Final-year students and recent graduates of De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) can get a helping hand to kick-start their career in the city, as part of a newly launched initiative.
The Leicester1000 (also known as L1K) project has been created by DMU’s award-winning careers team to help students and graduates who want to stay and work in Leicester or Leicestershire when they finish their studies.
The programme aims to bridge the gap between businesses in and around the city that are seeking highly skilled workers and graduates who want to secure their first professional role out of university.
“L1K is an exciting project that we have developed exclusively for recent DMU graduates and final year undergraduates,” explained Adele Browne, Head of Graduate Success.
“The goal is to highlight what graduate opportunities are available in Leicester and Leicestershire, while helping our students and grads develop their employability skills.”
A dedicated team will work on the project, offering interactive workshops, CV building and upskilling resources, as well as graduate tips and advice on how to successfully land a role fresh out of university.
The aim is to connect 1,000 grads with 1,000 roles in Leicester and Leicestershire over the next three years.
“We want to create a community of DMU graduates, Leicester-based businesses and DMU alumni to boost our graduates’ skills, knowledge, and network, and to help those struggling with their job-search after leaving DMU,” explained Kishan Dahya, project lead for L1K.
“Leicester is more affordable than other cities and there is a much greater opportunity for graduates to make their name here because the city is relatively undiscovered as a graduate destination and there is space to make connections and experiment with new business ideas.
“The future is really bright here and there are many different industries for our students to consider.”
Leicester is renowned for being one of the most diverse cities in the UK and while there is not one industry on which the region is economically dependent, key job sectors in the city and county include:
- Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering
- Creative Industries
- Food and Drink Manufacturing
- Logistics and Distribution
- Low Carbon
- Professional and Financial Services
- Textile Manufacturing
- Tourism and Hospitality
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Healthcare, Education and Digital Transformation have also become more visible sectors that require highly skilled workers.
“All kinds of industries offer a wealth of jobs to students from all kinds of degrees,” said Kishan. “All organisations have multiple functions and departments and need a range of strengths, skills and different kinds of people to form successful teams.
“An important part of our work is to help students 'see behind the door' and learn about exciting opportunities they could not perhaps imagine, in industries they hadn't considered.”
A series of L1K events have been scheduled over the Easter holidays, to give final-year students and recent graduates an insight into how the programme works and how the team can help them in their job search.
“We have a responsibility to look after our students as they make the transition and become graduates,” added Adele. “During the project we will continuously review and report our findings, looking at how many graduates move into highly skilled roles and what the main obstacles can be – from a graduate, employer and labour market perspective.
“I’d encourage any students or graduate with an appetite to stay and build their career in Leicester or Leicestershire to get in touch and sign up for the L1K programme.”
Anyone interested in learning more or attending the upcoming events can email the team at: dmuworks@dmu.ac.uk
DMU’s careers and employability service, known as DMU Works, was last week named the Best University Careers/Employability Service at the National Undergraduate Employability (NUE) Awards, which celebrates the very best work being done in the UK’s universities.
Posted on Tuesday 2 March 2021