March 25, 2014, by Giselle Kennedy
Guide to the Nottingham Advantage Award
Over the last few weeks, we’ve had quite a few emails from people wondering what the Nottingham Advantage Award is and how it all works. In response we thought that we’d put together a short guide to answer some of your biggest questions.
The Basics
The Nottingham Advantage Award is an award which accredits your extracurricular activities within and outside of The University of Nottingham. This means that anything you do, from volunteering to work experience, Students’ Union societies to employer-led skills workshops; they can all contribute towards your reward. The Award is completely free for students at Nottingham and you can start it in any year of study. Bear in mind though, it takes a minimum of two years to complete it.
How it all works
In order to complete the Award, you must pass 30 credits worth of modules – most modules being 10 credits each. There are over 160 modules to choose from and most of them run from the beginning to the end of each academic year. Modules are divided into the following nine categories:
- Buddying, mentoring and peer support
- Career skills and employability
- Community and volunteering
- Cultural awareness, language learning and study abroad
- Employer-led modules
- Enterprise, events and project management
- Internships, placements and work experience
- Sports
- Sustainability
There is an assessed component to all modules. For example, you might be asked to produce a logbook documenting what you learned during the module, deliver a presentation or participate in a group competition. The aim of the assessment is to allow you to reflect upon the skills you will gain during the module and develop a deeper understanding of your experience. This will come in really handy when it comes to demonstrating your skills to employers.
What happens when you complete the Nottingham Advantage Award?
Each completed module will be added onto your degree transcript when you graduate and if you finish the full 30-credit Award, you will receive a completion certificate. If you pass a module, but do not complete the full award, your university degree will be completely unaffected. The Nottingham Advantage Award is therefore separate to your academic studies, but it gives you an opportunity to gain valuable skills which are transferable to the workplace.
How to sign up
You will be able to apply for next year’s modules from the first week of August 2014. To apply, please visit Workspace, click on the module that you want to apply for and follow the application guidelines.
We are currently accepting applications for three modules taking place over the summer holidays: the Internships, Placements and Work experience module, the Part-time Jobs, Vacation Jobs and Volunteering module, and the Community Partnerships Placements module.
We hope that this guide has helped to answer some of your questions. Feel free to come and see us at the Careers and Employability Service, Floor D, Portland Building, University Park Campus if there is anything else you need to know. We also have information and drop-in sessions, but if you can’t make it to one of those, send us an email at: nottingham-advantage-award@nottingham.ac.uk
No comments yet, fill out a comment to be the first
Leave a Reply