The Co-curriculum

The Co-curriculum

Curriculum Reform at Aberdeen is about more than just academic developments. It’s about providing our students with the opportunities to participate in extra-curricular activities that will help to make them more well-rounded individuals, more attractive to employers and with a greater skills-set. Any activities undertaken will be recorded with a view to recognising all aspects of the Co-curriculum. The Co-curriculum complements your degree programme and includes the following opportunities: work placements, voluntary activities, enterprise, study overseas and the STAR Award initiative.

The STAR Award

The STAR (Students Taking Active Roles) Award is organised by the University’s Careers Service and Aberdeen University Students’ Association (AUSA). The initiative rewards the contribution that many students make to the wider University community by recognising the transferable skills and competencies that you develop and enhance through your involvement in co-curricular activities. Participants include students involved in sports, societies and volunteering, as well as class representatives.

Employers are looking for evidence of attributes and transferable skills that graduates can bring to their organisation, and the STAR Award is one way you can demonstrate that you have these skills and competencies.

For more information, please visit
www.abdn.ac.uk/careers/co-curriculum/staraward/

Work Experience Placements

The Placement Development Unit (PDU), located within the University’s Careers Service, sources paid summer placements for penultimate year undergraduates. Work placements provide a great way to use the skills and knowledge gained during your studies, and to apply these in a real work setting. Placements take place in a range of local companies (usually based in the Aberdeen area), and previous placements have ranged from working as an intern for a political party, to oilfield chemistry, law, finance and geological surveys. Students on placement are supported by the PDU throughout, from putting together their CV, to preparing for interview and having a mid-placement visit for a chat on the progress being made.

Placements are a really important way of demonstrating to a future graduate employer that you have gained the skills and experience to set you apart from the crowd when applying for graduate jobs – indeed, many of our PDU students have impressed their placement employers so much that they have been offered a graduate job at the end of their placement.

For more information, please visit
www.abdn.ac.uk/careers/jobs/placement

BP Student Tutoring Scheme

The BP Student Tutoring Scheme is a voluntary initiative that places students in local primary and secondary schools. Students work alongside pupils in an allocated class for 10 weeks, gaining vital classroom experience and also acting as ambassadors for higher and further education. The scheme has been running for over ten years and last year over 90 students participated, tutoring in over 50 schools across Aberdeen city and shire. The initiative provides an excellent opportunity for you to get involved in the local community and also enhance your employability skills.

For more information, please visit
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/careers/co-curriculum/bpscheme/

Enterprise & Entrepreneurship

The Careers Service works with the Scottish Institute for Enterprise (SIE) to promote the enterprise agenda at the University through events such as the Business Ideas Competition and ‘Lunch with an Entrepreneur’. These events are designed to encourage students across all disciplines in the University to become more enterprising and for some students to make the transition into entrepreneurship by creating their own businesses.

For more information, please visit
www.abdn.ac.uk/sie

Study Abroad

The University actively encourages students to undertake a period of study abroad as part of their degree programme, and a wide range of opportunities exist within our ERASMUS programme, which boasts 155 links with universities across Europe, and our International Study Abroad Programme where partners exist with universities in North America and Hong Kong.

For further information, please visit
www.abdn.ac.uk/undergraduate/exchanges