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Published
19 June 2024
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Final year UEL students on our Sports, Coaching and Performance and Sport, PE and Development courses had the unique opportunity to network with UEL alumni and employers with vacancies coming up in the near future.
In line with UEL’s careers first approach, the whole event included a range of activities encouraging our students to act on their future career prospects.
The day started with a talk from Andy Okell, guiding students on how to work on their CV, search for job roles online and how to set up their own company.
Following a short drinks break, an insightful talk was given by alumni Aaron Johnson. Aaron showcased his incredible work across East London and the surrounding areas. His work focuses on supporting individuals of all ages who engage in criminal activity to consider stopping and applying their skills in the world of work instead.
Every student was then tasked with networking around the room, both digitally and physically. QR codes with various UEL alumni and employers' LinkedIn profiles were displayed on the walls, giving students the opportunity to connect with industry professionals, explore potential career paths and build their future network.
The UEL alumni attending the Q&A session made themselves available during the lunch break, enabling our final-year students to build their in-person networking experience while learning first-hand about the different journeys of UEL graduates.
Following the networking carousel, our students had the opportunity to put career and employability-related questions to our alumni panel. The panel included Connor Whitton, Joe Norwood and Nathan Bennee who are all working within either primary or secondary education as teachers, Rayhan Noor, Charlton Athletic Women U14s manager, Asher Roberts, Kent County Cricket Development Officer and Aaron Johnson, an award-winning youth and adult crime prevention worker, all of which are UEL graduates of our sports courses.
Interesting topics were discussed, including the different career opportunities that our sports alumni have secured since graduating, from working at local secondary schools in the heart of East London to coaching the next generation of female footballers at Charlton Athletic Academy.
Dominic Edwards, Higher Education Manager for the West Ham United Foundation, was full of praise for both our alumni and students on their approach throughout the event.
This is the first time we have hosted an event of this type and it will most definitely become a key part of our annual offer. It was brilliant to see the collaboration between the University of East London and the West Ham United Foundation paying dividends as the students had the opportunity to meet with alumni and employers. At the core of the sports courses we offer is to ensure that students can see the clear pathway into career opportunities, and an event such as this really brought this to life."