retention, to create a new league table. The new table judged Cambridge to be 12th, whilst Oxford was 28th, and Imperial College 37th, Loughborough, Aston and De Montfort were the top three. There were no Russell Group universities in the top ten and just three, Cambridge, Durham and Birmingham, made it into the top 20. The TEF is to be the main criteria of whether universities are allowed to raise their fees and thus is a very important benchmark. The TEF is to be piloted in 2016-2018, before formal assessment begins in 2018-19.  See below for the best and worst performers in the table:

	TOP TEN			BOTTOM TEN
1	Loughborough		111	St Mark & St John
2	Aston		112	Bolton
3	De Montfort		113	Leeds Becket
4	Swansea		114	Glyndwr
5	Kent		115	West London
6	Coventry		116	Wolverhampton
7	Keele		117	Trinity St David
8	Surrey		118	East London
9	Bath		119	Queen Margaret
10	Lancaster		120	London Met