Careers and Employability
Giving you the skills employers want
It’s never too early to start thinking about life after the University of East London. We'll give you a route map to the skills employers need. When you graduate, you’ll be more than ready for the next stage of your journey – whatever your ultimate goal.
Find out more about our Professional Fitness & Mental Wealth programme.
I joined the mentoring scheme so I could develop my skills and myself as a person. It’s really boosted my confidence. I’ve been able to network with so many different people and identified many opportunities for when I graduate.
Linh Nguyen My
BSc (Hons) Medical Biotechnology
Broadening your experience
The University of East London offers you many opportunities to widen your experience by learning on real-life projects in London and overseas. Not only will you be having a positive impact on your communities but you’ll be gaining skills and knowledge that apply directly to the world of work.
Civic engagement
UEL aims to become London’s leading university for civic engagement - helping students to become active citizens by working on community projects as part of their studies or through volunteering.
Students who have taken part in civic engagement projects are more confident, able to work in diverse environments and have better inter-personal skills - all invaluable attributes in the modern workplace.
And civic engagement goes further. Our Going Global and Global Scholars programmes operate worldwide, from China to Brazil.
You’ll be working with local communities, entrepreneurs and organisations – helping people while developing marketable soft skills and a global perspective.
Volunteering
The University of East London encourages both students and staff to become active citizens by volunteering. More than 450 of our students currently volunteer. Our dedicated e-platform will help you choose the right community organisation and project for you.
Apart from the personal satisfaction you'll get by helping people, volunteering is a big attraction for employers, with 70 per cent saying they would be more likely to employ someone with volunteering experience.
Students can also take a volunteering module, whatever course they are studying. There are 130 students currently signed up.
Professional mentoring
Our Professional Mentoring Scheme matches students and professional staff from industries and organisations.
It’s a fantastic way to find out about the world of work and to receive advice and guidance from a successful professional. So far, around 1,200 of our students have benefited from the scheme.
Whether your mentor works for a global investment bank, a hospital, a fashion design company or a small local business, you'll benefit from their wisdom and experience.
All of our mentors are dedicated to giving something back by passing on some of what they've learned to students.
Companies in our mentoring scheme include: London City Airport, BT Sport, Canary Wharf Group, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Accenture and HSBC.
In turn, many mentored students join the mentoring chain themselves as 'peer mentors' - going out into local communities and helping secondary school children decide what they want to do with their lives.
I wanted to meet someone who had made their way in the world of investment banking. My mentor from Barclays was always approachable and helpful. He taught me everything I needed to succeed in my professional life, from CV preparation to interview and presentation skills.
Navjeet Singh Gill
BEng (Hons) Civil Engineering
Connecting with employers
The University of East London is on the doorstep of Canary Wharf, one of the world's largest financial and business centres. Our campuses are also located in the largest regeneration zone in western Europe and a magnet for hi-tech and creative industries. It's hard to think of a better place to step on to the career ladder.
Work experience
We offer a centralised service to help you choose the right work experience and placement opportunities.
Our students and graduates can sign up for our regularly updated work experience mailing list and browse through hundreds of short-term vacancies placed by employers.
At any one time, there's always wide range of different organisations represented. Recent opportunities have included openings for trainee service engineers, digital content editors, film producer interns, social media writers and retail banking assistants.
Placements
We've made sure every UEL course builds in employment-focused skills and opportunities. That means great placement opportunities across our seven academic schools.
Many of our courses feature guaranteed placements built into their programmes. For other courses, our academic staff can help arrange suitable placements through their network of industry contacts - many of whom are themselves UEL alumni.
Our student placement opportunities at UEL include:
- the NHS
- Taylor Woodrow
- Volker Fitzpatrick
- Crossrail
- Marks and Spencer
- Diesel, Urban Outfitters
- Canary Wharf Group
- ExCel London
- Natural History Museum
- School of Education and Communities
- Time Warner
- Financial Times
- West Ham United
- Amnesty International
- Citizen's Advice Bureau
- Crown Prosecution Service
- Liberty and Shelter
Internships
Our bespoke Summer Internship Programme brings together employers offering summer internships and job shadow opportunities with our dynamic UEL students and graduates.
The programme is aimed at businesses and other employers such as small and medium-sized enterprise who are looking for short-term help but are not in a position to hire a new, permanent member of staff.
We take responsibility for recruiting and selecting all applicants and provide employers with a selection of candidates to interview. We also contribute towards the interns' salaries.
Among the organisations which have participated in our programme are the London Borough of Newham, Balfour Beatty and Clarence House.
Networking opportunities
Every year, we organise a full range of networking opportunities for students, graduates and UEL alumni.
The biggest networking event is our annual careers and employment fair, 'fUEL Your Future', which is held in the early summer at the East Wintergarden venue at Canary Wharf.
The 2015 event featured almost 100 employers, including: ACCA Global, the British Psychological Society, Canary Wharf Executive Development Centre, Capita Property and Infrastructure, the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, East London Business Alliance, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, the Institute of Biomedical Science, Lawyer 2B, Reed Education, Tech up Nation, and the Chartered Institute for Taxation.
The fair features career workshops, where students get the chance to network with professional staff of organisations and polish skills such as CV writing, interview technique, self-marketing and job searching strategies.
Other networking events are organised by our academic Schools - often in partnership with our Alumni Association.