Your career and employability

How it works

Developing your employability

At Brighton, employability is worked into all our courses. We focus on a practical approach to teaching and learning, with employability in mind at every stage. And as well as that, we have additional support for all our students from our Careers and Employability team who offer advice, support and events to help you make the most of your time here. You might want a part-time job, a placement or summer internship – you will find all of this and more on our dedicated employability and jobs portal, which even holds sponsored roles for international students.

We’ll help you to become more connected, skilled and employable through experiences on and off your course, so that you graduate with your qualifications and a CV that stands out.

Work-related experience on your course

Our strong links with businesses, community partners and other employers create opportunities for our students to gain real-world experience. Work-related experience varies by course, but might mean:

• a year-long paid placement, usually taken after the second year
• regular placements and work-related learning completed throughout your course to achieve a required number of clinical or practice hours
• assessed voluntary work
• a four-to-six-week placement that is a credit-bearing module
• live project briefs, often informed by employers’ real requirements.

Work-related experience outside your course

We can also help you to get involved in other activities designed to develop your attributes and employability.

• Sports, societies and clubs – interesting and fun stuff, and a way to make new friends and connections.
• Volunteering in the community – getting involved with community activities that you care about shows commitment and motivation.
• Working for the university – there are lots of ways you can be part of the campus community and get paid.
• Entrepreneurship – start your own project and develop your entrepreneurial skills with our help.
• Campaigning and democracy – add your voice to influence the future.
• Mentoring and supporting – self-development through mentoring others and being mentored.

More than 50 professional organisations recognise and accredit our courses.

If your course has a professional accreditation, it could give you an extra qualification in addition to your degree, a licence to practise, or exemption from professional examinations. Some courses also include membership of a relevant professional body while you are a student here.

Brighton’s Graduate Attributes

Brighton graduates are ready to respond to the world, whatever comes next. You’ll become confident in applying your knowledge and skills to make a practical difference, and in using your creative and critical thinking to develop innovative ideas and new solutions.

The University of Brighton Graduate Attributes are a set of qualities, characteristics and skills based on research into what employers are looking for. You’ll work on your own personal version of these attributes while you’re here, both as part of your studies and through extracurricular activities and experiences.

Being able to refer to your own personal version of our Graduate Attributes will help you develop your CV with transferable qualities and skills, giving you freedom and flexibility when you make decisions about your career in the future.

Careers advice and guidance – all the way along

Alongside your course tutors, our professional careers and employability team can help you to understand how your studies and your activities translate into the sought-after Graduate Attributes.

From day one they can help you to identify and work on gaps in your skills and they can help you think about what you want to do in the future, so you can feel confident that you're making the most of your time at university. They can also help you find part-time work while you’re studying or find a mentor, or placement.

You can work with the Careers team throughout your time at Brighton and after you graduate to:

• find part-time work that you can combine with your studies
• find or be a mentor or get involved with our peer-to-peer support scheme
• develop your business ideas through our entrepreneurial support network.
• get professional advice and support with career planning, CV writing and interview top tips
• access our Vacancy Service for graduate jobs, internships and placements
• meet potential employers at our careers fairs
• find rewarding volunteering opportunities to help you find out more about what makes you tick, and build your CV.

Apprenticeships

An apprenticeship is a job with degree-level study built in. As an apprentice, you work for an employer in a relevant role with time allocated for learning that is linked to your job. Apprentices need to find their job role before applying to the university.

Our higher and degree apprenticeships have been developed with employers and deliver nationally agreed Apprenticeship Standards – the skills and attributes that have been identified as necessary for a particular profession.

Successful apprentices achieve a University of Brighton award such as a degree. We offer apprenticeships across these subjects:

• business and management
• construction, engineering and the built environment
• education
• health and social care.

You can find an apprenticeship on the gov.uk website.

The Brighton Effect: our graduates' stories